I was so proud, I had to share my triumph with the clerk at Whole Foods. “Today is the first time I bike to the grocery store. Boy, am I good! Re-usable bags, donation to the homeless, biking . . . I deserve a place in green heaven.” And then the ride home, with Pervenche. Sheer pleasure of warm, almost summer breeze, whiffs of flowers along the path, I was feeling high from my satisfied green conscience and awakened senses. Trying hard to not get too carried away, and to pay attention to the road.
This, folks is what a peak oil world can feel like, with the right infrastructure, as in bike path without cars.
La Marguerite 
Congratulations !
Reading you, the world after peak oil doesn’t look like the one in Mad Max. (which is good ^^ )
as a matter of facts : wouldn’t it be nice ? (yeah, like the Beach Boys song I am listening to right now. I know I am not listening to the music I should listen to 😛 )
Now if the folks at the top of our countries shook a leg to build the missing infrastructures, it really would be nice.
Because those infrastructures don’t build by themselves overnight.
Marguerite,
I would, as always, add a somewhat different perspective. After “peak oil” truly arises, and that time may be now, there won’t be much for you to shop for at Whole Foods. You could still enjoy the bike ride and nature, however.
Just when I was enjoying my bubble, you have to burst it! 🙂
You are right of course . . .
OIL….IS HALF USED…THE LIGHT CRUDE….THE OTHER HALF..STILL IN THE EARTH..MOST IS HEAVY CRUDE OR TAR…BUT WE WILL DIE FIGHTING FOR IT …THAT I AM SURE OFF
And why would peak oil would be the end of the civilization as we know it ?
I mean with energy efficiency, we could use half the oil were are currently using (wasting would be more correct), and it’s not as if alternatives didn’t exist and weren’t booming around the world.
Working on the world after peak oil is of course a lot of preparation, but people are looking at ways to use less oil. Now, we just need the governments to acknowledge that to push companies to act further.
Let us not think that peak oil and climate change are necessarily threats that will kill us all or bring us back to the Stone Age. I am convinced that addressed properly, they can be the first steps of a world that would be closer to Nature or simply more efficient and less wasteful. An exciting new prospect.
Hope is a motivator, not fear ! So let us work passionately ! Let us act with determination and courage !
Edouard, I would say both hope and fear combined can act as a powerful motivator. One without the other does not work half as well. That’s speaking from a personal standpoint.
I love this post. Who says that all of the changes will be bad? In many ways, we will live better, more healthful and more meaningful lives.
As to hope, without it, we have nothing. We must preserve hope as we move forward and face challenges like none other.
[…] 21, 2008 by lamarguerite Back from another one of my triumphant bike rides to downtown, this time to pick up pizzas at Il Fornaio, our favorite […]