An oil crash is on its way and we should be ready
FIVE years ago the world was in the grip of a financial crisis that is still reverberating around the globe. Much of the blame for that can be attributed to weaknesses in human psychology: we have a collective tendency to be blind to the kind of risks that can crash economies and imperil civilisations.
I have watched captains of the energy and financial industries at work – frequently close to, often behind closed doors – as the financial crisis has played out and the oil price continued its inexorable rise. I have concluded that too many people across the top levels of business and government have found ways to close their eyes and ears to systemic risk-taking. Denial, I believe, has become institutionalised.
As a result of their complacency we face four great risks. The first and biggest is no surprise: climate change. We have way more unburned conventional fossil fuel than is needed to wreck the climate. Yet much of the energy industry is discovering and developing unconventional deposits – shale gas and tar sands, for example – to pile onto the fire, while simultaneously abandoning solar power just as it begins to look promising. It has been vaguely terrifying to watch how CEOs of the big energy companies square that circle. Second, we risk creating a carbon bubble in the capital markets. If policymakers are to achieve their goal of limiting global warming to 2 °C, 60 to 80 per cent of proved reserves of fossil fuels will have to remain in the ground unburned. If so, the value of oil and gas companies would crash and a lot of people would lose a lot of money.
Third, we risk being surprised by the boom in shale gas production. That, too, may prove to be a bubble, maybe even a Ponzi scheme. Production from individual shale wells declines rapidly, and large amounts of capital have to be borrowed to drill replacements. This will surprise many people who make judgement calls based on the received wisdom that limits to shale drilling are few. But I am not alone in these concerns. Even if the US shale gas drilling isn't a bubble, it remains unprofitable overall and environmental downsides are emerging seemingly by the week. According to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, whole towns in Texas are now running out of water, having sold their aquifers for fracking. I doubt that this is a boom that is going to appeal to the rest of the world; many others agree.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22029415.700#.UyiXF8J8M1o
= new reply since forum marked as read
and what exactly "getting ready" means.
There was an Economic Crash in Argentina in 2000,
and there are some very interesting reports from those who survived,
HOW they survived,
and what they now believe is important.
It is interesting reading:
http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/10.08/tshtf1.html
In 2006, my wife & I sold everything,
and bought property in the rural South surrounded by extensive National Forest.
We bought it outright so we would not be committed to a mortgage.
We chose the rural South for the LOW heating costs in Winter (wood stove),
and the abundance of clean water for the foreseeable future.
We have an On Property Mountain spring which supplies all of our water. (Drinking, bathing, and crop irrigation).
We live there now,
and grow a good percentage of our own food (vegetables, fruit, cultivated berries).
We keep chickens and honey bees too,
and are experimenting with local edible plants.
We didn't do this because we fear a collapse. We are NOT "survivalists" or "preppers".
We are just old Hippies who are attracted to the independent, sustainable, Green lifestyle,
though experiencing New Orleans shortly after Katrina DID supply some motivation for Lets DO this NOW.
We sincerely pray that a BIG collapse doesn't happen
because that would make things harder on us too,
though if something like that does happen we would do OK.
So far, so good.
---bvar22 & Starkraven
Living Well on a LOW Taxable Income
and stuff we learned in the 60s.
Because of fracking and overuse, all the fresh water tables will remain low. I may try to move someplace where I can catch condensation 
I'm also waiting for the plasma gasification industry to take off. No more garbage dumps! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_gasification
close up the cheap and crappy, badly installed picture window on the ne wall, put a woodstove there, and re-open the original window on the se wall that some asshat closed off.
Soon as I come into the moolah...as in, soon as I win the lottery. 
too many of us are living on limited funds already. Living off the land for people living in cities isn't really an option. THEN, there's another problem with growing your own food. For people who work and CAN grow some food, there are people who help themselves to what you grow. Very hard to keep these things under lock & key.
I'm just putting some facts out here because I've seen with my own eyes people stealing fruit off of trees that are in people's yard. I live in Florida & it happens all the time. I know I can't pack up and move elsewhere, but I do have a yard & can grow some produce. I see the book referenced here & may look into it, but I HAVE grown vegetables in the past. I always had BIG problems with growing tomatoes. FOUR problems that always cropped up, pun intended. First, cut worms, 2nd white flies, 3rd sun blisters, 4th as soon as tomato starts to turn THE BIRDS start pecking at them, or another critter and there are some others such as blossom drop because of temp changes.
Having a garden is great, but not everyone has a green thumb and for those who work, it's time consuming even IF you do have a green thumb. I do agree it's a super idea and much needed, but situations don't always work out as you wanted them to. Not trying to throw cold water on suggestions, still far too many are unable to even give it a try. Sorry for being negative, really want to feel otherwise!
A simple observation of world politics right now easily cracks this conundrum: the policymakers DON'T CARE about limiting global warming. For every empty word about addressing climate change, there's a new frack well or deep-sea oil derrick going in somewhere.
See? Problem solved
As for this:
That is patently untrue: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-11-14/2014-outlook-shale-fracking-goes-global
Note how countries with even weaker environmental regulations than the US are eager to get their frack on.
The appeal of cheap energy is a powerful siren singing in the night, and we're just horny sailors being drawn into her arms.
