Notes on an alternate world, a World Without Oil
I live in three worlds: reality, World Without Oil, and There Was A Time When.
My world of Reality is today in an RV along the west coast, enjoying the weather and people we meet, seeing the splendor of our great country, peddling LED lighting, and writing commentary and fiction. Many people I meet are quite satisfied with their life and seem unconcerned about the dangers of peak oil and global warming, at least not enough to do much about it. In fact, most do not even realize there is a problem.
World Without Oil is an alternate world where I have been asked to consider and write on what results when the price of fuel skyrockets. My reports have been both fiction and commentary, searching for an understanding of how we could get to such a world from today's reality and suggesting what our society and the individuals can do to mitigate the damage. Writing for this world requires that I place my mind into a space very similar to my reality, but with a major shift in conditions: virtually no fuel is available.
There Was A Time When is the working title for a novel I have been writing for some months now. It is a story in a story in a story. At the core it is the autobiography of my as-yet unborn great-grandson, who at the age of 87 in the year 2099 starts writing his autobiography. He lives in Sutherlin in the middle of Oregon, and he is the last of his tribe. He tells what happened to the world to put him at that place at that time. Writing for his world requires that I put my mind inside my great-grandson's head and imagine what must have happened to the entire world over the next 93 years to create the conditions he sees.
I have put a number of years into research for this project, and from my previous posts on WWO you should be able to tell that I have developed several strong conclusions. IMNSHO, I see the world's civilization under extreme pressure in the coming years from the effects of resource depletion, global warming, and population overshoot. It is the 3 Cats Stalking.
Resource supplies, especially petroleum but also including gas, coal, water, and topsoil, will drop precipitously in the next one or two decades.
Mankind will continue to add greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, pushing the earth's climate and eco-structure past several tipping points.
Since the growth in the world's population is a direct result of our increased use of fuel, as the fuels deplete there is virtually no choice but that the population fall back, some say to 1.0B in the next 75 years.
These are the three catastrophes stalking civilization in today's world. I pray that my conclusions are all wrong, and I wish I could think of some way to fix things, but so much of what I write about seems to be inevitable. I do believe that if mankind would collectively take action to conserve resources and control their indulgences, the amount of damage could be reduced. But I simply do not see enough people, especially our leaders, having the guts to sacrifice their current perks in an attempt to make a difference.
That leaves adaption. I will tell in my writings what to expect of the world to come, at least as I see it. It is up to whoever reads them to figure out how to adapt to those conditions and to plan and prepare for doing so. Population is approaching a bottleneck when only the most adaptable will make it to the next rise of human civilization. Will you make it through?
Enough. I wish all the Netizens at World Without Oil good times in a future that comes at us faster and faster. Now it is time to return to writing my novel. I am committed to publish it by the end of this year.
Sam
the Prudent RVer
