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Many more articles are availa through the Energy Bulletin homepage
How shipping containers shortened the life span of petro-civilization
Alice Friedemann, Culture Change
Book Review:
Mark Levinson: The Box. How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger. Princeton University Press, 2006.
Mark Levinson has written a book that shows how containers made global trade possible. In the preface of the paperback edition, he notes other aspects of containerization he became aware of later, such as the potential for containers to harbor atomic weapons, how they’ve become homes, and so on.
To me, what Levinson leaves out is how this global distribution system will make it very difficult to go back to local production as energy declines. He doesn’t mention that containerization was the fastest way yet for capitalism to loot the planet and strip Mother Earth down to her hard dry skin.
In 2005, roughly 18 million containers worldwide made over 200 million trips (wikipedia). Containers come in many sizes, an average one is 40 feet long, 8 feet wide, and 8 feet high, the size of three 10 by 10 foot bedrooms. There are 1,300 foot-long ships now that can carry 7,250 of them.
It’s mind boggling to think about how different the world is now. My grandparents ate what was in season, an orange was a precious Christmas gift. Today, the Japanese are eating Wyoming beef and we’re driving Japanese cars.
Before containers were used to move cargo, port cities had long piers where boxes and bales were moved by sweat and muscle onto ships. Longshoremen lived within two miles of the docks in cheap housing. Now the piers are gone and the only sweat comes from yuppies on treadmills in luxury apartments.
The cost of moving products by any means, whether truck, train, or ship, was often so high most goods were made locally. Factories were often located near ports to shorten the distance of getting products to ships.
(23 February 2008)
Is peak oil theory only for fascists?
John-Paul Flintoff, Green Central (UK Times journalists blog)
Which British political party has the following observations about peak oil on its website?
“One person’s apocalyptic view could be interpreted as an opportunity by another. Britons are resourceful, innovative and can be pretty bloody minded in a crisis. We can knuckle down, roll up our sleeves and get on with life even without all the labour saving devices, the shopping malls and the twice-yearly trips to the Med or Florida.”
The Greens? The Lib Dems? Think again. The British National Party has a pretty good grasp of peak oil. “We are the only political party making this an issue at the moment,” the party boasts.
… Here’s another quote. “When the BNP does win political power, peak oil will not be something we can postpone. In fact it may well be an important catalyst that helps us to win political power because we are the ones talking about it now. Voters might not like us pointing out that the wolf is approaching the chicken coop but they will identify us as the ones who kept speaking about it, bringing it to their awareness and understanding.”
You may prefer that the BNP did not “own” this important issue. If so, what do you intend to do about it?
You could lobby mainstream political representatives to take it more seriously. But you could also – perhaps more fruitfully – find like-minded people in your neighbourhood and take matters into your own hands by starting the move towards creating a resilient, self-sufficient community.
Transitionhandbookcover If you are wondering how to do that, I very strongly recommend that you get hold of The Transition Handbook, which was published last week.
John-Paul Flintoff writes for The Sunday Times. He has a young daughter, and hopes the climate, and civilisation, won’t fall apart before she’s grown up.
(14 March 2008)
Energy Descent Pathways Now Available as Free Download
Rob Hopkins, Transition Culture
‘Energy Descent Pathways: evaluating potential responses to peak oil’ was the dissertation I wrote a while ago at the University of Plymouth. It explores the literature around the peak oil issue, around relocalisation, addiction and suggests some approaches for a community initiated response.
Until now it had been for sale via. Transition Culture, but now, as The Transition Handbook is now published which, in many ways, elaborates on and deepens the material in the book, I am making Energy Descent Pathways available as a free download. Just click here and you’ll be able to download it.
(17 March 2008)
The Key Investment Questions For 2008 (And Beyond?) (PDF of slides)
Matthew Simmons, Simmons International
■ How real and imminent is Peak Oil?
■ Can world economy survive $-triple digit oil?
■ How real is “rust” in industry’s assets?
■ Can demand exceed supply?
■ How fast could supply fall?
■ Are there “winners” in the Post-Peak Oil world?
■ How well is the rest of energy?
