Click on the headline (link) for the full text.
Many more articles are available through the Energy Bulletin homepage
Peak Oil 101: Why Isn’t This Class Available Yet in My College?
Max Arturo Alcala Sainz, The Oil Drum: Local
Currently, the list of academic institutions offering relevant and up-to-date information and courses geared to confront the imminent energy slope is awfully short. If you have ever tried to enroll in your local university for some hands-on Peak Oil learning experience, you may have found yourself disappointed in knowing that no such course is offered. Even in certain high-level economics courses that scrape at energy depletion and natural resources, you will probably be able to teach your professor a thing or two (if you are a keen reader of TOD) 🙂 .
Now, this is a very wide generalization. There are quite a few universities that are currently pushing the envelope in Ecological Economics, Energy Economics and developing some very insightful research (Dr. Hall’s EROEI paper is a good example of students and prof. working together in these issues). Every day, more and more faculty is ramping up on their knowledge of Peak Oil nationwide and passing on the news to students. Still, if students are not fortunate enough to be near the handful of universities that offer Peak Oil-related syllabi (including Duke, Oregon U, URI, Vanderbilt and others), chances are they will be stuck without any classroom education regarding declining energy and what to do about it. Even in universities where one may find Peak Oil information, open conferences and non-official meetings are significantly more frequent than formal classes and structured courses. Given that universities are the ideal spawning grounds for elaborating on and raising awareness of declining energy-related topics, it’s worth to analyze a bit more why such a weighty matter is not being fully discussed and integrated into university curricula all over the country.
(6 June 2008)
Interview with RTH Editor Ryan McGreal
Ben Bull, Raise The Hammer
About the website:
Raise the Hammer is a group of Hamilton, Ontario citizens who believe in our city’s potential and are willing to get involved in making the city a more vibrant, livable, and attractive place to live and work.
We are non-partisan and our members come from diverse political backgrounds. Our common interest is revitalizing our city, a goal that benefits everyone.
At three and a half years, this seems to me as good a time as any to reflect on just how far RTH has come, how we got here, and where we go next.
—
… The only sustainable way to move up the search rankings is the honest way: writing good articles and making sure the HTML that displays your web pages is easy for search engines to index.
… RTH: To what extent has RTH permeated the political culture in Hamilton? What evidence do we have that we are making a difference?
RM: This is highly subjective and probably impossible to answer with any kind of accuracy. Certainly we seem to be making some kind of difference, but all the evidence I can think of is anecdotal, and it’s probably impossible to tease out our specific contributions from those of other organizations pursuing similar goals.
* The city’s web server is one of the biggest single domains visiting the site. Someone at the city is reading RTH.
* We have received a fair bit of mention in the mainstream media.
* According to Richard Gilbert, local advocacy around peak oil, including RTH, motivated council to ask staff for the Peak Oil report he eventually prepared.
* Six months ago, light rail was completely off the books with the city’s public works department. Then, just a couple of months after we met with them and started organizing public strategy sessions, the city decided to launch a feasibility study. Now the light rail concept has fully entered the mainstream.
… In general, several issues and approaches that were completely off the agenda when we started up in 2004 are now moving into the mainstream: transit service improvements, walkable streets, high quality density, mixed use development, promoting the arts, and so on.
(5 June 2008)
A successful community-oriented website that covered peak oil and energy issues early in its existence. -BA
Energy Policy TV
Press release, Trans World News
Energy Policy TV Video Website is Relaunched to Highlight Debate on Energy, Environment, Climate Change and Green Economy During and After 2008 Elections.
—
Energy Policy TV, the all-video website with more than 1,300 videos about energy and the environment – from peak oil to natural gas; solar to biofuels; climate change and green economy, has been relaunched with a more streamlined interface. Energy Policy TV hosts video about all sides of the debate on emerging trends in energy, the environment and climate change, including timely video of congressional hearings, efforts to improve energy efficiency, peak oil issues and green economy, for example.
… We take no editorial position. We believe organizations and corporations want to be affiliated with a powerful public-service website that is dedicated to transparency on energy policy issues. In fact, many organizations will consider an investment in sponsorship/advertising on EPTV part of their public relations budget rather than as an advertising expense.”
“With increased sponsorship by those whose substantial influence shapes energy, environment and climate change policy, Energy Policy TV plans to expand over the next twelve months to real-time coverage of selected events. “It’s an expensive service to deliver and we are counting on our neutral approach to garner support from heavy-hitters in industry to come forward to help us expand our outreach.” Stockdale said.
(5 June 2008)
Energy Policy TV is a contributor to Energy Bulletin.
