Gretchen Sans Pétrole

I’ve been emailing with Yuckymuck, he’s the WWO web guy. He tries to put on a gruff exterior but underneath he’s a marshmallow. Anyway, he called my attention to two posts, “What the Future Holds” Part I and Part II by meredith stapleton. She interviewed a professor about peak oil two years ago. It’s dense but stick with it, it gives you a complete picture.

I was really glad to read this letter from a council of Quakers. It made me realize that all over the country, there are people who will hold together in the face of adversity by holding on to their faith.

This story kept me up last night. Because I also read this post.

Mtalon photodocuments the chill that’s creeping over the economy, as does Heodez. Videoblogger Kalwithoutoil puts a human face to the depression: he rides along with some newly minted bicycle thieves. If there were indeed millions of people out of work, I am sure stuff like this would really be happening.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the coin, PrudentRVer talks about quality of life: how you can have it even in a world without oil. Similarly, IronMonkey has lived our reality already. And my favorite bit for today: L’el chronicles how dating changes in a world without oil.

In the official narrative, the fuel shortage has rippled out and is causing shortages of everything. Diesel is hard to get (and costs $5 a gallon!) so all sorts of shipments are not being made. The grocery shelves in particular are looking bare. They’ve started rationing in the UK, says miawithoutoil. And people are apparently getting relocated into camps - not just in the U.S. but also in France.

The World Without Oil characters have been suggesting “missions” for us, actions we can undertake in response to the oil crisis.  And the players are coming up with missions of their own.

I am totally taken up in this “building community” mission by PeakProphet. He is an organized guy and has broken it down step by step. The first step is just to walk around your neighborhood and map out its resources - where are the fruit trees? Berry bushes? Available land? Which neighbors have gardens? I have been taking an hour each day to do this. I have a pretty good map now of everything you can see from the street for four blocks in any direction.

The best part actually is that I have talked with about half a dozen people, they see me out front and come out wanting to know what is going on. At first I was hesitant to tell them the whole story about WWO but it turned out I shouldn’t have worried. People say “oh, it’s like emergency preparedness” and then they ask to see my map! Two different ladies took me on a tour of their backyard gardens. I think one of them is now playing the World Without Oil game

This is my favorite post from today, by MonkeyWithoutOil. I love how he used an online church sign generator! Clever.

I’ve been telling people about the World Without Oil game and they want to take a look. Here’s how I tell people to get into the game:

First, go here to get an explanation of what’s going on. If you reach the end and are still bamboozled, don’t hesitate to click the link in the last line.

Second, go to the Manifesto. You’ll meet the characters that are running the website and get a real flavor for the game. You can then appreciate their posts on their community blog.

Third, go to the World Without Oil Weekly Page (today, it’s Week 13). Look at the price for fuel, read the Week’s News Report, then click on the boxes off to the left to experience what people are saying. Like this response by Anda to the gamemaking challenge by Avantgame.

Fourth, if you can spare the time, don’t miss the Kalwithoutoil videos or the Rainey/Bodi/Anna podcasts.

Echoing my own feelings, player Avantgame writes in horror about the latest stories. As shortages spread and fuel prices skyrocket, the country seems to be in free fall. But Avantgame has an idea to counter the chaos: games. Because they bring people together and build a common purpose.

And then I discovered PeakProphet, too, who has calm words to pour onto the troubled waters.

I’m glad they posted these. I know this is just a game, but… to be honest the latest accounts on the WWO site have been getting to me. I look at the price of gas now – over $6 a gallon! – and just know that would just wreck the lives of a LOT of people that I know. This game has a way of looking just like real life.

The official news report for Week 8 tells us that actual shortages are starting and growing across the country… and Kalwithoutoil tried to get us video. Of course people are beginning to fight over fuel. Move over, road rage, for PUMP RAGE, the latest fissure in our social fabric.

The reports of disruption are coming in from all over the world – from blackouts in Bristol, UK to outages in Baghdad, Iraq. Life as usual seems to be fraying in a hundred different ways.

Two weeks gone already? That’s because each day for us the players is a week in crisis time. The price of gas is up around $4.25 a gallon – up from less than $3 on April 29. People are saying that shortages are on the way. Eeeek.

There are tons of player stories up on the site already, and more seem to get added every hour. What happens is, you create your story then submit it to the WWO characters. A few hours later a little icon for it appears in the “Latest Dispatches” column on the WWO website.

If I had to pick a theme so far I guess it would be “day of reckoning.” That is, people knew this day would come, just didn’t expect it so soon. Our lifestyle made it inevitable.