Premiere issue of “Transition Voice”
Welcome to the premiere issue of Transition Voice, the new online magazine covering the predicaments of peak oil, climate change, economic crisis, and the the Transition movement’s response.
Welcome to the premiere issue of Transition Voice, the new online magazine covering the predicaments of peak oil, climate change, economic crisis, and the the Transition movement’s response.
Politicians don’t seem willing to face a difficult reality: There is no solution, if by “solution” we mean producing enough energy to maintain our current levels of consumption indefinitely.
Five years ago Robert Hirsch headed the team that produced the first US government-sponsored report discussing the consequences of declining world oil production. The team which wrote the original “Hirsch” report is now out with a book that discusses the current state of the world energy situation and what we can expect in the decades ahead.
– Oil and the global economy
– Deepwater drilling
– Iraq
– Briefs
“Peak Shrink” psychologist Kathy McMahon makes a contribution to Honda’s “Racing Against Time” thought leadership series. Her blog was selected to provide a unique perspective on how we should approach the discussion of oil as a finite energy source.
– German peak oil analyst on offshore oil drilling – costs and risks
– Verifying the Export Land Model – a different approach
– Venezuela elections: “Chávez really bought into the idea of peak oil”
– “How to Boil a Frog” – new online interviews; showings in Santa Monica Oct 8-10
– Peak Shrink blogs on peak oil tonight for Honda (NOW ONLINE)
– Dispatches from The Earth Blog: free downloadable mini-book
– Guy McPherson presentiations available online (fossil fuel, bioenergy)
– Online seminars from Imperial College, Longdon: future energy options
This week saw the release of another influential report on peak oil. Fueling the Future Force, by the Center for a New American Security (CNAS)…recommends that the Department of Defence transitions entirely away from petroleum by 2040. The publication demonstrates once again that there is a freedom to engage with the issue in military circles which as yet does not exist in mainstream politics.
“Fueling the Future Force,” published September 27, is the third military consideration of a future of scarce oil published so far this year. It states that 77% of the US Department of Defense’s “massive energy needs” are met by petroleum – but “given projected supply and demand, we cannot assume that oil will remain affordable or that supplies will be available to the United States reliably three decades hence.” To remain as an effective fighting force, the entire US military must transition from oil over the coming 30 years.
Respected oil analyst Charles Maxwell has told Forbes – and with it the North American business establishment – to brace itself for peak oil by “2017 or 2018.” Maxwell is rapidly becoming the new Matthew Simmons, an establishment peak oil whistleblower.
Energy companies are rushing to develop unconventional sources of oil and gas trapped in carbon-rich shales and sands throughout the western United States and Canada. So far, government officials have shown little concern for the environmental consequences of this new fossil fuel development boom.
I’ve been a clinical psychologist for the past 22 years, have worked in a variety of settings, and with people of different ages and a variety of presenting problems, but nothing in my professional background prepared me emotionally to wrap my head around Peak Oil. Four and a half years ago, I began a research project to figure out what is a “normal” reaction to learning about Peak Oil, and this essay is a summary of what I’ve learned.