What will be gone...

[Javaman]

So like everyone else that's a bit freaked out over global warming and the double whammy of peak oil I am doing my best to conserve, reuse and recycle.

But being a product born and bred during the age of oil, I find it difficult sometimes thinking about some of the things that I will either have to give up or just will no longer be available once the price of oil sky rockets or global warming changes habitable areas or changed the farming areas.

I live in texas. Things will no doubt change here. That makes me sad in some ways, happy in others.

However, I will miss being able to get the occasional pineapple. Damn they are good. But that's something I can do without. But then again, there are many things I can do without and have a very happy healthy life.

The ironic part is, we are the first generation that will have to make serious long term life changing sacrifices. I'm not talking depression era, until the economy picks up sacrifices, but a won't-have-them-ever-again type of thing.

Being the sweets freak that I am, there will be certain desserts that just won't exist again. Not that they can't be made locally, but in this day in age, most of the ingredients that go into the average confection come from lands far and wide. Chocolate will be a hard one to give up, but that just maybe the breaks.

Granted the things that I will miss won't be gone tomorrow, but as the price of gas goes up, so will the price of food. And as the price of food goes up, only necessities will be the rule until better community networks are set up. And even then certain things we take for granted now will be luxuries.

Well, after this long winding whine about living in this age and being an American consumer (perhaps those two things are synonomus)...

What will you miss?

[ramapo]

1. Year-round summer fruit

Sure the peaches in January are a bit chancy but it is still nice to be able to buy some fruit that just jetted in from who knows where to put on the morning cereal.

But then again, maybe the Jersey climate will warm enough for Jersey peaches year-round. The groves are far enough inland so the rising Atlantic won't claim them.

[rhiannon55]

2. Air conditioning, I'm embarrassed to say

I know it contributes to global warming, but it makes summers in the midwest bearable. :blush:

[piedmont]

11. Not necessarily.

A sterling engine-powered heat pump wouldn't contribute to global warming as long as the heat source were solar or biomass.

[Dead_Parrot]

3. Belgian beer

No more Leffe. No more Chimay Bleue. No more Hoegaarden. No more Cantillon Kriek.

:(

My god, what have we done?

[phantom power]

4. Whenever I watch Finding Nemo with my daughter

(and that is very often), I think about how the colorful and living reefs in that movie are already becoming history. I wonder about how many of the animals and plants in her books are going to be gone by the time she would be old enough to see them for real.

[Dead_Parrot]

6. You could introduce her to Thomas the Tank Engine

That way she'll be well-prepared for a future of coal power.

[phantom power]

7. Clean coal, of course. What a pleasing substitute for the biosphere-that-was.

:(

[GliderGuider]

5. Being able to travel to foreign lands

I will miss the "tiny hugeness" of a world with jet travel, and will resent that the tiny part of it I inhabit will seem so huge when I have to traverse it on foot or by bicycle or horse.

Well, actually what I'll really miss most will be asthma medication, but likely only for a little while...

[IDemo]

9. I'm gonna miss insulin

But I'll get over it after a couple of weeks.....

[eppur_se_muova]

10. Ah, but think of all the places you can visit on the Web ...

traveling at light speed, seeing more sights than you could possibly visit in the flesh in a lifetime.

[Systematic Chaos]

8. I'll miss all the great music I've discovered in the last 25 years.

And I'll miss video games. I <3 my EverQuest.

Don't own a car so that's no huge loss, and don't buy much of anything other than bills and food.

[piedmont]

12. Here's something I'm hoping for: the return of the Age of Sail

Sure, naval vessels will probably be nuke-powered, and many big ships may be powered by some sort of biomass (or coal, if no restrictions on coal-burning are enacted), but wind-propulsion for transport of goods and passengers may be economically competitive. The next generation of sail-powered ships are gonna be really cool, I'd bet.

[Shoelace]

13. bees, birds, fish, veggies, but most of all - those croaking frogs!

I counted one bee and one yellow jacket in past days on my raspberries. We need them to pollinate about 65 thousand varieties of assorted fruits, flowers and nuts.
Here in Oregon, land of the free, the recycled and the brave (?) we used to have frogs, now we don't. In the '70s clear up to the early '90s, I heard them. Now I never hear a frog. Victims of climate change, pollution (thanks to the grass seed growers who provide the turf for golf courses - yet another reason to NOT grow lawns!).
Once in the '70s, I counted 22 hummingbirds at our feeder. I've seen at least 2 in the past year.

Butterflies! How I miss them and the Dragonflies too. Now when I see one butterfly here, I jump up and down :bounce:

This year for the first time, the usual birds are gone from the bird feeder - dunno why???
However, we do have 2 new grey squirrel babies feeding on sunflower seeds.
They plant tree seeds everywhere so I welcome them into our little biome. We make good use of those seedling trees, donating them to those who need trees.

Mostly, I guess I will miss air conditioning. I hate heat! Growing up in Los Angeles near the ocean, our temps averaged in the 70s. Today it was about 80 degrees but felt like 90!

Guess I can bare my breasts on a hot day, running through the sprinkler as I did when I was a kid (without boobs) but am afraid that our neighbors may think me a bit strange unless I get them to join me.......... it may come to that!

Yikes, just remembered, have to conserve water, well it would be a short romp, lol. Hey we gotta laugh to keep from crying sometimes.