I also examine our family and community events with a similar eye to "how sustainable is this?"

Upon proposing to my (now) wife in the early 90s, I promised her that she and our prospective children could fly back to Seattle 1-2 times per year to visit with her family. We do this every August and every other Christmas to uphold my promise, though she's aware that the time will come that such trips will be much less frequent (and may eventually cease). During the August vacation, most of the in-laws spend considerable time water skiing, after hauling the boat 100s of miles (and over one range of mountains) with a vehicle specifically purchased to have lots of boat-hauling power. I politely refrain from the sport, after many episodes of arm-twisting to get me ski (and one daughter has chosen to refrain as well, though the other is an avid advocate).

One teachable moment occurred when someone asked how far my 2000 Honda Insight could travel on the 35 gallons of gas used in a particularly active day of skiing and lake touring. I responded, "from Washington DC to Seattle", which caught some people by surprise; the contemplative looks lasted more than a few seconds... and then I mentioned that it could amount to 7000 passenger-miles in my 12 person vanpool, followed by more reflective sinking-in. But eventually the conversation shifted to some other topic, and everyone went back to 'normal' in their energy consumption patterns.

There are other struggles too, when the wife suggests that we go visit friends by car who are hundreds or even thousands of miles away because "we haven't seen them in a while" and her email chats with them invariably end with "we simply MUST get together soon".

The family car is a Prius, but I'm acutely aware of extra miles that could be induced by "it's more efficient, so we can go more places". She's aware of Peak Oil, though doesn't want it to interfere with 'normal' travel habits as long as it is affordable.

“But you know, this is a big crowd and it really helps us cover the cost of our lease. It’s the first time we’ve done this.”

Well, on the bright side, all of the spectators cars were parked for the duration of the event.

It seems almost certain that the largest component of the energy consumed by this event was the petrol burnt in the cars and trucks of the audience driving to this site.

This is almost certainly true even of events like Nascar or formula one racing or even flying displays. As for low Dopamine return in energy invested, probably the worst culprit is hot air ballooning. This consumes huge amounts of natural gas, and is an extremely inefficient form of travel, not least because the destination is almost random! That said, seeing a couple of hundred balloons in the sky at once is quite a
quite a sight.

The main objection to these events is the promotion of conspicuous consumption of energy as something to celebrate. It overtly encourages people to buy and drive unnecessarily large and powerful vehicles.

Probably the best DROEI events would be a lower league soccer 'derby' match in a large city in Europe. Most of the audience would be local and could attend by public transport.

Jason -

For all of the visually obvious excess of such an event, I strongly suspect that the amount of fuel consumed by the small number of highly specialized vehicles actually competing is but a small fraction of the fuel consumed by the many spectators in traveling to and from the event. This I think is true of all motor sports.

As such, then from a purely energy standpoint it hardly matters that the event was a truck pull or say some sort of 'green' technology fair. If the number of attendees are the same in both cases, then the amount of fuel consumed will also likely be the same. The obvious difference is that one event is outrageously non-PC and attended mostly by people who are ignorant or indifferent about energy and the environment, while the other event is highly 'correct' and attended by people who consider themselves enlightened and ideologically pure. But it doesn't really make much difference where the rubber meets the road (so to speak).

Now, here's a silly little hypothetical for you: Let's say that 1,000 people attend the truck pull but they all drive Toyota Prius's to get there, while the 1,000 people attending the green technology fair drive a mix SUVs and pick-ups to get there. Which event would you rather have? I suspect that many here at TOD would choose the latter, because even though the attendees are actually using more fuel, at least they are thinking right. That is what I would call ideologically-driven thinking.

Appearances can tell one a lot but not everything. I happen to know of a hard-core hot-rodder who has this outrageously brutal machine that probably gets about 7 mpg if he drives it nice. ( But what's the point of having such a car if you have to drive it 'nice'?) At first appearance one might say that he's being irresponsible and wasteful, but if one looks more closely, one would see that he drives the hot rod about 500 miles per year max, while using a Honda Civic for all his 'real' driving. So, his total annual personal vehicle fuel consumption is probably far better than the national average.

Such hobbies/spectator sports will obviously have to come to an end some day,but the sport itself is not the problem. It's getting the spectators to the track that REALLY burns up some energy.

Forty cars on the track at a Nascar event may burn very roughly anywhere from three thousand to ten thousand gallons of gas,depending on the length of the race,etc.The trucks used to haul the cars around probably use another five to ten thousand gallons,average,as some tracks are much closer together than others.Now when forty trucks go to the west coast from Charlotte,the "hub" of Nascar,that trip really burns up some diesel!

