Peak oil notes – October 28
A midweek roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Developments this week
-Alaska
Oil
Highlights from seventh Advances in Energy Studies Conference in Barcelona
Last week, I participated (as an invited speaker) in the 7th Advances in Energy Studies Conference in Barcelona, Spain. Other invited speakers were Charlie Hall, Joe Tainter, Marcel Collel, and Seth Blumsack. Other Oil Drum staff members at the conference were Ugo Bardi and Dave Murphy–Ugo as one of the speakers, and Dave as the second author on Charlie Hall’s presentation. Dave also asked lots of good questions! In this post, I give a few highlights of the conference.
Once in a Lifetime: This is Not My Beautiful Lawn
A “perfect” lawn is a truly human artifact, a triumph of elegance and simplicity, using machines, chemicals and Poa pratensis in its making. We need an aesthetic sense that an ornamental landscape’s beauty isn’t only about visual effect, but about holistic function–about how the landscape contributes to the biotic community, to the ecosystem’s health.
Your energy companies at work – Oct 26
– Tea Party climate change deniers funded by BP and other major polluters
– Texas oil companies pump new round of cash into California climate fight
– Caught! EU business lobby funding climate legislation blockers in US Senate
– Jurassic Ballot: When Corporations Ruled the Earth
Alaska and energy
I came away from my too-brief sojourn in Anchorage with both a deep appreciation for this land of great natural beauty, contrasts, and extremes, and an equally deep concern for how Alaskans will deal with their enormous energy challenges. Some of those challenges are going to present themselves forcibly in the very near future.
OPEC will never run out of oil
Through an accident of plate tectonics and other developments over geological time, most of the world’s remaining recoverable oil is situated around the Persian Gulf. This is unfortunate for us because we will thus never have a reasonable, universally agreed-upon estimate of the amount of oil left to produce. Let me explain.
Electrification and expansion of railroads as a response to peak oil
Before the stick of post-Peak Oil drives freight off the roads, how can we create a carrot that will entice freight and create a better, faster, cheaper and more reliable transportation system than the one we have today?
United States – Oct 24
– In Kansas, Climate Skeptics Embrace Cleaner Energy
– Uttering the “C” Word (still afraid of conservation)
– Oil Sands Effort Turns on a Fight Over a Road
– Lundberg v. Lundberg, Santa Barbara
Cornering the market – Oct 24
– Paul Krugman: Rare and Foolish
– Rare-Earth Furor Overlooks China’s 2006 Industrial Policy Signal
– OPEC: A lifeboat in a turbulent sea
Chicken Little, peak oil and Y2K
The trouble with Chicken Little is that he neither had a practical plan to address the problem of the falling sky nor the sense to discern the intentions of Foxy Loxy who ultimately devoured Chicken Little and his friends before they could reach the king to tell him that the sky is falling. As such, Chicken Little gives us poor guidance about the effect that the efforts of those involved in the peak oil movement will likely have. A better analogy would be the so-called Y2K problem.
French lessons – Oct 24
– France Gets a Foretaste of a World After Peak Oil
– France on strike – dramatic photographs
– Exchange student sees French strikes up close
– Dinner ladies lead the fight against pension cuts
– Marseille close to standstill as worst strikes in 15 years cause French chaos
– Sarkozy’s approval rating hits new low as French strikes drag on
– From my hometown in France : Videos and updates on the strikes
ODAC Newsletter – Oct 22
After weeks of prediction and build up, this was finally the week of the UK government spending review statement. With the government insisting that it will be the greenest ever there was much anticipation of how the Department of Energy and Climate Change would fare in the review…
