This is all well and good, but the question is are we willing to pay the price of our miscreancy? Think about it: lemmings jump off the ledge only because they don't want to waver or turn from their consuming instinct to find fresh new food supplies. A lemming who runs away from the ledge runs back into the ravaged steppes of Norway, or the depleted autumn tundra of northern Alaska. A lemming who bucks the tide of consumption and depletion gains his life, to be sure. But when all the others have plunged to their deaths, the survivor is left with precious little.
Just so, those among the human race who reject, to whatever degree possible, our species' all-consuming instinct to use up every last scrap of resource, will not escape the consequence of the insanity that is pandemic across our planet today. That is why I don't advocate rejecting society or technology. Rather, I say that technology must be harnessed to our needs.
One thing's sure in this world. The oil will run out in a relatively short amount of time. When it's gone, society as we know it will also be gone. If we have developed another way of producing energy by then, we can continue to enjoy some level of technology. If we have not found a way to power our machines, most of us will die.
This will probably happen in the next fifty years.
It's not going to matter if you're a person living a conscious life-style, or if you're driving a gas-hog and keeping the thermostat above 80 degrees. When the oil's gone, we'll all feel the impact. Maybe this is a good thing. Maybe a massive die-off of the principal species is what this planet needs. Needless to say, I expect to survive. Who doesn't?
On the other hand, it's hard for me to accept the inevitability of the suffering and pain implicit in a catastrophe such as what I envision. So I've decided not to plan for the apocalypse. I've decided to become part of the solution.
It's hard sacrificing my hippy-istic roots. It's hard staying in one place and towing the academic line, swallowing the administrative bullshit, putting up with larcenous regents and chancellors, and generally capitulating to the petty tyranny implicit in a system run by middle management types.
But hey! I did the math, folks. If the pack of lemmings leave zero resources behind, then the New Lemming will find himself running into a field with zero food. In that case, the smarter lemmings are the ones who didn't turn back.
Or, as a famous person once said: The living will envy the dead.