A quick glance at the parking lots at a place like Charlotte Motor Speedway (now Lowes MS,I think) and the license plates on the cars is enough to understand this point.I would guess that maybe fifteen thousand vehicles at least are driven to the Charlotte races,many from hundreds of miles away.Unless you are in reasonably good health the walk from the farther parking lots is a hike not to be undertaken lightly on a hot day.

And of course while I'm composin'and typin'w/ one finger four people beat me to the punch!

Speaking as a former gearhead(retired fan who only listens on the radio sometimes nowadays) I wish to point out that football,baseball,basket ball and all other big league spectator sports are not noticeably less fuel intensive than motor sports.

The authors are absiolutely right about the spectacle of motor racing-there is something about it that grabs you viscerally,takes you for one hell of an adrenalin ride,and leaves you limp afterward.

Just about every redblooded gun totin lightnin drinkin Baptist church goin commie hatin southern male young enough to have plenty of testerone circulating would gladly cut a deal with the devil to drive a race car professionally.Quite a few die playing the game as amatuers on public roads.

1. Have you been able to move away from low DREI habits and replace them with high DREI ones?

One example: I started commuting to/from work on foot over a year ago - a 1.7 mile, 45 minute hike each way. I do enjoy it, it has been a time to clear my mind, and to reconnect with nature a little bit. It also does good things for my physical health.

2. What experiences have you had like mine and John Jeavons’, being simultaneously awed and disgusted by the excesses of our world?

A day does not go by without my experiencing feelings like this. "Life in the USA" - that's the experience.

3. Why should I deprive myself of the great hedonistic pleasures of the age of oil if I can still afford them since very few others willingly curtail?

As I have been saying, the 21st century is going to be one long exercise in giving things up. For a lot of people, it is going to be very painful, they are going to resist and fight and try to hold on with all their might. Such an approach could be deadly, just like the monkey grasping the banana in the jar. On the other hand, there will be a few people who have cultivated the attitude of holding on to things lightly, of being prepared and willing to let things go. They will have cultivated this attitude through practice, not waiting to give things up until they absolutely have to, but anticipating the inevitable and voluntarilly giving up things early rather than late. Such people will actually fare much better as a result, for they will not waste effort resisting the inevitable, and will be better able to adjust to reality and to move on. Thus, in the final analysis, voluntarilly giving up things before one absolutely has to is actually something one does for one's own benefit.

4. Is information sufficient to change behavior, and if not, what does?

Beats me. I assume that people change behavior if and when they want to change bad enough; even then, most find it very difficult, and some find it impossible. Lots of people do all sorts of things that they "know" is wrong or harmful or not in their best interest. I have absolutely no idea how to change that. I discovered when I was very young that I really didn't understand other people, and as I get older, the more I realize this even more.

5. I recognized very few faces at the truck pull, even though I live in a small town. What does this say about the cultural diversity of society and does that diversity make it more or less challenging to adapt to change?

The good news is that infiltration and gradual transformation one-by-one is more possible in diverse populations. In homogeneous populations, change has to happen all at once, across the board, or not at all, and that is very difficult to achieve. In homogeneous populations, change has to be imposed top-down; in diverse populations, bottom-up change has a real chance.

This opinion that there is a very strong link between excitement, intense pleasure and FF energy consumed (or consumption in general) is a popular viewpoint on TOD. To a large extent, it is an uniquely American way of viewing excitement or pleasure. Often this site reads like an AA meeting viewed by persons who not only don't drink much, but never understood the obsession with booze. Do a bungee jump (just one example) if you want FF guilt free kicks-there are hundreds of other examples.

Try Callenbach's "Ecotopia" for low-DREI non-lethal bloodsports based on native American practices. Not coincidentally the story took place in the Jefferson Republic. By the way Jason, to properly proselytize the target audience one needs to talk the required lingo. I believe you attended a Tractor, not Truck Pull

Have you been able to move away from low DREI habits and replace them with high DREI ones?

Kite flying. When there's snow, sled riding. Frog jumping contests at the local community day, my nephew's frog won one year. I wish there were some local weiner dog racing.

Here's the reddit & digg links for this post (we appreciate your helping us spread our work around, both in this post and any of our other work...):

http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/8xc9o/dopamine_returned_on_e...
http://www.reddit.com/r/energy/comments/8xc9s/dopamine_returned_on_energ...
http://www.reddit.com/r/environment/comments/8xc9u/dopamine_returned_on_...
http://www.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/8xc9w/dopamine_returned_on_ene...

