Collapse Assignment 2 - Short and Smart

There are people that are aware of our oil and energy problem and that oil is running out, but I wonder how many of these people are actually trying to find a solution. Unlike the people of Easter island, we know that our resources are running out and that we are the reason for this. The people of Easter island didn't know that their trying to please their God and their chief and to "survive" would lead to their demise. But even if they did, I wonder if they would have tried to do anything about it. If they had brought this idea of decreasing resources to their community, would people have followed them or would they have been shut out of their society.

There are scientists and business men who knew that this problem was approaching and now know more that it will happen, but what exactly is being done about it. They are informing people that this will greatly effect our community, but there are those who will constantly deny it which follows our common American ways of living. We deny things will happen to us, because we don't like to think about the negative aspect of things. There are people who are trying to find solutions to our oil problem like liquid coal, but these resources will produce more greenhouse gases and therefore pollute our other resources.

I feel that it could be possible that people know about the problem of oil and low energy, but they feel (like me) what can possibly be done? How can we fix this and what is the point if no one else will fix it with me? These things are restraining Americans from even trying to make a difference. Some people are by buying hybrid cars and such, but in order to stop peak oil we need to use less oil. If our peak oil problem continues, we will have problems like recession, large unemployment, inflation, economic trouble and much much larger problems.

We are not only limiting our oil and energy output, but we are also destroying our land. In order to get to some of the oil, we have to dig up land and use giant machines that pollute our society. This shows us what lengths we are going to in order to find oil, but we cannot find a better way of producing energy (?). This seems strange to me and I wonder if we will ever fix this problem. Other places like Kuwait can produce massive amounts of oil and have it at low prices so why can't we find a way to fix our problem? Saudi Arabia thinks that they can double their oil output and there are people who strongly disagree and think that this is ridiculous and that we cannot trust them, but this feels to me like the only plan we have.

We rely on oil for so much and this is a bad habit to fall into because now people won't believe that something like this could happen. If people keep on brushing issues aside how can we possibly fix this problem? We need to find a new thing to rely on or else we can't possibly sustain our way of life.