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One of the first warning signs of peak oil is upon us, the inability of oil producing nations to keep up with the increasing demand of worldwide consumers. The ability to control the price of crude oil has fallen out of the hands of the OPEC nations. The government has begun to warn us that price hikes may be less temporary than they previously had stated, now slated to last through 2007. (As you’ll note in the article, no reason is given for a possible reduction in prices at that point.)

What is our only option for riding the peak oil production plateau and inevitable slide (or shock, as it may be)? Relocalization.

Dozens of presenters came and spoke their peace at the PeakoilNYC sponsored Local Solutions to the Energy Dilemma Conference. Most touted relocalization in some form, as the nation’s (and world’s) only hope of coming out safely on the other side of the peak. Michael Brownlee from Boulder Valley Relocalization spoke on day one of the conference, and his words on relocalization are worth reading (.pdf).

I also was deeply affected by some of the speakers who presented on economic topics. As I posted earlier, John Ikerd’s speech was rousing and inspiring. Catherine Austin Fitts, although I may not fully buy into (or understand) the entirety of the Solari Model of economics, made me think outside of the box on my personal spending and investment. The important thing that I took away from her talk (avail in powerpoint), was that we have a tremendously effective way to change the society and world that we live in, by spending and investing our money in socially and locally responsible ways. We should be reinvesting in our communities, and increasing the “popsicle index” in our neighborhoods. There was so much good information on socially and locally responsible economics, that it will certainly warrant its own post in the near future.