Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Economic recovery may look anaemic, especially against the backdrop of the Eurozone crisis, but measured in CO2 the downturn is over. After falling by 1.3% in 2009, global emissions are set to bounce 3% this year. Worse, the emissions cuts pledged at Copenhagen last year fall 40% short of what’s needed to limit warming to 2 degrees and avoid runaway climate change…
Thanks to Dave Ewolt for his response to my piece “Peak oil risks becoming an apolcalyptic cult.” I would like to respond to some of his excellent points. I agree that peak oil and climate change are grave threats to human civilization. I hope things will turn out as rosy as Dave seems to think. But I am sure that to help things turn out as well as they can, peak oil and climate activists need to do a much better job reaching out to the mainstream. To start with, it’s time to go beyond telling stories of either societal collapse or re-localized paradise.
America is beginning to look a lot like the dark “Pottersville” vision in Frank Capra’s “It’s a Wonderful Life”. Jimmy Stewart’s character George Bailey is shown a town where the middle class has been destroyed and lives in poverty under the thumb of evil Big Banker Henry Potter. Bailey’s heroic efforts to help the middle class saved Bedford Falls. America can help the middle class prepare for energy shortages with energy retrofit loans — or funnel billions to Potter-like promoters of Too Big to Fail energy projects. Where’s that angel Clarence when we need him most?
If we can’t honestly admit that staying the course means slamming into a brick wall at high-speed before the wreckage sails over a very high cliff we won’t make the necessary changes to do any more than stave off the inevitable–at best. The reality of the global situation today is that if you’re not scared, you’re not paying attention.
For two weeks now the peak oil portion of cyberspace has been abuzz with commentary on the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) newly released World Energy Outlook 2010. Without missing a beat and without much explanation, the world’s leading compiler of everything about energy has gone from denying that conventional oil production will peak in our lifetime to saying it happened four years ago. Will wonders never cease!
Once a year, the International Energy Agency (IEA) releases its World Energy Outlook (WEO), and it’s our tradition here at ChrisMartenson.com to review it. A lot of articles have already been written on the WEO 2010 report, and I don’t wish to tread an already well-worn path, but the subject is just too important to leave relegate to a single week of attention.
The cover of the current Atlantic promises to tell “why the future of clean energy is dirty coal,” but the article is necessarily sparing with evidence that emissions from burning coal can be economically “sequestered” (or kept out of the atmosphere).
This year I’m giving thanks for petroleum. Yes, it causes pollution. It’s a big inequity factor between cultures. And leads to wars. But oil has helped Americans live like kings and it’s helped save lives. Now it’s running low. As we plan for a world beyond oil, we should be thankful for what it’s done for us, and think about how to conserve it for our most important needs going forward.
In light of even more facts about the reality of declining oil production and availability, more nonsense denying the reality of our predicament has surfaced, in the New York Times, of all places. It may, however, turn out to be a great blessing for peak oil advocates.
In the peak oil community, predictions that society is about to collapse are coming faster and louder than usual. Should we heed these warnings? Or be skeptical?
The Very Important Paper recently ran an article that might have been tailor made for one of my old classes – it was a perfect illustration of how not to write a persuasive or expository essay. Written by Clifford Krauss and appearing in the New York Times November 17 Energy Supplement, it provides a superb model for the young (or old) writer on what not to do, and in a sense I’m grateful for this illustration. I apologize to my readership then, for digressing into my past profession, and offering a brief lesson on how not to write about peak oil for the interested.
Last week we asked for your help with the YouTube/See3 DoGooder Nonprofit Video Awards. Thousands of organizations participated and four were awarded the top prize. THANKS TO YOU and your support, Post Carbon Institute secured the Best Video in the Small Nonprofit category. For this we are grateful and proud.
