tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5584699251999622098.post5970228250199840593..comments2024-03-16T09:24:45.474+01:00Comments on 22 Billion Energy Slaves: Home sweet homeJason Heppenstallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17886109260870545074noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5584699251999622098.post-30588448428177030462012-06-04T09:42:36.159+02:002012-06-04T09:42:36.159+02:00Yes, there's a US tv programme on here - I can...Yes, there's a US tv programme on here - I can't remmeber what it's called - but in it they visit 'needy' people and basically demolish their homes when they aren't looking an rebuild them in a day or two - usually to twice the size. It doesn't take a genius to see that all the materials they use are crappy. <br /><br />Apart from all the extra energy needed to heat a too-large house - don't people realise that in the future (and maybe even already) they'll be expected to house hanger-on relatives and down-on-their-luck friends in all that extra space? <br /><br />So too much space is a liability rather than an asset.Jason Heppenstallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17886109260870545074noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5584699251999622098.post-84545573932627322192012-06-02T10:38:46.521+02:002012-06-02T10:38:46.521+02:00Jaon:
No need to apologize for the ink not flowin...Jaon:<br /><br />No need to apologize for the ink not flowing. It flowed. You made a good point, whether you realize it or not. You compared the dwellings of present-day Denmark with those of the past. This can be done to good effect with most other areas of the world as well. One might just as easily compare the small, efficient homes of early New England with the absurd poorly constructed monstrosities known as "McMansions" that predominate in much of New England today. When you see one of these being built, you think: Who would pay for that crap? I mean, they're composed mostly of shoddy particle board and they're thrown up in weeks. And, there's something funny about the pricing of these things: It seems that price varies in inverse proportion to quality. The crappier the construction, the more the monstrosity costs.<br /><br />I think people are going to radically reassess value in coming times. What once fetched huge sums of money, will soon be almost worthless (or, in fact, less than worthless, and you won't even be able to pay someone to move into a hard-to-heat McMansion). In fact, many underwater homeowners are starting to discover this right now in the States. Meanwhile, things that people shun as old fashioned or worthless now, will soon start to fetch decent prices. <br /><br />This is an old story. I can recall being in Japan during the days of their Bubble Economy. Businessmen used to pay around two grand to keep an average bottle of whiskey on the shelf in their local hostess bar. Do you think any of them are doing that these days as the country is in the midst of whiplash-inducing contraction?<br /><br />It all comes down to the ability to determine real quality and real value. Whether the economy is good or bad, a smart man will take a look at a bottle of booze selling for two grand or a pile of crappy particle board selling for one million and he'll say: no thanks! And, keeping oneself smart is often merely the happy result of avoiding paying any attention to the media, which is suffused with ads whose main purpose is to convince you that crap is gold. The best example of which would be, of course, anything made by Lou Vuiton. And, I dare say, the greatest gift we can give our children is the ability to determine things of real value. <br /><br />It's instructive that the houses in the open-air museum are still standing. I wonder how many McMansions will be standing in a hundred years. The only thing they have going for them is this: they're so poorly built that there's little in them worth scavenging!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5584699251999622098.post-15823870751396492942012-06-02T08:25:41.552+02:002012-06-02T08:25:41.552+02:00Nice one Jeffery. I'd like to nominate you as ...Nice one Jeffery. I'd like to nominate you as our 'Eyes in the East'. <br /><br />Ever thought about writing your own peak oil blog? Your other blogs are immensely interesting! <br /><br />I heard a BBC news person say yesterday that if China has below 8% growth in any one year it will have serious problems. That's actually quite a scary prospect. Headless chickens indeed.<br /><br />One of my colleagues was in China last week making a video for the travel industry. Wandering around Beijing she kept being prevented from filming the charming older buildings in some of the residential quarters by some cultural policemen, who followed her around. Apparently they only want you to film the modern carbuncles like the Birds Nest stadium etc. <br /><br />What's Cantonese for yegads?<br /><br />Good luck finding that Himalayn village!Jason Heppenstallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17886109260870545074noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5584699251999622098.post-469726299987056082012-06-02T08:16:29.909+02:002012-06-02T08:16:29.909+02:00Thanks John. There aren't too many blogging ab...Thanks John. There aren't too many blogging about PO over this side of the Pond. I'm not sure why - perhaps it's because the US sees itself strongly as an oil producer. <br /><br />Over here in Europe it's written into our cultural DNA that most of our important resources come from elsewhere and that, at a pinch, we can always steal some more from someone. We're also much more used to the idea of decline, although I'm sure most don't give much thought to it.Jason Heppenstallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17886109260870545074noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5584699251999622098.post-26132200120087325292012-06-02T08:12:55.515+02:002012-06-02T08:12:55.515+02:00Ah yes - funny thing is I'm reading his World ...Ah yes - funny thing is I'm reading his World Made by Hand, which put me in the mind of putting those pictures up - so there a kind of self-referencing circular symmetry to this!<br /><br />It's a pretty good read. The difficulty with writing peak oil fiction is that you have to present a plausible future reality in very close detail. Get one detail wrong and people will pick the whole thing apart. I haven't encountered any problems yet - but then I'm only about 60 pages in.<br /><br />BTW <a href="http://offthegridmpls.blogspot.dk/2012/05/nightshade.html" rel="nofollow">nice post</a> about the nightshade. It's got me looking at plants in a totally different way ...Jason Heppenstallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17886109260870545074noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5584699251999622098.post-85403929383387744692012-06-02T04:06:30.423+02:002012-06-02T04:06:30.423+02:00"latest stage of catabolic collapse began to ..."latest stage of catabolic collapse began to get into full swing in the West..."<br /><br />I think it is starting to be seen in Asia, too, for example in India there was a petrol price hike with predictable consequences:<br /><br />http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3srlEFYDKc<br /><br />Here in Taiwan they are moving to substantially up the price of electricity, much to the voiced disagreement of everyone. Taiwan is about 10% nuclear and the rest comes from oil. They've been spoiled for many years with cheap electricity, which is why shops will have their doors wide open and the AC running full blast. That will stop soon.<br /><br />In Korea youth are having difficulty finding employment, leading to another surge in emigration. In China they're pumping money into factories to keep them running despite substantial decrease in demand from overseas markets (if the millions of factory workers suddenly become unemployed, there will be blood in the streets). China is also using their juggernaut navy to lay claim to the entire South China Sea (oil and natural gas down there).<br /><br />The grounded middle class and higher echelons are not terribly affected by all this just yet, but then it starts with the working classes and then creeps up. This is why "new money" in Asia is optimistic for the moment.<br /><br />Still, it honestly seems both east and west our leaders are running around like chickens with their heads cut off. Makes me want to go settle in some remote Himalayan village that has never had electricity and never will.Jeffrey Kotykhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11466850119342584826noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5584699251999622098.post-60140100915910279832012-06-02T00:08:31.373+02:002012-06-02T00:08:31.373+02:00Please don't doubt for a second that your cont...Please don't doubt for a second that your contributions are very valuable. Your northern European perspective is to my knowledge unique in the Peak Oil blogosphere, and I learn a great deal here that I do not see anywhere else.John D. Wheelerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16203607452410210779noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5584699251999622098.post-78001692348294000762012-06-02T00:02:24.130+02:002012-06-02T00:02:24.130+02:00LOL! I'd send that last pic to JHKunstler. He ...LOL! I'd send that last pic to JHKunstler. He would love these pictures, and would probably post that last pic on his site for his, um, fav examples of modern architecture.<br /><br />www.offthegridmpls.blogspot.comWilliam Hunter Duncanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03659156353754825272noreply@blogger.com