Reflections on my first PO meeting (just now posting)

sorry - forgot to post this a couple months ago when I went to my first Peak Oil meeting...

Interesting meeting, a few random reflections:
- First of all, if you're reading this, I recommend finding a PO group or get one together. A good experience, I look forward to another one.
- In general, not your typical group of activists. An exception here or there, but these folks don't seem like most activists I've ever met. Very promising! Nothing wrong with activists, in fact I'm glad they exist, but I seem to feel better when they're not around.
- Upon entering this warehouse/office space, I see two bottles of wine underneath a big, not-fancy-but-kind-of-kitsch chandelier. Love it.
- Not super organized, in fact there's no explicit leadership. A good sign on the one hand, but could get annoying for those folks who like structure. I also believe that it'll make them ultimately less productive. Time will tell.
- These folks were involved in the April '06 SF PO resolution! How cool.

Also, like all PO groups, it's new and has all the issues that new organizations will have. It's been around a year or so, and it's definitely evolving. There are many examples of this, but the big one is that are still defining what they want to be and what they'd like to do.

To illustrate, there was a brief but passionate discussion regarding whether or not the group should focus on efforts to mitigate the effects of PO vs. prepare & accept it. On the one side, "We can't just lay down and die off - I feel we can do something to prevent a complete collapse." On the other, "Collapse is inevitable, we should just prepare ourselves mentally (and otherwise?) and accept it as it comes."

To me, the question still comes down to, "How should we prepare?" Should it be trying to make our communities and the world a better place? Or should we hunker down and literally prepare for the very worst kind of collapse?

I still say everyone who is "enlightened" should prepare for both.