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]
The Fourth Special Order speech on Peak Oil to the US Congress by Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, accompanied by Rep.’s Ehlers, Gilchrest, Inglis, and Wamp.
America is over. America is like Wile E. Coyote after he’s run out a few paces past the edge of the cliff – he’ll take a few more steps in midair before he looks down. Then, when he sees that there’s nothing under him, he’ll fall. Many Americans suspect that they’re running on thin air, but they haven’t looked down yet. When they do …
If [peak oil] appears to have suddenly “burst” onto the scene it’s due to two principle factors: 1) the “tipping point” is only now fast being realized, and 2) the rise of the internet has given the public a comprehensive, responsive and uncensored media forum in which to recognize it….the case for Peak Oil has been slowly pieced together by a kind of open committee of researchers–some admittedly dubious or ill-informed, but many quite well-informed and highly regarded.
Transcript of Rep. Roscoe Bartlett’s speech on Peak Oil to the House of Representatives April 20.
Oil production could peak next year, reports John Vidal. Just kiss your lifestyle goodbye. [Long serious piece in a major UK newspaper, featuring Collin Campbell, Chris Skrebowski, etc.]
What will [Peak Oil] mean for a country as dependent on oil as Ireland (Ireland has the 7th highest consumption per person of any country in the world, the USA is 30th)? We import over 80% of our food, and over 85% of our energy. How can we become more self-reliant, and thus less at the mercy of international events?
A conference will be held in Edinburgh April 25 to discuss the impending peak then decline in global oil production and its implications for the UK.
The longing for the simpler times of my childhood when the unreliable third world electrical grid went down and my extended family of aunts came outside to sit in the dark and talk to me. It was an awake-to-the-moment, off routine, no TV, intimacy that was somehow magical. This, if we could get through the dark times of loss and chaos, was something to look forward to.
The imminent demise of the global petroleum industry will necessarily entail a complete redesign of industrial societies.
The NY Times discovers Peak Oil! The article begins:
“If the cost of energy skyrockets, are the suburbs doomed? Would Long Island, already paying among the highest fuel and electricity rates in the country, become an unsustainably expensive place to live?”
Renewable Energies are much more than an additional option to the old energy system. They are the alternative, the general solution, able to cover all energy needs. To promote them must become the primary strategy everywhere.