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The disdain of tractor pulls and muscle cars and trucks (which I share) clearly drips with classism.

The low-DREI I (and probably most people on this site) have enjoyed is the g-force of sitting in a hundred ton chunk of steel accelerating from 0 to 600mph and from ground level to many miles high in just a few minutes.

The amount of energy used in the few minutes of and directly after take off is the most ff one can legally burn in the shortest time, as far as I can figure (and of course this means the most ghg one can emit in the shortest time).

This is a pleasure I have now chosen to do without, something that has lead my nearest and dearest to see me as a kind of freak (or even more of a freak than they thought me before).

Because those on this forum are generally from a class where air travel is seen as normal and beneficial, we ignore this enormous and dangerous source of waste and ghg's while focusing on red neck behaviors.

May I suggest looking for the logs in our own eyes before examining the motes in others'?

It's all cultural. A few centuries ago, popular spectator sports included bear-baiting and watching people being drawn and quartered. Nowadays, few people would have the stomach to watch those events in person.

In a decade or two, anybody who proposes a tractor pull will be locked up or stoned to death.

Rural people will find other things to do, just as they did before cheap oil. Local hunting and fishing is high DROEI. Riding horses is exciting, as are fighting and romancing.

The fact that people gape at huge internal combustion engines shows a lot more about the power of peer groups and the media than it does about human nature.

For me, the most effective step is to stay away from consumer culture (the TV), and to hang with people who love high DROEI activities - gardening, hiking, family, learning.

Bart / EB

Years ago I had a similar experience at the Mendocino County Fair (in Boonville), but in relation to their disdain for "treehuggers." Over the last 20 years attending the Fair, I've noticed that their attitude is changing--logging subsided as the resource dwindled and tourism took its place.

A friend of mine who is Nigerian, has an interesting perspective on oil. I asked him what he would do if he were the energy czar of Nigeria. He said he would pump the oil out as fast as possible so that the nation can move on. Until the oil is sufficiently gone/expensive, we cannot move on. So, as Homer Simpson would say, "Let the baby have his bottle."

Lawn mowing is the one that gets to me. I live on a farm and have a very LARGE lawn. Costs a fortune for me to mow it. I would like to put up some fences and run livestock on the lawn to do most of the mowing and trimming (something I never do seem to have time to do myself). Unfortunately fencing to keep chickens in and dogs, cats, raccoons, coyotes & other predators out is expensive and difficult to install because of the shallow topsoil underlayed with shale rock.
A mixture of sheep, miniature cattle and chickens would do very nice. And instead of spending time and money to mow the lawn myself I would have agricultural slaves doing it for me and making money (or food) from them in the process. And you get the lawn fertilized for free too!
When gas gets short in supply or really expensive, I suspect you will see a lot of McMansions with fences around them and livestock on the Mega-lawn. 100 years ago it was not uncommon to see livestock inside the city limits of most communities and I would guess that in another 10-20 years it will return to that.
Having just read the US Government 1980 rationing regulations (still in force and waiting to be implemented) that state that no rations will be issued for motor boating and the like, I would guess that most of the "recreational" uses of liquid fuels will either stop due to rationing or having a prohibition on the use of fuels for "recreational uses". When the rationing only provides just barely enough gas to get to work and back, I suspect that motor boating, classic car shows, car/truck racing, sport aviation and similar activities will wither away somewhat. But recreational activities that are not in themselves fuel users like quilt/ knitting shows, gun shows, wood working shows, sailboat shows, threshing shows, county/state fairs and the like will also suffer due to lack of participation from lack of transportation due to tight or expensive fuel.
I would guess that there will be a lot of crying, whining and temper tantrums being thrown in the next 5-10 years due to fuel availability or expense problems!

Maybe there is some good technology coming out of some of these activities ??

Worlds fastest street legal ELECTRIC CAR

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=369h-SEBXd8

but most are totally insane , such as a burning rubber contest.

sick but a telling tale of where a large percentage of the pop. is at ..

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=339...

While I agree with dohboi that there is surely a class-issue tied in with this particular example, a complement to that is the way the Middle and Uppermiddle class have as many sins that are peculiar in the way they disquise and keep pleasantly quiet about the power consumed.

The NOISE, BLUSTER and FLASH of tractors and Nascars and Tailgating.. the 'vulgar' sports (and vulgar comes from 'Volk', or Folk, ie, 'Commoners' FYI) makes them easy targets to point out, but I'm a lot more concerned about the INSIDIOUS power that we use where it's well-muffled, or even totally invisible and silent.

