I put this in lounge mainly because I don't want to discuss the actual topic of peak oil. Although I or someone else can start a thread about peak oil economics or whatever in the extended discussion forum.
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Ok...I found out about peak oil a couple of days ago and I'm just so shocked and confused right now. I don't know what to do or anything, this may be the result of me not knowing anything about economics/finance (I plan on learning soon). I just don't know what peak oil means for my future. I saw myself since a child becoming a physicist because I have always been deeply interested in that field, but now I don't know what to do. I am going to be 16 in a few weeks by the way.
Peak oil is going to happen very soon, becoming a physicist and actually making some money with it takes a long time. I saw myself going through undergraduate school then graduate school and completing my phD then maybe just doing personal research (poor but more freedom) or doing lab work (rich). Now it's like...I can't do these things and I have to concentrate on planning for PO. I can of course continue studying but I'll be missing out on real human experience whilst trying to survive.
The best figure I've derived so far and others have told me is around 15 years for total economic collapse. Of course that doesn't mean the world running out of oil in 15 years. Like a dehydrated person, the body need only lose 10% of water to die. Once the world reaches a certain point in oil production/supply and population, the economy will crumble.
I don't even know how to start planning, I don't know what to do or anything. I don't know if I should tell my parents (my dad won't believe it, he'll just say this is something the liberals made up so they can bash Bush and the war), my mom would simply deny it. I don't know what to do about money (especially). I don't know what to do about really LONG term planning as in a few decades from now.
I was never the normal teenager that didn't think much past the current month; I get uneasy when I don't know what's going to happen to me 15+ years from now.
Nobody knows exactly how the world will react to peak oil socially and economically. I suspect people will deny it and deny it until they wake up one morning wondering why the lamp isn't working, why their heater won't turn on, why the phone is dead and why oil is $150/barrel. The politicians will say they're funding a huge rush to find more oil, the left will bash the right, the right will bash the left, people will be too busy fighting each other to see the real problem. There's going to be looters and rioting and protests in urban streets. There's going to be a lot of people dying because they don't know how to survive off the land. Complete and total chaos with the police and military force breaking down will be the worst case scenario.
I'm so confused I need help.