About Crude Awakening.org

The intent of our organization and this website is to bring people together to educate, communicate and share information about affordable oil, the resource upon which our lives have been built, and the fact that it is rapidly depleting. It is our responsibility to ourselves and future generations to start making the right changes now in an effort to minimize the chaos and suffering that is certain to follow if we stay on our current path.

We are a group of concerned citizens in Austin, TX, dedicated to learning about the coming worldwide oil production peak, its timing, potential consequences and the preparations needed to reduce its impact. We share what we learn with each other and the Austin community to encourage appropriate action. We:

Encourage significant increases in the local production of food, goods and services to maintain a vibrant community- we call this "Relocalization."

Support diversification of the mix of energy sources that we use so that we incorporate more alternative source of energy. We encourage significant reductions of our use and dependence on the rapidly-diminishing resources of petroleum and other fossil fuels.

Support approaches to using the remaining petroleum resources wisely.

Crude Awakening is a catalyst. We are attempting to bring people together around these ideas, and raise the public's awareness. We do not advocate a particular technology, product, or process, but rather explore multiple options for the future. Groups similar to ours are organized or forming all over the country, and we encourage concerned citizens to join us and help in both our studies and in getting the word out. We will also be working with government and industry where possible, and assist in conceptualizing community-based solutions to many of the problems ahead.

Our main group currently meets on the 2nd Wednesday of each month and membership is open to the general public. The main group meets as scheduled, and following general discussion and news we split into three distinct interest groups for more focused discussions. The first is focused on community outreach -- spreading the information we learn. The second focuses on “personal preparation”, for individuals, family’s, and small community organizations. The third group focuses on education of government and community leadership. Each interest group holds other meetings at various times, separate from the main meeting, to allow members to participate in the activities of both interest groups if desired.

The primary focus of each group is understanding the issues, discussion of solutions to mitigate the risk, and plans to share the information. Field activities may additionally be scheduled to further the studies and/or actions of each interest group.