Re: SC27

Hello Mojave :-) The Post Carbon Institute website ( http://www.postcarbon.org ) provides alot of relevant information about things people can do to work toward preparing for a world with less abundance, and decreasing and more expensive energy. Here is thier stated mission ( http://www.postcarbon.org/about/mission ),
OUR MISSION
The mission of Post Carbon Institute is to assist communities in the effort to Relocalize and adapt to an energy constrained world.
Post Carbon Institute is a think, action and education tank offering research, project tools, education and information to implement proactive strategies to adapt to an energy constrained world. The development of Post Carbon Institute came out of concern for the environmental, social, political and economic ramifications of global over-reliance on cheap energy.
Our main response to these concerns is the strategy of Relocalization, which aims to rebuild societies based on the local production of food and energy, and the Relocalization of currency, governance and culture. The main goals of Relocalization are to increase community energy security, strengthen local economies, and dramatically improve environmental conditions and social equity. "

Also, the Northern California town of Willits is currently a real leader in work toward developing a sustainable community that is much less dependent on energy and outside input, as compared to typical US cities and towns. My brother who lives in Northern California is preparing in a variety of very important ways. He has enough land to supply wood for fuel and heat, a home that is completely off the grid, built a large pond near his home stocked with fish ( with plans to build more ponds for the same purpose ), is protecting stands of acorn trees on his land for future possible food use, currently has a two years supply of food stored for emergency situations ( like a flu pandemic etc ), is working toward creating a small community of serious and sensible families and person's who can work together to help sustain eachother in various ways in the very real possibilities of tough economic times to come, is planning on raising goats for food and milk, has a wood stove for heating, solar panels, windmills, hydro-electric power starting this winter, and has in place ability to protect what he has to a meaningful degree. These are just parts of the types of things one could do to prepare for what looks to be very ruff times ahead, coming from many fronts. Of course many, or most folks don't have the " where with all " or " the means " to make these kinds of preperations. I think anything people can do to make thier lives more simple in thier daily habits of consumption, will aid them in tougher coming times. Of course this all depends on how quickly the various looming problems develop, and how much the new realities, may be counteracted to some degree by human adaptability. Even preperations like my brother is making, and those made by the folks who live in Willits for example, could very well be subject to the pressures of large populations who under the most dire circumstances, could be actively seeking what they want, without the civil veneer which currently creates some measure of stability in most US communities. Under that dark senario, mobs of unruly people would certainly overwhelm my brother, or even small communities like Willits, in which case, a strategy of knowing how to survive while having the ability to be mobil, allowing one to move away from developing trouble, and being not fixed to any given place, could present the most affective and realistically workable way to " survive ". Now my brother feels that as a society, we are headed for big trouble, real soon. I currently view developing events as suggesting that we will, given our present manner as societies, head because of overpopulation, and increasing strain on world resources, into increasingly decreased quality of life for most people, this occuring over some decades. If the geologic reality of world oil and natural gas does end up showing that we are at, or very near peak of production of these two exceedingly important commodities, which have driven the modern world on its 150 year spree of population increase and economic growth, then this along with quickly advancing climate change could change things toward grim developments in a much quicker manner. There are a whole host of other huge problems, like nuclear proliferation, dwindling water supplies, worldwide desertification, increasing likely hood of drug resistant disease agents, rising sea levels, ecological collapse of much of the ocean fisheries, decreasing ability to meet worldwide food demand due to increasing cost of energy, etc, etc, that are just some of the negative factors, currently getting steadily worse, and creating increasing pressure for human societies. We shall see how things develop, but I'm rather doubtful, in view of the track record of human develpment to date, that the kinds of utterly immense changes that realistically will be needed to create truly sustainable cultures, will be developed in a sensible manner, and in a timely fashion. We have opened up a Pandora's Box as shown by our impact on this world's biosphere as a species, and time will show, whether humanity has it within themselves as a whole, to draw back from the many precipices we are collectively rushing towards.