Doomer
A “doomer” (a term perhaps influenced by baby “boomer”) is a person who believes in oncoming gloom and doom. The message board of PeakOil.com has used the term “doomer” since at least February 23, 2005, defining a “doomer” as one who believes that depletion of the world’s petroleum will lead to an economic recession or depression.
The term “doomer” had been used very infrequently before 2005 (see the 1979 citation below), but the peak oil use help popularize and define the “doomer” label.
Wiktionary: doomer
Etymology
doom + -er
Noun
doomer (plural doomers)
1.One who believes that petroleum depletion will inevitably lead to a severe recession or depression, followed by a Malthusian catastrophe.
2.(rare) One who, or that which, dooms.
Wikipedia: Doomer
A Doomer is a peakist (one who has peak oil related concerns that oil depletion will lead to a severe economic recession or another Great Depression) that also believes that a Malthusian Catastrophe will inevitably follow. Doomers attribute their beliefs to humanity’s over reliance on petroleum for agricultural and industrial productivity. Many doomers are also survivalists.
Urban Dictionary
doomer
Someone who expects the worst possible outcome from a global occurrence, especially the peak in global oil production.
Antonyms are cornucopian, humanist, realist.
Doomers hold a faith based belief that humanity is incapable of resolving human-society created global issues, e.g. by replacing oil with other energy sources.
Refer apocophilia
peakoil.com is packed full of doomers practicing group-think like it was a survival skill.
I used to be a doomer, but then I remembered how to add.
by Jaymax Sep 16, 2005
Google Books
The Conserver Society:
A workable alternative for the future
By Kimon Valaskakis; et al
New York, NY: Harper & Row
1979
Pg. 1:
THE BOOMERS, THE DOOMERS, AND THE CONSERVERS
Background to the GAMMA Report From the first report to the Club of Rome, The Limits to Growth, we get a “zoom, doom, and gloom” view of the world.
Peak Oil
PO.com’s Influential Heavy Weights / Best Posters
by Permanently_Baffled » Wed Feb 23, 2005 1:19 pm
(...)
Just to get you started here are mine in no order:
1. Devil(moderate)
2. Monte Quest(doomer)
3. Trespam(Moderate)
4. Nevada Ghost(Optimist—just kidding—Doomer)
5. Aaron( the ultimate doomster- we are all fecking dead! )
And just for a bit of fun, put in brackets how you rank the posters view on the outcome of PO (ie optimist - no effects, moderate—significant effects but we will live, Doomer—its all over for the human race )
Peak Oil
Peak Oil Solutions: Ideology versus Reality
by bart » Sun Mar 27, 2005 10:34 pm
(...)
I refuse to accept your definition of yourself as a “doomer.” Doomers slink into their holes and bark out sarcastic comments. With your book and hundreds of posts, you are a fighter, not a doomer. Nobody who believed that all effort was futile would go to all the trouble that you do.
Peak Oil
BiGG’s Anti-Doomer Energy News!
by BiGG » Thu May 05, 2005 3:26 pm
Colin Campbell talks about the coming Great Depression
http://www.peakoil.com/fortopic7639.html
What I want to know is how much does he know about all of the new and currently viable alternatives people are going to be making fortunes on like the ones already well underway listed below and the many more that go with them.
Peak Oil
Prominent Liberal News Source Goes DOOMER
by killJOY » Wed Jul 06, 2005 1:49 pm
Happy Trails. Hope you folks in the Northeast have your firewood in.
http://www.oldamericancentury.org/rowan_021.htm
Peak Oil
‘doomer’
by honeylocust » Sat Jul 23, 2005 11:21 am
Is the label ‘doomer’ an example of how our cultural sensibilities push us towards, in the real world, doom? In other words, an example of perilous optimism?
Or, is language a way to communicate the truth, or a way to tell lies that allow us to sieze resources?
Peak Oil
Being a happy doomer
by Teclo » Sat Aug 13, 2005 7:22 am
A ‘doomer’ is someone who is sure peak oil is happening now and that it will turn everything upside down. The world economy which is like the reason de essance of life is going to collapse, imagine that. Its all over for getting rich and living the dream lifestyle. Mass unemployment, resource wars. Add to that global warming and terrorism a lot of thinking people are doomers because they can see it all happening. Many people would call this being fucked
OpEdNews
January 8, 2007 at 11:51:23
The Closer We Get, the Worse It Looks
By Richard Heinberg Posted by Kuzminski
(...)
Some Peak Oil activists are what have come to be known in the blog world as “doomers”-that is, they believe that there is no hope at this point for the preservation of modern civilization in any recognizable form; others are “techno-fixers,” who think that the world will adjust-painfully perhaps, but in the end successfully-to oil depletion through conservation and the development of alternative energy sources. Similarly there are “moderate” climate-change scientists and activists who see the problem as serious but solvable, while there are some who believe that the world has already passed a “tipping point” beyond which catastrophic impacts are inevitable.
Google Books
Peak Everything:
Waking Up to the Century of Declines
By Richard Heinberg
Philadelphia, PA: New Society; Lancaster, PA: Gazelle [distributor]
2010
Pg. 143:
Some Peak Oil activists are what have come to be known in the blog world as “ doomers” — they believe that there is no hope for the preservation of modern civilization in any recognizable form; others are “techno-fixers,” who think that the world will adjust to oil deplation—painfully perhaps, but in the end successfully—through conservation and the development of alternative energy sources.
Peak Oil
Page added on June 5, 2011
Of “Peakists”, “Doomers”, “Survivalists”, “Alarmists”, “Deniers”, and “Cornucopians”
(...)
I realized recently that, as regards the raging Peak Oil Debate, a whole spectrum of views on the subject has come to be described by certain labels. On one side we do have the so-called “Peakists”, “Doomers”, “Survivalists” and “Alarmists”; and on the other, there are the equally so-called “Deniers”, and “Cornucopians”.
(...)
“Peakists”
A Peakist is one who has peak oil related concerns that oil depletion will lead to a severe economic recession or another Great Depression.
“Doomers”
A Doomer is a Peakist, as described above, who believes that in addition to severe global economic recession or another Great Depression that results from oil depletion a Malthusian Catastrophe would unavoidably ensue.
HoweStreet.com
Doomers and Humpers
Monday, June 13th, 2011 | Filed under The Greater Fool | Posted by Garth Turner
You gotta admit this is an interesting site. On one hand, barefoot, wailing and smelling of eau-de-ashes are the doomers, all gold, canned tuna and ammo. On the other are the house humpers and China-huggers, dissing renters, wagging ringed fingers and saying, buy now or buy never. The doomers claim housing will lose 80% of its value, money will collapse and by this time next year we’re in depression. The humpers say we live in an oasis, the world wants in, rates will never rise but real estate prices continuously will.
They’re both nuts. But late in the third period, I’d say the Doomers are ahead by a goal.
Zero Hedge
CDS For Doomers, Politicians, And The Media
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 06/17/2011 18:53 -0400
About the only thing that the doom and gloom crowd, the politicians, and the media all agree on is that credit derivatives are evil, unnecessary, ‘financial weapons of mass destruction’. With the European Sovereign Debt crisis escalating, the CDS market has once again become a topic of conversation. Many of the issues related to CDS that are discussed are old, misleading, or plain wrong.