Friday, April 04, 2008
And as things fell apart/Nobody paid much attention
I came across this very interesting article on The Oil Drum, which is maybe the best Peak Oil website around. The basic idea put forth by the two Canadian authors is that nothing short of a revolution in the way we power our transportation networks will suffice as the use of fossil fuels becomes increasingly expensive and untenable. Only the most deluded politicians and oil men still believe that oil production will increase in the coming decades. Those in the know will tell you global oil production will peak and begin to decline by 2012, if it hasn't already done so. Needless to say, the end of the fossil fuel era will coincide with the end of the Americans-enjoying-Chilean peaches-in-December era.
I have no problem going without summer fruits in winter. In fact, knowing that my breakfast hasn't traveled thousands of miles and produced heinous amounts of carbon emissions will make it that much more enjoyable. The problem is that the most pessimistic (hopefully not also the most realistic) Peak Oil advocates claim there's no way that renewable energy sources (whether solar, wind, fuel cells, etc.) can possibly allow the global economy to function in the way that oil has done for the past 100+ years. In this alarming interview, Matthew Simmons, energy consultant to the global elite, says that the impact of global warming will pale in comparison to the situation we'll find ourselves in if we don't adequately plan for the day when the oil wells run dry. I disagree with his assessment that solar power schemes are unrealistic, but his ideas for harnessing the power of waves and currents are very interesting. And he had this to say about the urgency of the matter: "I’m purely driven by the sense that if we don’t create a solution to the enormous potential gap between our inherent demand for energy and the availability of energy, we will have the nastiest and last war we’ll ever fight. I mean a literal war."
I'll talk more about solar power another time. For now, while we're discussing societal collapse and indifference, here's the video for Talking Heads (Nothing But) Flowers, from which the title of this post is taken.
I have no problem going without summer fruits in winter. In fact, knowing that my breakfast hasn't traveled thousands of miles and produced heinous amounts of carbon emissions will make it that much more enjoyable. The problem is that the most pessimistic (hopefully not also the most realistic) Peak Oil advocates claim there's no way that renewable energy sources (whether solar, wind, fuel cells, etc.) can possibly allow the global economy to function in the way that oil has done for the past 100+ years. In this alarming interview, Matthew Simmons, energy consultant to the global elite, says that the impact of global warming will pale in comparison to the situation we'll find ourselves in if we don't adequately plan for the day when the oil wells run dry. I disagree with his assessment that solar power schemes are unrealistic, but his ideas for harnessing the power of waves and currents are very interesting. And he had this to say about the urgency of the matter: "I’m purely driven by the sense that if we don’t create a solution to the enormous potential gap between our inherent demand for energy and the availability of energy, we will have the nastiest and last war we’ll ever fight. I mean a literal war."
I'll talk more about solar power another time. For now, while we're discussing societal collapse and indifference, here's the video for Talking Heads (Nothing But) Flowers, from which the title of this post is taken.
Labels: collapse, matthew simmons, peak oil
# posted by workplex @ 10:07 
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