Nicole Foss Talks Energy, Psychology, Collapse and The Future

Dorothea Lange Hoe culture in the South. Poor white, North Carolina July 1936

Nicole Foss recently participated in a live Google Hangouts (not Skype. I’m told) ‘forum’ discussion at the Doomstead Diner site that also included among others, Gail Tverberg, Steve Ludlum, Norman Pagett and Ugo Bardi. Apologies for the fact that I haven’t watched the videos yet and I’m getting the details as I go, so my info will be a bit sketchy.

I’ll run this in episodes. Today’s post contains episode 4. Previously, I posted episode 2 and 1,

Nicole Foss Talks Economics At The End Of The Age Of Oil

and

Nicole Foss Talks Energy Industry Issues and Oil Price Collapse.

Episode 3 has apparently not even been recorded yet, but we’ll post it as soon as it is available,

Part IV- Futurology

The Doomstead Diner site blurb:

Renewable Energy
One of the biggest hopes as the fossil fuels run thin or become too expensive to dig up is a switch to renewable forms of energy. How can such forms of energy be utilized, and how much of our current technological society can be maintained with the renewables?

Building Community
As the larger structures of society begin to break down, a more localized organizational structure will become necessary, both on the food production and distribution level as well as new political organizations. How can communities come together and create the kind of structures necessary for a low per capita energy society of the future?

Psychology of Collapse
Collapse is creating many psychological issues and problems as it progresses and accelerates. More people are under more stress all the time, losing jobs, losing their homes to foreclosure, becoming homeless, waiting on long bread lines for food aid etc. We read daily about increasing suicide rates and the number of mass shootings is also on the increase, recently there were 142 mass shootings catalogued in 142 days, 1 every day. How can we handle these psychological problems that are cropping up, and likely will worsen as the overall economy worsens?

Prognosticating the Future
The toughest part in all of these discussions is trying to figure out what is going to occur in the future, and when it will occur. What is the timeline? Will we see a major breakdown of systems and a Fast Collapse scenario, or will it be a long slow “boiling frog” effect, the “Long Emergency” described by Jim Kunstler or the “slow catabolic collapse” described by John Greer? What can people do now to prepare for this future, especially if they are still dependent on a currently held job in a location which might not be too good in the future, like say they live currently in Las Vegas and have a well paid job in one of the casinos there?