The Tractor Pull that I envision throughout this post is the long, slow trail of vehicles idling in line at a hundred thousand Takeout Windows around the country. Both are issues, and point to our expectations and feelings about power.. I'm just trying to pay attention the the wheels that AREN'T squeaking at all, but still drive us quickly down the wrong road.

Thanks for the thought-inspiring post, nonetheless, Jason!
Bob

ps, In John Howe's video about his electric Farmall Cub tractor (and golf cart and MG), he mentions bringing the little pipsqueak to a tractor-pull on the way to the Commonground Fair, I think, and he says that the litte rig did well, and was met with approval by the crowd. Celebrations are a customary time to flex the muscles, run a few hard laps, and burn the big YuleLogs.. we just have enough power to do this 'celebrating' far too often.
>> JOHN HOWE VIDEO (Tractor pull comments at around 2:45) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFYpNrbyKCA

pps, My fave Dopamine toy was a Gimbal-ride in a pennyarcade in NYC. No motors, just three pivoted rings and you in the middle, tossing your weight around and spinning your lunch to see if you can become a human salad shooter. FUN!

The lifestyle absurdities pre-designed for me -- and even more so for my children --create such cognitive dissonance within me that I have very nearly given up bothering with talking about or doing anything about the ecological tsunami of which Peak Oil is a part.

As an American, I see that we have invested very heavily in a materialistic lifestyle that has become an addiction.

It appears that we have chosen to kill people in an effort to prop up our "lifestyle" even though the global resource war will consume and pollute and cause havoc, suffering, and more hatred as it rolls on.

The irony is that few humans will survive this war. Those who do will likely live short and brutal lives in a n environment made hostile to human life.

There is an image in the book "The Road" that keeps returning to me. The father and son are asleep, and the father dreams of being in a huge cave with the sound of water dripping and running. Eventually they come to a pool. Across the pool a pale creature lifts its head from drinking water. The father seems to recognize this creature as something evolved or devolved from our species. It is eyeless and seemingly without speech, groaning and whimpering as it senses the presence of strangers, and simply melts back into the further reaches of the cave.

Some postwar lifestyle, eh?

How is this for future excitement?
Plastic bottles made of PET (polyethelene terapthalate) converted into plastic sheets.
A glider is made from this.
It is pressurised to 3 or 4 atmospheres. You sit in the cockpit and pull the plug.
In a few moments you are at a convenient height to catch thermals.
You travel a thousand kilometers a day, sleeping in your glider. Next morning there you are drinking coffee and gathering courage to do it all again, once the bottle is pumped up.
I cannot imagine anything more awe inspiring than coming out of a thunderhead into the smooth flow of a jetstream.
The future need not be all black.

Re the Cirque de Soleil--Las Vegas used to sponsor a lot of bus trips, which is good, but the destination is an unsustainable city using huge amounts of energy for air conditioning and immported water, which is bad.
Maybe we could import the cirque de soleil to a Northern California Indian casino with a mild climate, and emphasize bus caravans. Maybe some of the clientele would even go for an inexpensive tour of your farm.

I love my tractor. The deep diesel rumble is a tonic of power. The powerful hydraulics extend my reach and strength and skill a thousand times over. 44 HP and four wheel drive.

I don't know what it does for my carbon footprint but it slurps up less than a gallon an hour. Almost never gets above three miles an hour. But I work it hard. I use it to haul logs that become firewood and chips for heat and boards for building. I till gardens and move all manner of heavy loads. Sometimes I even use it to take me down the hill so I won't have to walk back up. My legs ain't what they used to be.

If I can't get diesel then I'll shift to biodiesel or even SVO. I would hate to give it up. I need it to build the homestead and take care of the woods. Really can't see the appeal of races, any kind of races, but a beefy diesel engine is a treasure.

what is the end product..?

is virtue utilitarian?

To my mind NASCAR is a very good use of gasoline despite it serves no purpose at all except to panda to this addiction state.

to me commuting in hideous traffic in a fully loaded car with very good milage is a greater waste of fossil fuels than burning it recklessly driving round in circles for the hell of it.

over consumption is often in the areas of our life that are ordinary and unrewarding,

this guy said it several days ago

Was this article a story about pollution and fuel use at a tractor pull, or an opportunity to inform us of your many contributions to the community, of your family and its financial ability to pick and choose what forms of entertainment they want, in spite of the friviolous use of fossil fuels they may represent?

Been to many tractor pulls. It is a spectacle of noise, fire, smoke and power that manages to instantly saturate the nervous system. The visceral impact is impossible to explain; you have to be there. FWIW, they can have my portion of the planet's oil to fuel the tractors.

