Need advice on peak oil?

Question

I have a good job and am saving well. My dream would be to buy some land and build an as close to self sufficient cabin/home as possible. My question is - where? Has anybody done it? Should i continue to save and should I move now? Etc.

Answer 1

People lived all over the planet before modern times and were self sufficient, so it just depends on where you want to live.   I'd rather live somwhere I didn't have to cut alot of firewood in order to keep from freezing solid, so the cheap land in the south would be good.   My family lived that way in Maine for a couple hundred years and I still have the land, so could also do it there, but wouldn't be so easy.

Answer 2

Nice idea, but it has nothing to do with peak oil.

Answer 3

Peak oil is a fact.  Its debatable on when it will occur in the world but it has already occurred in the us.  It may be coming sooner than we imagine because the figures on reserves that countries give to OPEC are flawed.  The amount of oil that countries are allowed to  pump is based on their reserves, so naturally they inflate the number so they can pump more.  No external organization is estimating these numbers it is the countries themselves.  

It would be possible but it would be quite difficult and you would have to be willing to make alot of sacrifices.  Id still continue to save though.

Answer 4

Are you doing this only because you are afraid of peak oil?

If so, your logic is flawed. The peak oil people don't consider that as the price of oil goes up, the amount of economically viable reserves increases as well. Estimates of reserve oil are based on a fixed price for oil.

Also, simple efficiency increases in energy use that will be immediately spured on by higher oil prices have the same effect as increasing oil reserves.

Of course oil is a finite resource but the doomsday scenarios are based on overly simplistic and unsophisticated theories.

Answer 5

LEED is starting homes this month. There are advantage and disadvantages to most places on earth. What do you want? To be off oil it sounds like. Solar, do you like PV systems? Studies thermal solar? How about small hydroelectric? we need geothermal and wind, how about working to conseve enrgy. I have saved over 4 million dollars in energy in my working life. Check out CoolingEarth.org