Whenever my life goes out of control, I find myself reading obsessively about the coming oil crisis. It's my very own form of escapism: others go to the cinema, I read about depleting oil fields. There is something very soothing about it. As it seems that the whole petroleum-based economy is going to hit the wall soon at high speed, it puts things into perspective. No place to live? having to move house once a month? struggling to finish my thesis in a state of growing anxiety? sit back and relax while I tell you about the costs of offshore drilling; the fictions of oil reserves figures; the curves of supply and demand graphs. Open wide your eyes, as the peak oil magician continues to conjure food shortages, major panic and a climate disaster.
As I said, it does put things into perspective. The thing is, that even when I get out of my moments of crisis, the oil problem is still there. Did I tell you already? It's running out.
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2 comments:
"fictions of oil reserves figures"
whoa, i actually don't know anything about this.
i'm interested in reading about it though, and more interested in your method of treating anxiety with anxiety inducing topics.
happy to see you blogging again. Well i guess many people express frustrations in their private lives through being pessimistic about politics/economy etc. It's a well know trap... and a good reason to avoid political discussions with people who you know are actually talking about something else.
But I try to channel my anxiety not into doom and gloom but just to remind myself that in the bigger picture, a summer of housing uncertainty is not the worst that can happen. It doesn't help me to get back to work necessarily but at the meantime i learn a few things.
I did it all the time last year during the lebanon war, i just couldn't take the news and that was my own way of saying (in my head) 'you idiots don't you understand we have more important things to worry about??'
But one of the worries is that the oil crisis, or the climate one, will be obscured by political developments, and again presented as the result of civilisation clash and not the pursuit of a wholly unsustainable (but non-negotiable) way of life, ruled by greed and waste.
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