I just recently electrified my bicycle using a kit. 750W at the rim is fairly impressive. Now I'm wondering if it would make any sense to make a pull tractor from the same technology. It would certainly alter the DREI calculations if you charged it for a month from a solar array. Setting aside the carbon footprint of making a big enough L-Ion brick and a permanent magnet motor large enough to Get It Done -- and the solar array of course -- it would be one of those rare would-you-look-at-that moments that would tip the balance for some people.

And what would happen if the crazy thing actually won? Well for starters they would form a new bracket for the e-tractors so the gas turbines wouldn't look so wimpy.

cougar

I was an AF pilot from 1952-1972. Flying a fighter at about 1000 gph JP4 is bad enough and after the first thousand hours or so the dopamine level is not so great unless someone was shooting from your six o'clock ... "hours of bordom and moments of stark terror". But what about the BUF crews at over 10K gph at low level and no real kicks at all. Talk about using fuel ... a single B-52 flight uses more fuel than the weight drag and all the spectators. I bet it would be fun to do a barrel roll in one though.

Edit: Until about 1960 something there was no radar tracking so if weather was not a factor we could go and do most anything. Have you ever thought of telegraph poles along a railroad looking like a picket fence at 600 knots?
Yeah ...

As to having the experience of being simultaneously awed and disgusted, for a little over three years after having my consciousness raised to PO, I continued to work as a fly-on entertainer on cruise ships. The world of people running around airports and laying about cruise ships suddenly took on an unreal appearance, quite out-of-step with the emerging realities that were dominating my reading and thinking all week long except for the few hours around my shows and maybe the late-night comedy afterward. Other aspects of the world I observed took on a most tragic aspect, such as the string of new resorts then going up along the highway between Ocho Rios and Montego Bay, the new wing of the Sangster International airport, while the highway itself was under significant "modernization" during the whole period. In Jamaica the well-off build their homes with cinder-block while the poor use scraps of plywood (and the like) to build their tiny shacks. Wonder what cultural degradations prevent at least the latter from using wattle and daub like previous generations did.
(I was pleased at one point that at least one of my drivers was able to inform me about the traditional house building methods.)

On another positive note, I took a greater interest in the tricyclist unions in Cozumel and Playa del Carmen, Mexico. One of the tricycle drivers told me the union builds its own tricycles (from appearances based on a front-loading design that similar to some Huffy's I identified on-line, though with varying axle widths). The drivers, I recall, are divided into three main divisions - those who carry passengers on the piers, those who do similar work in-town, and those who distribute goods to the stores from the ferry-boat terminals. The latter function is of course the one that goes on the possible post-peak adaptations list, though the general picture of the region with its exploded population and prospective loss of the tourism industry seemed quite grim to me.

As for my own adaptations, I soon began commuting to the Gainesville, FL airport by Xtra-cycle, occasionally with heavy prop cases, though usually with just carry-ons. Later, after having relocated with my wife to Maine near my parents and brother, I continued that insane weekly commute for two more years, before leaving it to accept a substitute teaching job. Not much to really feel good about however. If the cruise line offered, I would probably go back. Certainly it had its satisfactions over the dead-end job I've got now. And even though the prospect has been haunting me since learning about PO soon after our engagement, my half-million accumulated miles on two airlines is scheduled to expire over the next couple of months, and together with our reduced economic condition this may end the possibility of my wife ever seeing her family in Japan again.

Don't know if there's a moral here. Possibilities for the future are significantly degraded by previous excesses and current commitments. It's not so easy to see this play out in one's own life, and there's a strong tendency to want to hang on to at least some of what one had. Please forgive my indulgences.

This discussion drags you right into the two world reality that anyone who has become PO aware finds themselves in. I tried to "spread the word"
ten years ago and found myself utterly frustrated and befuddled by the "glazed over looks" that immediately follow the discourse. Finally found the two world approach to maintain my sanity. Go to the tractor pulls and enjoy them. Do not deny my wifes' joy in traveling to see my daughter at MIT, when she really does not have to go. Fly to visit the grandchildren on occasion, but do not get caught up in the denial. Get that hydro plant running. Understand how the circle of sustainable life will work for you as the shit hits the fan, know where the food will come from, the bullets will come from, and prepare, prepare, prepare.
We will not prevent this from happening in an unpleasant way, of that I am sure. The human condition will not allow the majority to plan ahead. All you can do is to prepare, physically and mentally, as well as you can. Try to protect your family and friends, as well as you can. Do your best to inform them as they will eventually remember who warned about all this and may accept advise in the future. Don't lose it by coming unglued at the insanity of it all. We have some time left, before the second world order overcomes the first. Enjoy it. The nigerian is right.

