Monday Oct. 6, 2008 at Noon

Are you sick and tired of sitting in road clogging traffic? Are you shocked at rising cost of gas and food? Are you worried that oil production peaked in 2005 while demand continues to soar making shortages inevitable?  And what are we asked to do? We are asked to just keep on buying stuff to keep the economy going.

This is insane.

Exactly.

OK WHAT CAN I DO?

On Oct 6th, 2008, at noon -  DON’T JUST SIT THERE - TAKE ACTION. Put down your coffee cup, jump out of your car, leap up from your chair, rise up from the table, and raise your fist and yell, “This is Insane,” smile at the baffled drivers, diners, and colleagues around you, I mean, they’re stuck too, then continue on. It’s that easy.

TELL YOUR FRIENDS: Of course, the more Long Suffering Kick Ass Citizens who do this, the more fun we’ll have, so spread the word.

GET OUTRAGEOUS: Try wearing crazy glasses, or go nude, or use a bullhorn or trumpet or? After all, this is street theater.

GET FAMOUS: Take a photo of you and your friends doing the This is Insane yell and post it on our facebook page.

RSVP: Sign up for “This is Insane Day” at and get your name added to our Kick ass Activist list, and while you’re there, you can add your name to our Peak Oil petition raising our entire membership’s Kick Ass Quotient.

About “This is Insane”:
As we enter the 21st century, serious questions are beginning to emerge about the sustainability of our oil-based way of life. The rapidly rising price of oil has shocked citizens into buying smaller cars, riding public transit, and forced citizens to pay more for food and nearly all consumer goods. Peak Oil is here and we must begin to wean ourselves off of our dependency on gas-powered vehicles.

Obsolete and Expensive Gateway Project:
Our province is plowing ahead with obsolete transit plans, such as the $4.5 billon dollar Gateway Project. Budgeted in 2003, gas cost $.80 liter. The price of building materials - cement, steel, asphalt – have hit the stratosphere. This project is already over budget before the first shovel of dirt has even been thrown.

This is Insane.

No Canadian Fuel Efficiency Standards:
The federal government has set a target of improving the fuel efficiency of Canadian vehicles by 25% by 2010, but is depending on automakers to voluntarily agree to increase the fuel efficiency of their vehicle fleets.

This is Insane.

Food Prices Through The Roof:
Food prices have skyrocketed. But we continue to burn corn-based ethanol in our cars. We are feeding our cars instead of people. Plus, a new joint study from Cornell University and University of California-Berkeley determined that it costs 29% more fossil energy to make a liter of ethanol than the fuel it produces.

This is Insane.

Endangered Species and Water:
The US plans to “melt” and bulldoze the Rocky Mountains to extract oil from shale. It is projected to take 1-3 barrels of water to extract 1 barrel of oil. In the water starved west, this could endanger eco-systems and water supplies for drinking and growing crops.

This is Insane.

Planning for cities without oil:
Massive changes to municipal zoning and regulations are unavoidable and needed yesterday. We need streetcars, trams, community gardens, rooftop gardens, alternative energy, walkable city centers, villages rather than suburbs. We need to reduce our carbon footprint. But, instead, we just keep on keeping on rather than planning for a future without oil.

THIS IS INSANE!