Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
An idea mapping in PowerPoint for the proposed Vancouver Peak Oil Planning Symposium. Theme: crafting local responses to global oil and gas depletion through design, policy, and culture. [Flash version now available 5/25]
… Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., … argues that with half of federal farm subsidies currently “flowing to six states to produce 13 commodities that in the main we don’t need, like corn, wheat, cotton, and rice,” there’s a dramatically superior alternative.
We should, says Blumenauer, “use that money to build sustainable agriculture, create a farmer’s market in every community, help farmers protect our land and water, preserve our viewsheds, foster land banks and control erosion.” …
A definite trend is afoot. What we can call The Convergence of America is just ahead. It will not be as in the past, but more in spirit as we grapple with the loss of petroleum and the end of economic growth. Rather than as a nationalistic single entity, we will come together in the knowledge that our separate and equal, diverse bioregions are our real homelands.
In my long career of concern over oil pollution — from my days of serving the oil industry, to fighting it, to predicting the imminent end of abundant supply — I have never been as exhilarated as now to think that a change is in the wind. [Report on conversation between Lundberg and Rep. Roscoe Bartlett]
Over the next week, you will read dispatches from around the world and across Canada on how this change is reshaping business and how the energy industry is responding.
In total, we’ve assigned 13 reporters and columnists, four graphic artists and six photographers to explore the transformation.
[An introduction to the Globe and Mail’s series, with a schedule of upcoming articles]
India: Peak Oil? Grow sugar cane / Australian Dep. PM fears for oil reserves / Possum News Network on PO / Detailed LNG analysis / British lawmaker: Iraq war was for oil / Mexico defends oil policy after U.S. comment / Canadian oil sands: vast but dirty / China moves fast to claim oil sands / Opec remarks may pump oil price / Oil prices to fall to $30-40 in 2006-07 – EBRD / Oil prices to top $60 by autumn, analysts warn / Oil hunt: India, China to join hands
BBC Online are holding a poll on which story readers want to see more coverage of.
In Lisbon, Portugal during May 19-20th 300 people gathered from around the world to discuss the inevitable. The title of the event was the 4th International Workshop on Oil and Gas Depletion. This was a meeting of the Peak Oil community.
Day three of a seven day series on Peak Oil by Canada’s Globe and Mail, investigating ‘what awaits the world as the reserves dry up’. Many articles already.
Kenneth Deffeyes interviewed / Richard Heinberg interviewed / Kunstler feeling paranoid / Answering a Peak Oil skeptic / And so it begins … / OPEC pumping at full capacity / Oil industry looking at renewables / Bolivia epitomizes fight for natural resources / Dirty secret: coal plants could be much cleaner / Canadian oil showdown: tribes vs oil sands / GE CEO is onboard with clean energy / Time is ripe for urban agriculture / The Cascade Agenda: 100-year conservation plan covering 1.26 million acres around Seattle – largest vision in the US
Mr Anderson says the world could reach peak production of oil and gas far sooner than predicted because of the rapid increase in energy demands in China. “We are using stored energy left over from ages gone by at an alarming rate and it isn’t re-making,” he said.
The Community Solution examines the impact of Peak Oil on the world economic structure, one built on the confidence in ever-expanding markets fueled by technology, itself fueled by oil.
The world’s thirst is not sustainable as experts predict an imminent decline and fall in oil production. In this seven-day series, the Globe investigates what awaits the world as the reserves dry up.
Ed: BIGGEST COVERAGE OF PEAK OIL YET in a mainstream publication. More than a dozen articles appear on the first day of the series.