Years ago, when I was in the 99.99 fitness percentile and could run long distances with perceived effort most would feel walking up a modest mountain slope, Sports Illustrated published a story of one runner who spied a deer while he was running, and for reasons known only to him, decided to run the deer down. After a long chase, he found the deer standing still, trembling, and he walked over, touched the deer and then turned around and ran home. The story combines a high DPRE with a sweet yearning to do something extra-ordinary. I doubt 1 in 10,000,000 Americans could accomplish this feat these days.
s

I belong to the Red Deer Sports Car Club. The main form of excitement is driving tight circles and figure eights, etc around plastic road cones (called "autocross"). I have an 18 year old Miata, but I prefer to get my jollies trying to boost the gas mileage (I haven't driven the cone circuit yet, but probably will at least once). So far, I've been able to get 48 mpg (imperial) on the highway, mainly by making modifications to get cooler air into the intake manifold.

There's an undeniable thrill in going around corners fast, but it's certainly tempered by the constant knowledge that the practice is doomed and that it's bad for the planet.

I take my old Mamiya film camera to the races. There's also a thrill in looking at a medium format transparency showing a Lotus or an old Mini Cooper being driven around cones by an extremely good driver. I just hope that 120 film photography outlasts motorsports.

And in 20 years will wealthy farmers compete with RME tractors, steam tractors, biogas tractors or stirling engine tractors.

First I want to commend Jason Bradford for his courage in writing the article he wrote. I have noticed that very reluctantly, some folks here are beginning to admit to having some fondness for certain aspects of our culture and technology as it exists post 1200AD!

Perhaps we need a support group, something like AA, only it would be TA (Technology Anonymous)and each person could get up and say "Hi, my name is XXXX and I use and admire technology." Then would be given of how the person began the long road down the path to such horrible depravity, "...I had my first experience with a mini-bike when I was 9 years old..."

As for tractor and/or truck pulls, they never really worked for me. There is not enough nuance, not enough sublime history, art and "detail" to really hold ones attention for long (unlike endurance sports car racing or Formula One for example, which is much grand opera as noisy blast)

Interestingly, the issue of addiction (the need for some of the drug leads to a need for more and more until the effect of a given dose no longer delivers the needed rush) has become a real problem for the true connoisseur of motorsport (and yes, I do consider myself one, I know classes, cars, technology and history of the motorsport artform that most fans are not even aware exist). The true connoisseur of motorsport finds a rather odd inverse relationship at play, in that as the horsepower produced (and money spent) rises, the sublime artistic aspect of the activity drops. The sport declines from sublime artform to Baroque excess (the "truck pull" being just one example)

Let's discuss this by way of example: I sit holding a book that was given to me by friends just today as a birthday gift. The book is a history of Porsche (my friends know my fascinations with technology of all types and still they speak to me). On the opening page is the museum restored example of a famous design by Dr. Ferdinand Porsche, the Lohner-Porsche of 1899:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lohner-Porsche_Mixte_Hybrid

This the famous "hybrid" Porsche, 4 wheel drive driven by an electric hub motor in each wheel, powered by a combination of batteries and an internal combustion charging motor. The vehicle was indeed raced and with some success. The dopamine blast from driving the car must have been a real kick in 1900, but the amount of power required to provide it was not so great, with all four electric hub motors combined capable of only 28 horsepower in short bursts and 14 horsepower being much more normal for cruising. The dopamine blast came not from the horsepower you see, but from the art of dealing with technology not yet seen on the face of the planet until that very time, of seeing the deep level of genius the human mind is capable of (Even though Dr. Porsche was essentially self taught as an "engineer"). This is of course the same dopamine rush one gets when listening to a symphony of Beethoven or looking at a painting by Picasso or Mattisse.

Some 47 years later this same Dr. Porsche would design a vehicle still considered to be one of the single great artistic designs (automotive or otherwise) in history, with the prototype 356 based on Volkswagen mechanicals and a handbuilt aluminum body built in 1947. This car would become in production form a legendary small bore racecar, hill climb car, sports car and an artistic device still prized by the connoisseur of automobiles as well as art and design. Such is the sensation of seeing this vehicle and actually THINKING through the brilliance of the design that it can almost bring tears to the eyes. Is this the effect of "dopamine"?

The respect for the car is not caused by massive horsepower: As first built, it produced 35 to 40 horsepower depending on state of tune.

