Oil Crisis Rage Spreads

A movie about the future's look back at the present will likely present headlines such as the one cited below in its montage establishing 'how things got this way.'

Link: t r u t h o u t | Oil Crisis Rage Spreads.

Record oil prices of around 135 dollars a barrel have contributed to protests worldwide over the rise in fuel and food costs, with fishermen and truck drivers taking the lead in Europe, blocking ports and road access to oil depots.

We are just back from Montreal. We drove. All the gas in upstate NY is over 4.10 a gallon (that's regular). Diesel is well over five. My kids and I will drive with my father and his wife from San Antonio to Santa Fe this summer. Afterwards, Paul and I will drive from San Antonio to New Orleans. I wonder if there will be any driving trips after this. I can imagine (and it should be another segment of IICWF) if we will end up isolated in upstate NY, attached to the rest of the world through the internet, but unable to go anywhere.

Comments

[Alain]

Your comments hear remind me of a novel I just read, World Made By Hand, by James Kunstler. He is also the author of The Long Emergency, which is a non fiction account of the consequences of environmental degradation and the end of cheap oil.

The novel starts from where the Long Emergency ends - it takes place in a small town in upstate New York, sometime in the near future. It focuses around a community struggling with life after a series of global catastrophes. It starts off assuming that all the classic modern nightmares - the end of oil, climate change, global pandemics - have all come to pass. Transportation is slow and dangerous, food is grown locally and the outside world is largely unknown because there is very little electricity.

It is fairly well written and it certainly gives me pause about the sustainability of our current lifestyle.

[Jodi]

I've ordered the novel--thanks for recommending it!

[Alain]

You are very welcome.