These questions might be most serious of 21st Century
(Simmons & Company International Investor Lunch,)
(7 March 2008)
Also at the Simmons website is a briefing given to the Pentagon given Feb 19: “The Peaking Of Fossil Fuels And The Transformation Of The National Security Environment”
Sydney must prepare now for peak oil
The Age (Australia)
Sydneysiders must take serious steps to reduce their vehicle use before future global oil shortages hit, a peak oil study group says.
The Australian Association for the Study of Peak Oil (ASPO Australia) says cities all around the country should be preparing now for the inevitable shortages as global oil production heads into decline in the coming years.
ASPO Australia’s Bruce Robinson has called on the federal and NSW governments to get more cars off the roads before the oil shock hits.
“The federal government should remove FBT (fringe benefits tax) subsidies for car use and the tariff concessions for big 4WDs and start to fund public transport and bicycle facilities,” he said.
“NSW should call a moratorium on new motorway construction until future fuel availability is clarified and use the funds to upgrade public transport instead.”
Greens state MP Lee Rhiannon said it was time Premier Morris Iemma coordinated a government response.
“Now that the CEOs of General Motors and Shell Oil and the former US defence secretary have acknowledged that it’s time to prepare for peak oil, surely the NSW premier should commit to a NSW response,” Ms Rhiannon said.
“The Iemma government is pushing a petroleum-dependent transport system onto future generations with continued investment in motorways at the expense of investment in public transport.
(17 March 2008)
Contributor Stuart McCarthy writes:
Lee Rhiannon is preparing a Peak Oil Response Bill for NSW Parliament. Two weeks ago the bill was selected by random ballot for Parliamentary consideration – incontrovertible evidence that a random number generator is more capable of representing the interests of the NSW public than the elected government.
Dinner, And Whether You’ll Be Getting Any, to 2050
Sharon Astyk, Casaubon’s Book
Stuart Staniford strikes again! Between his post at TOD ”Food to 2050? and John Michael Greer’s analysis of our prior debate, the “whither shall we goest with food question” is, like Spring, in the air again. As usual, Staniford does an enormous amount of impressive analysis. And almost as usual, I’m going to argue with him.
Now I give Staniford a lot of credit for his work, but his current discussion does hinge upon some postulates I regard as comparatively unlikely.
(13 March 2008)
‘World made by hand’ offers a glimpse into future
Juan Wilson, The Garden Island (Kaua’i and Ni’ihau, Hawaii)
“World Made By Hand,” a new novel by James Howard Kunstler, is a view into the near future where the kind of lives we live in America today are only dim memories. I recommend you read it. It may even change your circumstances in that future world.
Kunstler’s writing career began with newspaper reporting. For several years he was a staff writer for Rolling Stone Magazine. In 1975 he dropped out to become a full-time author. His non-fiction work has focused on the dilemma created by building our living arrangements around the “convenience” of cars.
In 2005 he published “The Long Emergency.” That book changed my life.
It has prepared my mind for the big changes resulting from “peak oil,”
(16 March 2008)
EB reader DC writes:
I have been following Kunstler and Company for many informative year. From an outside perspective, I think I owe it to those few ‘weirdos’ that stood up to be ridiculed..
It looks like the real peak oil event is about to ‘swamp’ the theorists !
KunstlerCast #2: Small Cities and Towns (audio and transcript)
Duncan Crary, KunstlerCast via Global Public Media
In this weekly audio feature called “The KunstlerCast,” author James Howard Kunstler and interviewer Duncan Crary explore the tragic comedy of suburban sprawl, with oil depletion as its backdrop. In this episode, James Howard Kunstler describes the impending end of cheap oil, which he calls The Long Emergency. Suburbia is a living arrangement with no future. Things are going to get pretty gnarly in the big cities, too. But small cities, that exist at a scale that can be rebuilt, are the places of the future.
The KunstlerCast features James Howard Kunstler, author of The Geography of Nowhere, The Long Emergency and other books. Duncan Crary, host/producer, speaks with Kunstler weekly about the failure of suburbia and the inevitable end of this living arrangement with no future.
(14 March 2008)
KunstlerCast #3 is now online, in which Jim Kunstler reads from his latest novel, “A World Made by Hand.”
