Assignment 2- The Collapse (Revised)

I think from observing the mentality of most of my classmates and myself, that it is human nature, or the nature of people in this society to try to push things off that do not seem of immediate concern. Like this assignment for example, most of the people (so far) have not started because we tend to think the deadline is Friday, that's not that close, we can still get to it later on. This analogy is very similar to the train of thought people have with a collapse. In oil, we have been going on a decline. But because it is not imminent (or so we think) we think that it can be pushed off and dealt with later. That is why when gas prices were high; there was an onslaught of articles concerning the decline of oil production and peak oil because it was impacting America in an immediate way. When the prices fell once again, we thought that it can be pushed off, the deadline isn't that close. But like this assignment and assignments in general, the further we push it off to deal with later, the direr the situation becomes. People have to scramble and use a great deal more energy in trying to fix the problem or coming up with an alternative answer. Sometimes, it is all too late. The deadline has passed and we have written nothing and done nothing to deal with it. If this is how oil is dealt with the US will scramble for quick fixes, to keep the illusion that this is going to last forever when its not. According to Hubert, the US reached its peak in 1971, and the US and other countries have been on a decline since then.

How did we come to this situation? Fossil Fuels come from fossils and are a non renewable resource and at the rate we are exploiting it will not last for long to sustain the way we are living. Back then before we had all this technology we operated from solar energy, everything was connected to the sun. The hunter-gatherers ate plants and hunted animals that ate other animals that ate plants, the plants they ate grew from photosynthesis and the ground. We now are operating on fossil fuels. Even fossil fuels are called ancient sunlight.

When I was talking to one of my friend's friends about the collapse, they were really interested and when I told them about oil being part of the reason our society would collapse they said that I should include capitalism and that oil should just be part of the reason, which is true when you think about it. Looking at it as the big picture the reason our society operates and depends on oil the way is does is because of it being a capitalist society. Our culture is all about business and selling to the consumer. That’s why we use up so much oil because we have so many products and there is always a new product to be had. Most Americans don’t make their own products any more because things like clothing and food can be bought instead. There is also the mentality that new is better.

Knowing this, is there any way to delay the collapse or make it less bad? I think we can have more earthfriendly practices that doesn't use up any more fossil fuels than necessary. Like coming into popularity recently are clothing swaps for women, where women have a get together and swap clothes, jewerly, bags, and/or shoes (Today show) and men have been having swaps as well. People even trade services, like one woman who works as a haircutter would trade that service for something like getting her house clean by another person. Sites like freecycling lets people trade things they no longer use and these swaps are like a form of bartering and instead of using money, its with clothes or services. We can make our own things instead of buying them and using up oil for the product and start growing our own food or foraging. Will this help? There's no guarantee, but continuing the way we have, extensively using up all our resources doesn't