Peak oil – Jan 11

January 11, 2007

Click on the headline (link) for the full text.

Many more articles are available through the Energy Bulletin homepage


Headlines, yes we have headlines

Leanan, The Oil Drum

Leanan at The Oil Drum has been digging up increasing numbers of energy-related headlines for Drumbeat, TOD’s daily news and discussion post. Today is perhaps the longest Drumbeat yet.

Rather than reproduce her work on EB, we’ll just point you to her headlines.

While we’re at it, consider some of the other energy aggregators:

Peak Energy (Australia) – Big Gav posts his personal selections every day or two, with a special interest in politics and green technology.

ODAC focuses more on oil and energy than the rest of us, and provides good commentary. Click on the “Newsletter” button on the left of the page.

Peak Oil discussion board usually has 10-20 headlines on its front page (many of them duplicates by Leanan of her postings at The Oil Drum).

And there are others…

One problem we’re all facing is the sheer quantity of energy-related news and comment. Coverage has grown considerably in the past few years – even in the last few months. We’ve also become aware that you can’t restrict yourself to peak oil – politics, the environment, and culture are instrinsically linked to the energy crisis. At EB, we have had to group articles by subject matter (“Climate”, “Transport,” etc.) so as not to overwhelm readers. It will be interesting to see how the other aggregators handle the problem. -BA
(11 Jan 2007)
UPDATE: Douglas Low from ODAC writes:

The ODAC newsletter has been running for a year now, almost, and I think the time is ripe to open it up a bit – you might mention that it is available by e-mail.

Another excellent website for Energy news, which you may know about, is 321Energy: www.321energy.com/index.php




APPLE Town Hall meeting to Feature Peak Moment Television

Yuba Gals, Yuba Net
A year ago when Yuba Gals Independent Media producers Robyn Mallgren and Janaia Donaldson began their television show “Peak Moment,” little did they know how-and where-it would grow. What started as a local NCTV show is now a program reaching over a million cable subscribers and available to viewers worldwide on the internet. The show highlights people finding local solutions in response to climate change and energy decline.

Initial programs were taped in the Nevada County Television studios with a volunteer crew from APPLE, Alliance for a Post-Petroleum Local Economy, the program sponsor. Concerns about peak oil’s effects led to APPLE’s formation as well as inspiring the “Peak Moment” name.

Beginning last April, the duo loaded video equipment in their VW vanagon, and took Peak Moment on the road. They videotaped over 125 programs on location in 27 communities between Santa Barbara and Vancouver, B.C. The half-hour Conversations are hosted by Donaldson and videotaped by Mallgren, often with three cameras and mixed live.

The program’s tag line is “Community Responses for a Changing Energy Future.” Guests include a biodiesel car co-op in Eugene, Oregon. A thrift store in Bellingham selling salvaged building materials. A backyard food forest in Santa Barbara. Electric bikes and plug-in hybrid cars. A Peak Oil Citizens Task Force in Portland. Developers creating zero net-energy walkable villages.

“People tell us they’re inspired by Peak Moment,” Donaldson notes. “After becoming aware of climate change or peak oil, people often become concerned, wondering what they can do. Peak Moment programs are stories from ordinary people preparing for energy changes while strengthening their local communities.”

Along with its expanded geographic scope, Peak Moment viewership has also grown. It now airs nationwide on fifteen community-access TV stations including Manhattan, NY and Asheville, NC.

Video and audio programs are online at www.peakmoment.tv. The shows have had over 9000 viewings in the last three months. Cable viewers can watch on NCTV channel 11, Tuesdays at 3:30 pm and Thursdays at 7 pm.
(11 Jan 2007)


U.S. Green presidential candidate on peak oil in N. California

(Original: “Confronting our addiction to oil”)
David Cobb, Times-Standard (Humboldt County, Northern California)
[peak oil synopsis, familiar to EB readers]

…It is against this backdrop that local citizens formed the Humboldt Peak Oil Action Group (POAG).

POAG is a community group dedicated to educating Humboldt County citizens about Peak Oil and the changes this will demand on individuals and our community. They also want to inspire people to take action to localize their personal, economic and community lives.

Their concrete suggestions for immediate action are simple and straightforward:

* Walk and bike more — it’s healthy, good for you, and saves oil!
* Eat locally produced food
* Insulate your house

Ultimately, we must create the political will necessary to create and implement a transition towards a truly sustainable and localized economy.

That will mean building a stronger, more caring community. We must seek creative ways to become economic partners with each other and our environment that empower the local community while moving away from imported resources imported from long distances.

Economic localization enhances national security, and is the responsible way to organize an economy. It also takes advantage of the creativity and ingenuity of local residents, and builds a healthy thriving community.

To get involved, check out www.peakoilhumboldt.org
David Cobb was the Green Party candidate for President in 2004 and currently works for Democracy Unlimited of Humboldt County.
(11 Jan 2007)


Joy Ride to Global Collapse
Reflections on Kunstler’s Home from Nowhere

Jim Minter, e design
Posted 5 December 1996

Here’s a prediction for you. In the next two decades millions of Americans will begin a serious search for an alternative to the gasoline-powered automobile. It is not going to be a happy search. If you think trying to wean gun owners from their passion for firearms is a hornet’s nest, try talking to the great majority of us about reining in our passion for the automobile. Lordy! And yet, most of us agree there is a problem, vaguely phrased as, “There are too many other people out there clogging up the highways and slowing me down.” Otherwise our attitude is similar to the rabid firearms bumper sticker: “You’ll get my car when you pry my cold, dead fingers from around the steering wheel.”

No one is talking to us about giving up cars today – even though there is hard scientific evidence that the freewheeling automotive world we know today will have totally vanished within the lifetime of most of us now living. A few idealists are talking about maybe getting us to constrain our use a little bit. None of them are running for any position of political influence in this country. They would be lucky to get their family’s vote. We don’t want to hear it.

…The sudden death of the automobile in America would produce a major crunch that would dwarf the Great Depression. Kunstler deplores the negative aspects of the car without understanding just how endangered the automobile truly is. He even purports to see signs that we may be wandering away from the automobile. … Ah, would that Kunstler’s prophesy of a gradual taming of the automobile were possible. Nothing so gentle as that seems likely to me. The Auto Age is going to hit a rapid deceleration.
(5 Dec 1996)
Minter critiques Kunstler’s Home from Nowhere from a peak oil perspective, from a time when Kunstler, like almost every one else, was apparently unaware of the significance or imminence of Hubbert’s peak. This article comes a full 15 months before Cambell and Laharerre’s groundbreaking Scientific American article gave the issue a small amount of mainstream attention. If Kunstler was to critique his earlier work now it might not be too dissimilar to this.
-AF


Tags: Building Community, Education, Politics