Let us now pause to reflect: One of the single greatest design of sports car and competition car, the car that birthed a company and a legend, produced less than 50 horsepower, and was considered a "high performance" car in it's day when used for it's purpose. After WWII, in a world in which the Americans were building cars with well over 100 horsepower. Only a year after the design of the Porsche 356, Oldsmobile introduced the "Rocket 88" with a 100 horsepower advantage over the small bore Porsche (The Oldsmobile produced 135 horsepower), and a year after that Chrysler introdued the "Firedome Hemi", the engine that would become the prototype for the ultimate grand dopamine rush, the massively supercharged drag racing engines used in Top Fuel dragsters and using nitromethane fuel), the original hemi producing 180 horsepower in 1951, or over 4 times the power of the little Porsche!

The point of the above comparison is this: Dopamine and respect for brilliant design seem to be two different things.

Would one dismiss some of the great technical minds in history, Colin Chapman, Ferrarri, Bugatti, De Dion, and the great originators of the American twin cam four valve engines, Fred Offenhauser, Harry Miller and Leo Gossen (designers of engines capable of 420 horsepower from 251 cubic inches in the early 1930's (!), would we dismiss these gret minds as guilty of only a need for a "dopamine" fix? That would be like saying that the whole drive behind the art of Peter Paul Rubens was a fascination with plump women. It is insulting to the intelligence of those who prize the best of human achievement.

The influence of the 356 continues: As one considers the amount of power needed to create what was then considered a very usable little sports car (45 kilowatts!), the need for ever increasing amounts of liquid fuel seems to be only a dopamine rush. It becomes obvious that the real rush of "elegant engineering", something that Porsche and the great technical artists were getting their real "high" from, is in creating levels of efficiency that were considered impossible, even though in the days that the great minds worked in the industry it was proven to be not only technically possible but aesthetically beautiful as well.

Of course as any artist will tell you, "everybody is a damm critic."
As for me, "My name is Roger, and I am addicted to technology. The blend of design,art and dopamine is just too irresistable. I AM addicted to the artform of our age."

RC

The event itself is a marvelous use for oil. Even at $100/gallon, it buys a lot of entertainment. And yet it uses so little that events like this could happen all the time. Top Tier stuff (NASCAR, Formula One) would probably still race even if fuel was $1000 a gallon, as compared to the other budget items, using $100,000 for fuel is still within reason. Custom tires for every track and weather condition cost thousands EACH, and teams go thru a hundred or more in a race weekend.

The travel by the spectators is the only potential waste.

Hi Jason thanks for the interesting article.

First post but been a lurker for a couple of years.

I must say that I know where you are coming from. I am in an unfortunate position in that I am a complete petrolhead, but I also am very keen on what we can do to help ourselves in the future.

I go to many motorsport events and I always drive to them, and many times I look at it and think how it cannot last forever. In reply to your questions:

1. Have you been able to move away from low DREI habits and replace them with high DREI ones? No

2. What experiences have you had like mine and John Jeavons’, being simultaneously awed and disgusted by the excesses of our world? I think I get this an awful lot. Working for an oil company is a place that helps with visibility of this, but also driving home from work, getting on a plane, putting my food in the fridge! Everything!

3. Why should I deprive myself of the great hedonistic pleasures of the age of oil if I can still afford them since very few others willingly curtail? Exactly, most people will not move away from this until forced to. Humans are proactive and lazy and thats how we got to where we are today.

4. Is information sufficient to change behavior, and if not, what does? Definitely not. I woke up to these issues a couple of years ago but I am amazed at how nobody else I know is concerned about what is going to happen in my (our) lifetimes! I feel like a doom mongerer.

5. I recognized very few faces at the truck pull, even though I live in a small town. What does this say about the cultural diversity of society and does that diversity make it more or less challenging to adapt to change? Petrolheads will travel far and wide to see the events they love - they dont have a huge hangup on using energy to get there or use it when there. I think it makes it more challenging as there could be less consensus, but at the same time they may all unite to overcome.

Thanks, Chris.

I think the only difference between this form of entertainment and most others that are popular in modern times is that you can see the fuel being burned. Suppose all the spectators had stayed home to watch a movie instead, and meanwhile the local power plant was burning way more fuel than a truck engine, just out of sight on some back road. Or, to take another example, suppose I decide to ride my bike down big hills for a "zero-carbon" thrill, meanwhile not seeing the blast furnace that burned coke to make the steel in the bike, all the presses, welders, mills, and lathes that built the parts, the truck that brought it from the factory, and so on. Even reading a book is suspect if you've seen the engines on logging equipment or smelled a paper mill. I'd say we have to consider not only the energy burned during the activity, but also the energy used to make any equipment or infrastructure needed for the activity.

