There is at least one reason why you should seriously heed the message of Surviving The Peak Oil Crash. First, we are not running out of fossil fuel oil. We are using more oil than we can produce and now we must compete with the rest of the world for the remaining oil. That is a battle we will lose:Enough countries in the world have funds with which to bid for the oil and win, while we as a debtor Nation will be shut out. As individuals, we will not have the price of gas much longer.
The result will be a radical change in our living style in order to Survive;- in our culture as we adjust to a style with minimum transportation, localized food sources, and Frugal Living. When one considers how dependent we are on oil-based transportation, its loss would affect everything. We will have to adjust to SURVIVE.
The Surviving Peak Oil book was written to help you survive. First by knowing what is coming. Second, by being able to adjust to a new way of living over some period of time rather than getting it all at once as in a cold shower.
The Author has a wide range of related experiences and he shares them with you in this book. Surviving Peak Oil is experience based, not some hypothetical , perhaps talented, suppositions. Been there, done that, has a new practicality.
This is one book everyone needs.
Surviving The Peak Oil LIFE AFTER THE OIL CRASH. Notes From A Survivor by Ralph W. Ritchie
This book is unique among the flood of books coming out on Peak Oil. I make the same claim in all of my books: They are all written from personal experience. The one exception is the book on Terrorism. Few, in this country, have had that experience until a short time ago.
Surviving Peak Oil is no different. What we have written, we have experienced, starting with the depression of the 30's; the beginning of World War II, when we on the West Coast thought bombing was inevitable, WWII in the Navy, to the Atomic bomb and everybody digging bomb shelters, through several more depressions (now called anything else- "depression" is political death ), more war, through the first Peak Oil Crisis in the 70's. A lifetime's experience with earthquakes, floods, and fires taught us from childhood how to cope with calamity. An emergency pack is a way of life.
I read Hubbert’s Peak Oil prediction in the 50's and took it to heart. I began my own personal, quiet quest for energy conservation. Air pollution was part of the whole, After all, inefficient combustion is a primary pollution source. Our Studio, built in the ‘60s, had a gas meter sized for 10 therms- 1 million BTUs per hour. We had plenty of experience with combustion with our kilns, foundry, forge, and glass making. We recovered enough heat to heat the entire Studio.
We worked toward energy conservation since building our first home: It had skylights, roof and ceiling insulation, extended eaves, concrete block walls, water-cooled heat pump- Banks refused a loan for this, our first home, in the 50's. They rejected our loan because the house had too many unheard-of things, listed above, that would make it unfit for resale. Times have changed; they will keep changing. Oh, we built it on pay as you go. After eleven years, it was done-without a mortgage.
Solar applications have been a goal since the 60's, I stopped working for a regular paycheck in the mid-sixties and became independently employed. My time was my own. I could work on what I wanted, when I wanted. Neither was my time limited to an 8 hour day.
Our move from suburban to rural in the ‘60s led us into raising animals, commercial agriculture, horticulture, and a nearly self-sufficient food supply, as well as a productive art studio.
We sought to educate others by demonstration and example. Some caught on; others did not, never will. Too bad. Our book publishing house has a motto:
Books For People Who Want To Help Themselves..
This book is no exception and we know what we write about.
Is LATOC for real? In the face of a growing pile of evidence, contrary to the nay-sayers, we are in for a long, hard Winter with no Spring in sight. Here are our recommendations, Help Yourselves.
Except for the two stories, the first one is fiction and the other is autobiographical, the other chapters discuss relevant topics. No, I will not give you a list and say, "Do these things". I will describe, to the best of my ability, the situation and conditions and you will have to decide what and how much you are going to do. All I can say is what I describe worked for me and my wife, Fern, of nearly 60 years. We are the surviving proof.
We have written nine other disaster-related books. Most of the solutions to problems found in this book are detailed in them. There is also a Series of five books identifying nearly 3000 edible plants: from propagation to the dinner table. Growing edible landscaping plants in the yard is not new to us. Two of those books describe edible wild plants and weeds. Fern spent 8 years validating that information. We have raised cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, geese, chickens, and rabbits. Rightfully, with transportation becoming too expensive, food supply will become a serious problem. We have produced food for our own table for over 40 years- been there- done that.
We started preparing for the Peak Oil Crisis, now described as Peak Oil or LATOC, back in the 1950's when the Peak Oil phenomena was announced by Hubbert, an oil company geologist. With some background in geology, I was more willing to believe his Peak Oil predictions than most.
We need another acronym to describe the life we now lead: Life Before The Peak OilCrash. It is a culture that will go down in history as a Golden Age of free spending, unlimited debt, and the squandering of our planet’s energy resource. People will move on and adjust to Peak Oil limitations, with considerable resistance, and copious trauma. Every being is stressed in the disaster experience. What were normal living conditions no longer exist. A stressed individual suffers physical as well as emotional reactions. Family relations are also a disaster casualty. Children have their own set of stress trauma reactions as their lives are uniquely disrupted according to their age and experience.
Foreword Ch. 1 The Story. A dramatization of the effects of Peak Oil on a typical family. Ch. 2. Denial. The number one excuse for doing nothing. Postponement and Apathy pale in comparison. Ch. 3. Poverty Warning. Defining poverty in practical terms. Living when everything seems to be against you. Check List for frugal living. The value of rehearsals. Ch. 4. An Old Timer Tells A (true)Story. Experiences from the Great Depression of the 1930's. Child Labor Law. About money. How people coped during WWII. Food rationing. Manpower Board. The draft. Ch. 5. Calamity Effects. Economic collapse on the average person. What may change. Ch. 6. School. How will public schools fare in an economic collapse? The rise of Home Schooling. Vocational education. Bare bones education. Ch. 7. Credit Cards. Credit Cards and the demise of our economy. A not-so hypothetical case. Ch. 8. Transportation. The keystone of our culture is crumbling. Ch. 9. Neighbors. The basic rescue team has another function. Cooperation for survival. Ch. 10. Barter. The medium of exchange for people without cash or in a high-inflation economy. Have skills that other people need. Ch. 11. Security. Desperation breeds self protection. Personal and property protection. Ch. 12. What To Do ? Some helpful hints for this emergency situation. Ch. 13. What You Will Miss? Review the changes in our way of living. Ch. 14. What To Learn. Prepare for the change. Here are some skills with which you may barter for what you need. Learn to do things you may need for yourself as well as what others may need. Ch. 15. Learning Sources. Where to go for learning. Ch 16. About Computers. Computers and the New Way. Trade offs. Ch 17. Sustainable Cities? Hypothetical effects on cities. Mass exodus. Where do they go? Ch 18. Food. How to obtain food and continue to eat under LATOC conditions. Ch 19. Trauma. The shock of LATOC and the traumatic emotional effects will have great impact. Ch 20. Conclusion. Don't Don’t get it? References. Direct references for detailed information covered in this book. Sources. Mainly website links for more current information.
Available ONLY as an EBOOK, in Adobe, PDF format. ISBN 0-939656-36-1; $7.95 to download: 1.47 MB
