Notes from an alternate world, a World Without Oil.
Week 15 of WWO is more of the same. The price of fuel rises as supplies fall. I should have taken my truck into town and filled my fuel tank last week when I could get diesel for about $3.65 per gallon. Now it is $4.74 per gallon if you can find it, and there is only a 75% chance of finding it across the country. Here in the semi-rural parts of Oregon, every fuel tank is dry, so there is a 0% chance of finding it.
Unless I steal it like what is happening all around the country. But that's not my style. There are times when I wish someone would sit out there with a shotgun and blow the suckers away, Then I think, "Why are they doing it? There aren't that many criminal people in the world, are there?"
The truth of the matter is that in the society to which we are accustomed here in the US, there is only a small percentage of people who steal from others just for the heck of it, but when people start running out of food for their family, or the fuel needed to go get it, their morals can be warped. All sorts of nasty traits can come out.
Look at the war in Darfur. That was a case where two tribes (millions of people each) started fighting over a limited supply of food. The stronger tribe just pushed the weaker tribe out into the desert where they would starve and die of thirst. And they did. Relief agencies tried to feed and care for the refugees, but it was a losing battle. If this fuel crisis does not end soon, I fear we will see that kind of attitude and action here in this country. It won't be on tribal boundaries and on such a large scale, but criminal bands will form to gain control of the food supply, and they will physically deprive weaker souls of what they need. The old clippings I have showing the scenes in Darfur are scary. I think of what it might look like in the middle of LA. Ugh.
And it is not just food, it is water. The peak oil crisis is hurting, but on top of that the climate is changing. I read a report last year written for the California Water Agency (not sure about the name) offering a scenario of CA weather for the next sixty years. Rising temperatures mean that snow levels rise and snow packs disappear. The Pineapple Express will bring in monstrous storms during the winter that will drench the mountains with rain that runs off immediately, causing disastrous winter floods. Then, during the summer there are drought conditions.
The flooding and drought will wipe out CA's water delivery system, and LA will find itself with as much water as the region had a couple of centuries ago. The report estimated that over 8 million people would migrate out of LA. I just wonder how and to where they will go. Maybe this is selfish, but I hope they don't find their way to central Oregon.
So I, too, am losing the desire to help the rest of my society. If only we had acted to reduce the effects of this fuel crisis years ago. If only...
Sam
the Prudent RVer
