'Peak Oil' Survivalists Prepare For America's Energy Armageddon

The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and now the Washington Post appear to be very interested in what is loosely being called 'New Survivalists' or 'Peak Oil Survivalists.'

The theme is simple : normal, middle class Americans are terrified of the day that the oil stops flowing and society as we know it breaks down into chaos, rioting and extreme violence. It's a post-Green, beyond Al Gore, mindset. Save the world? Forget that hippie shit, it's too late, or to quote in Aliens, "Game over, man!"

Load up on solar panels and water tanks and non-Monsanto seed, get out of suburbia, bunker down, get a bicycle, get a gun to protect your organic carrots and prepare for life after society's collapse.

From the Washington Post :

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.

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.

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.

Determined to guard themselves from potentially harsh times ahead, Lynn-Marie and her husband have already planted an orchard of about 40 trees and built a greenhouse on their 7 1/2 acres. They have built their own irrigation system. They've begun to raise chickens and pigs, and they've learned to slaughter them.

The couple have gotten rid of their TV and instead have been reading dusty old books published in their grandparents' era, books that explain the simpler lifestyle they are trying to revive. Lynn-Marie has been teaching herself how to make soap. Her husband, concerned about one day being unable to get medications, has been training to become an herbalist.

By 2012, they expect to power their property with solar panels, and produce their own meat, milk and vegetables. When things start to fall apart, they expect their children and grandchildren will come back home and help them work the land. She envisions a day when the family may have to decide whether to turn needy people away from their door.

"People will be unprepared," she said. "And we can imagine marauding hordes."

So how many Americans are we talking about here? Millions? Hundreds of thousands? The fact-checking Washington Post crunches the numbers :

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.

Perhaps it's not so important how many 'Peak Oil Survivalists' there actually are. Perhaps the more important mission for the Washington Post, the WSJ and the NYTimes is to further publicise the 'Peak Oil' theory and seed the media ground for the societal breakdown and inner city food rioting that appears to be now so widely, sometimes wildly, anticipated.


Or maybe the Washington Post editors simply know that if they run a story tagged 'survivalism' they will get a few hundred thousand extra readers that day, and in the following days, when blogs and AM radio link and talk it up, just like I've done here.


But is it really necessary for the action of citysiders deciding to get the hell out of CrapTown to pursue a better quality of life to be labeled 'survivalism'? What happened to simply wanting to get back to a simpler and more self-sufficient way of living? Or deciding that there are more satisfying ways to look after and feed the family than the daily warfare of many modern city workplaces?


You don't need to be an Al Gore advocate, or a believer in 'Peak Oil' Armageddon, to understand that the fruit, herbs and vegetables you grow in your backyard, or on your apartment balcony, will always taste better than the old, treated junk you find in most supermarkets.


Expect more mainstream media 'Survivalism' and 'Peak Oil Armageddon' stories.


But there's plenty of positives to flow from a MSM fixation on Americans supposedly preparing to survive in a post-oil and food shortages stricken America. The more who read these stories and decide to grow their own food, or to keep chickens and goats, the less likely that widespread food shortages will become a reality.


It's hard, however, not to view this sudden rush of interest from the mainstream media as part of a conscious and somewhat practical reshaping of society from a heavily consuming culture to one that is far more self-sufficient. At the very least it is a further fermentation of the post-Katrina message from the Bush administration (paraphrased) "When disaster strikes, don't expect the government to come to your rescue. You're on your own."


More and more Americans, apparently, have taken that warning as a herald for a new reality and are getting on with the business of making sure they can largely fend for themselves. Just in case.


Survivalism Goes Mainstream, As The Rich And Middle Class Fear Breakdown Of Society