P P P Peak oil!!

Mark Forskitt, Daniel Wimberley, Chris Perkins and myself all raised the forthcoming spectre of peak oil when we stood for election in 2008. We warned about the consequences for the way we currently do things. Guess what? Just about nobody listened. Well, here's an Australian documentary that shows very authoritative figures saying that we are at (probably past!) peak oil now - the only way is down (sorry Yazz). In this film, Dr Jonica Newby goes to the International Energy Authority to find out how much and how fast they have changed their views recently. Guess what? We were right, they were wrong.

 

Nightmare on Oil street - Peak oil effects will arrive earlier than we think

Any planning for a sustainable future must take into account that, barring a miracle, energy will be much more expensive and less freely available than in the past.

Jeff Rubin, the former Chief Economist of CIBC World Markets and the author of “Why Your World Is About To Get A Whole Lot Smaller” built his reputation as one of Canada's top economists based on a number of successful predictions including the housing bust of the early 90s and the rise of oil prices. In his recent book, Mr. Rubin predicts $225 per barrel oil by 2012 and with it the end of globalization, a movement towards local sourcing and a need for massive scaling up of energy efficiency.

This video is 45 minutes long but is very well worthwhile – persevere!

Approaching end of civilisation-as-we-know-it

The image below is from David Strahan’s website – lastoilshock.com He is the author of “The Last Oil Shock” – a book about Peak Oil and what it will mean for human civilisation. I urge anyone who hopes and thinks that business as usual – further GDP measured economic growth – recovery from the recession to “normality” etc etc - is even slightly sane, to go to this page (or click on the image) where you will find the actual interactive map; mouse around – click a country – compare red zones with green (coloured) zones.THINK what it means. REALLY THINK about what it will mean.

Glow–in-the-dark Mafia and why crude oil is suitably named

Here’s a link to a story - Mafia 'sank ships of toxic waste' - reported on the BBC, that I found amazing. It clearly demonstrates why the free market in goods and services really shouldn’t be allowed to be totally free. Before food safety legislation got strict, Victorian spice merchants used to adulterate their spices with lead powder to make more money, thereby poisoning people. In a similar way, it now appears as if the Calabrian Mafia got into the highly lucrative toxic waste disposal business and DUMPED RADIOACTIVE WASTE INTO THE MEDITERRANEAN by scuttling ships full of the stuff!!

Next time you hear some ideologically driven free marketeer whingeing about government red tape cramping his business, just imagine what the world would be like without red tape…

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Of course, the biggest companies sometimes also act as if they are above the law and the video below is a trailer to a new film about the environmental impact of the oil industry in Amazonia. Chevron and Texaco are in the firing line. As peak oil starts to grab hold of the world economy, there will be increasingly desperate and damaging attempts made by the oil industry to exploit ever less suitable oil fields in areas they would never have touched before. Just another reason for the world to go green ASAP.

Don't rely on coal to solve peak oil problem

Peak oil is going to have major effects on the global economy but here's a little mentioned aspect to think about. It may make climate change arrive faster and cause it to be even more serious. You might ask, how so? You might wonder how having less oil to use will increase greenhouse gas emissions. Well, as some know, many of the movers and shakers, and the experts they rely on, are functionally barking mad. Their response to oil becoming harder to obtain and going upwards in price to infinity and beyond SHOULD be to realise that it will increasingly make all forms of clean, renewable energy far more affordable. Knowing this is going to happen they SHOULD start planning renewable energy projects at all scales in the certain knowledge that by the time they get built they'll probably be the best and most economic option anyway! Instead, unless political pressure on the aforementioned useless and dangerous movers and shakers mounts, they will probably plan to substitute oil with coal. Just one of the problems with coal is that the carbon it is made of holds less energy per atom than the carbon in oil or gas so to generate the same amount of energy from coal will put more CO2 into the atmosphere thus increasing the onset of climate change. QED.

Here's a link to an article on this subject. please click for article