My list of high DREI activities would probably include eating, singing, dancing, storytelling (and other forms of theater), combat (hopefully ritualized), and orgasm, which are all forms of entertainment our ancestors relied on for millenia. In my experience, the pleasure I actually get from these things is much higher than I tend to anticipate beforehand, but they do generally require participation by other people, and the rush is not often as concentrated as it is in, say, bungee jumping.

Sorry to be late - The last truck pull I saw was in a large indoor arena. Blew my ears out and I had to leave.

1. Have you been able to move away from low DREI habits and replace them with high DREI ones?

I am a sailor (Lasers & Thistles these days), hiker and interpretive naturalist as well as civic activist in my free time so I spend a lot of time in low DREI activities but I have to drive to get there, often farther than I'd like. And there's the sports... And the air travel...

2. What experiences have you had like mine and John Jeavons’, being simultaneously awed and disgusted by the excesses of our world?

Awed - Fighter jets - Stealth, FA 18's, F22's, A10 Warthog and my childhood favorite the F104 starfighter. Disgusted by the remote control death. Awed - The International Space Station. The Hubble Telescope. http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2006/2006/46/image/a/f...

3. Why should I deprive myself of the great hedonistic pleasures of the age of oil if I can still afford them since very few others willingly curtail?

Because my wife won't let me ;-)

4. Is information sufficient to change behavior, and if not, what does?

No. The urban legend about the stubborn warshipship's captain and the lighthouse is a good metaphore. Plus change is a process. I really appreciate Transition Movement's focus on transtheoretical change process. Like AA 12 steps, we are slow to move through the stages and steps and often relapse...sometines even if there is a lighthouse in our path. I know addicts that have run into the lighthouse multiple times. I know dead addicts, too. Peak oil, climate change and all the other concerns don't really manifest very severly in our world yet. Change will be a lot more rapid once something "kicks our ant hill."

5. I recognized very few faces at the truck pull, even though I live in a small town. What does this say about the cultural diversity of society and does that diversity make it more or less challenging to adapt to change?

I'm sure you spend as much time preaching to the choir as anyone. We hang out with those who are like us. To step out of the comfort zone (into another cultural realm) is hard. You have to start by finding common ground. Nice day! How 'bout that weekly petroleum report? ....Huh, Dude?

Who needs fossil fuels? It's time for you to get your high-torque electric car entered into some local competitions. Add sound effects if necessary. YEAH! That should make the 'dopes' happy.

Any unemployed gladiators hangin' around the Willits Coliseum?

1. Race bicycles. Plenty of endorphins! I attend NASCAR races to laugh uproarioulsy at the nuckleheads. Nothing like a good, hard, long laugh to raise your spirits!

2. I am only awed by the level of my disgust.

3. Only your and others' faulty working paradigm could lead you to describe torture as hedonism. I suggest counseling.

4. Timely information, maybe. It's too late for some.

5. Only a noisy, flaming engine can distract some from their televisions.

Get a life, bumpkins.

this is the longest thread i've ever seen. dunno y'all keep track

what i was gonna say was, re climate change vs peak oil and the 'what ifs'.

the two will equal out . we will quickly reduce co2 emmision when the peak arrives.

if 'man' has affected the climate in 200 years of burning oil , well the light is fading now as we burn the 2nd half, so the rate of reponse is decide for us.

I have discovered long distance walking which, perhaps counter-intuitively, is engrossing and at times exciting while minimising fossil fuel use. I have just finished the Pennine Way, a 270 mile trail across upland England for non UK readers.

Once alone on the moors (seen American Werewolf in London?) navigation, shelter, bogs, loose bulls, mist and bad weather are a daily challenge. Finishing yields a satisfying and enduring reward.

I have some reflections to share:

Walking is initially painfully slow compared with our usual methods of transport, but after a few days one's brain and senses seem to recalibrate and the pace feels right.

The slow change in scenery as one ambles along enhances perception - everything seems more vivid and details like a tiny flower or (rare) lizard stand out. I think this reflects the rate of input that our senses evolved to cope with.
By the end of the trip I felt liberated by the enforced separation from my car and pitied the harrassed drivers I met trying to find somewhere to park.

The route passes a lot of old mining areas. These are now only of archaeological interest, having been abandoned as unprofitable or exhausted many years ago. The oldest date back to prehistoric times but were only exploited to extinction in the last 200 years. Nature has reclaimed these sites which are the haunts of curlews and lapwings and of little or no value otherwise except perhaps for wind power.

Will all the Earth's finite surface be similarly exhausted in another 200 years?

Cheers.