Practical Ways to Prepare for the Coming Resource-Apocalypse

It has in fact arisen several times in casual conversation at work. The looming possiblity that the fossil fuels we depend on for every single component of our lives may run out. Or, comically more tragic, we will destroy ourselves in efforts to obtain more by the barrel of our guns.

Its common consensus among the well-educated in our society, even moreso as one flees the bloated corspes of the manufacturing industry in the midwest, that a gradual shift towards alternative fuels (including nuclear) could have saved us. Especially if it had been initiated 20 years ago.

While I like to believe that we will find some solution to this problem in the very short term, the optimist in me blanches at the horrors the realist describes. Every aspect of our life is dependent on petroleum. Our personal vehicles run on them, our goods are shipped in diesel-burning trucks, nearly everything we touch is made from polycarbonates. And there is evidence that the stuff is running out, or at least running dry in the areas that we've been getting it for a generation or more. Some experts predict that, with the development of China, we could see critical depletion before the end of our lives without a sharp turn towards consciousness.

I don't intend to pose any radical solutions, though I've heard of many and could make a case for a brighter future. I am currently much more interested in the shift in the human dynamic that would occur as a result of this. Indeed, it is a problem overwhelmingly nebulous in nature. What would the circumstances be? How gradual of a shift? What would the stages of societal change be, and how would one affect the next? What other global problems will complicate matters?

In America at least, we could expect a gradual increase in prices. There would be further outcry from the public, of course, efforts to further develop doomed energy infrastructures such as hydrogen, revisions to gas taxes, hopefully a consumer demand for more efficient vehicles. The costs of all goods would increase in proportion to this increase in gas costs. It will begin to cost more to fly. I think it would take a long time before the cost of plastics became noticeable, but I guarantee in this scenario you would eventually see the price per pound of plastic as an international consensus on value much like gold or silver now.

Within America's borders we would see an increased striation between the haves and the have-nots. Certain individuals would be able to carry on "normal" lives for extended periods of time. Being able to finance not only fuel costs but the purchase of alternative fuel machinery. A political conspiracist might argue that the cost of any machinery using alternative fuels may be kept prohibitively high. I don't know if I would make such a claim or not.

Enough pressure in this situation (add global pandemic of your choice whether it be AIDs, global warming, population, pollution, the fallout of nuclear war) and the breeding ground for revolution is created. It seems that uprisings occur when one nation (say the US) is so divided in measurable terms that it becomes two unique entities. Those with resources and those without.

What an exciting time to live in, I have to admit. Not that I would look forward to warfare on our streets. But to experience such a monument in human history, to have it all (as a society) and lose it because we couldn't see the writing on the wall. We would have to bear responsibility; all of us. And admit that, in reality, we maybe didn't deserve this fantastic world we created for ourselves.