Yahoo Green Article

 …..Convinced the planet’s oil supply is dwindling and the world’s economies are heading for a crash, some people around the country are moving onto homesteads, learning to live off their land, conserving fuel and, in some cases, stocking up on guns they expect to use to defend themselves and their supplies from desperate crowds of people who didn’t prepare. The exact number of people taking such steps is impossible to determine, but anecdotal evidence suggests that the movement has been gaining momentum in the last few years.

These energy survivalists are not leading some sort of green revolution meant to save the planet. Many of them believe it is too late for that, seeing signs in soaring fuel and food prices and a faltering U.S. economy, and are largely focused on saving themselves.

Some are doing it quietly, giving few details of their preparations — afraid that revealing such information as the location of their supplies will endanger themselves and their loved ones. They envision a future in which the nation’s cities will be filled with hungry, desperate refugees forced to go looking for food, shelter and water.

“There’s going to be things that happen when people can’t get things that they need for themselves and their families,” said Lynn-Marie, who believes cities could see a rise in violence as early as 2012.

These survivalists believe in “peak oil,” the idea that world oil production is set to hit a high point and then decline. Scientists who support idea say the amount of oil produced in the world each year has already or will soon begin a downward slide, even amid increased demand. But many scientists say such a scenario will be avoided as other sources of energy come in to fill the void.

On the PeakOil.com Web site, where upward of 800 people gathered on recent evenings, believers engage in a debate about what kind of world awaits.

Some members argue there will be no financial crash, but a slow slide into harder times. Some believe the federal government will respond to the loss of energy security with a clampdown on personal freedoms. Others simply don’t trust that the government can maintain basic services in the face of an energy crisis….{Link : Read on}

I am scared yet curious.  I am not depressed, but disenchanted. Though, I strongly believe in that fundamental biological survival instinct that drives humans to seek a level of certainty, comfort and security for selves and their loved ones, even in adverse conditions,  I feel this specific one is going to be more daunting task than ever before. The current generation of humans, which I belong to, represents a human system embedded in comfort and would certainly feel helpless and rudderless when it is confronted with life-demanding situations. We nibble at the natural calamities happening around and feel truly sorry for the massive human damage they result in, for a few moments, everyday, and go back to our lives, our work loads, daily brand assignments or projects. We could do more than just reacting meekly to the traumatising acts being demonstrated by Mother Nature and her invincible spirit (isn’t she  distraughted and shocked by the way humans are disturbing her state of equilibrium? Her pristine tranquillity and gentleness?), we could consciously insert a few tiny alterations in our lives, do not we know that Small things go a long way. Such as request the cabbie to switch off the engine while waiting for the traffic light to turn green {now that we are blessed with longer traffic-jams, traffic-pile ups}, walk within the neighbourhood shopping(lack of parking areas in & around the crammed shopping centres in India, anyway, forces most of us to walk), depend on our legs more than anything else, feel the endurance and energy soaring in the body while walking, just be kind to the green little things called TREES, touch their aged trunks to feel soothed, try to be kind to animals…..there are many more little things we could do everyday, every moment. It feels good to realise how humane we could become.

My roomie and I remained silent for a while, after reading this article on Yahoo. And then plunged into a light-hearted (we were serious, somewhere, deep down inside) conversation (I was getting ready for my ritual Oil massage on that Sunday) …..we kept aside, the widely mentioned, piece of old wisdom “Necessity is the mother of invention” and the human’s ability to invent new things or to finetune the existing technology to meet the future needs, we mulled over what we could do at an individual level, how drastically different things would appear, if we were to face such hard times…  ”as a vegetarian, I could easily switch to light eating patterns. Carnivorous humans have to brace for harder beats. My system is kinda getting conditioned to the days without huge and elaborated meals, it started relishing basic food, courtesy, me being  far away from the cocooning kind of comfort that mom’s delicious food offers and that indecipherable taste of our office canteen food. Perhaps, I should take a break from Advertising for some 6 months and learn home remedies, cooking etc from mom, and equip myself with some basic functional skills, which may come in handy later.  I truly enjoy Washing clothes {if adequate supply of water, the life-essential, is ensured) and Dishwashing. So this set of home-bound skills, basic skills would certainly help me in applying for a part-time-sophisticated maid slot at affluent castles. I can bicycle across my life, and would invest my hard-earned money in Sunscreens which, anyway, are not of intense usage against the relentless strength of the morning-afternoon-post siesta-early evening-late evening Sun. I have to keep myself fit and healthy by moving my limbs easily and living on basic things, indulgences would soon become a rarity, I may have to learn a few combative acts to protect those ever-dwindling life-resources and self from the city-neighbourhood-food violence.  My skills lie in Brand Thinking/Advertising, which may not find much enthusiastic response from the society. …I could be an affordable body-poster, like I carry around brand advertisements on my body or my T-shirts or hang those boards around my slender neck…but my advantage would be nullified, if the world decides to move towards Close Community kind of setup, where Advertising/Brands  have no space. Everything - a new introduction, a new sale in the nearby orchard etc. is communicated to everyone within the community….Entertainment would go back to the stories around the fire-place, the fire-places under the twinkling stars and dark skies would become the ’social-glue”….beautifying and keeping self attractive to the opposite sex would continue to be the basic need, so learning a few skills in that area is certainly an advantage.  It’s time to dump the decision of marrying a man and have him father my cherubic baby…….as long as the body is fed with some basic food, the body is exerted over a defined task or a piece of work that defines one’s identity in the society, nothing else matters. The so-perceived lifestyle essentials vanish somehow into thin air….” well, the conversation trailed off into silence as sweat began to flow across our foreheads from exertion.

But, we are sliding quite slowly and subtly into harder times.