Peak Oil Technology. If the onset of peak oil really does mean economic collapse - how will you and your family deal with it? We think everyone should become familiar with the available technologies for dealing with this at the local level. It may not all be high tech but it may be just the ticket for these new times. This is what we want to explore.

The problems of living without complex supporting infrastructure has been solved many, many times throughout human history. But these solutions or technologies have been forgotten. This website will explore old, new and modified technological solutions for living well without cheap, dense energy. The energies available in the future are likely to be free and diffuse. Preparing for this future means building or acquiring machines to harness free low-density energy. It's about doing less with less and not compromising on the quality of life. There are practical off-grid technologies can be used for heating and cooling a house, refrigerating stored food, providing potable drinking water, generating and storing electric power, and enable basic home farming.

Will you really need to worry about all of that? The trends seem to indicate that the world is going to change. We don't know how much or how fast but it may be time to do some planning.

How will this play out? We don't exactly know - and neither does anyone else. But we do have some premises we work from. Here is how we summarize it.

What our public assumptions have been based on 150 years of experience:

1. Populations, economies, and our food and materials supply to support them can grow forever.

2. This non-stop growth will always be available cheaply, supported by an ever growing supply of cheap energy.

3. Credit is our new currency. We will always be able to access credit and can thus always borrow from the future, because it will always be a wealthier future.

Some Things We Are Now Beginning to Realize

1. Cheap energy has enabled all of this population and economic growth as well as globalization.

2. Food creation, harvesting, and distribution is highly fossil fuel energy intensive.

4. Because of the looming onset of peak oil the age of cheap energy is rapidly coming to a close. There is no solution or alternative on the horizon.

5. We cannot feed the current population (1 out of 6 hungry). Starvation is a growing, unsolvable problem.

6. Energy (and food) costs will consume an ever increasing percentage of out total budgets, crowding out everything discretionary.

Why is Cheap Energy Disappearing?

1. Fossil fuels are cheap dense energy. The cheapest and densest. We have already used half of all the fossil fuel the world has to offer.

2. Fossil fuel discoveries peaked in the middle of 20th century and have declined every since.

3. We now consume 4 times more than we are discovering - despite much better technology and massive investment in exploration.

4. Wind and solar are diffuse and more expensive. They require the investment of massive amounts of capital (and energy), both of which will be in decline.

The Implications

1. The public assumptions listed above are all now highly suspect.

2. The growth of the global economy will cease.

3. Our economic and financial system can no longer operate as it has.

4. Our society will be forced to not only shrink but become far less complex.

5. It will be increasingly difficult to grow and distribute food - population will decline.

6. The gigantic capital needs to create a different reality will not be available.

7. The long and permanent decline will begin.

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