Peak oil is now official....

[takza]

http://www.alternet.org/environment/140 ... age=entire


At first glance, the International Energy Outlook for 2009 hardly looks different from previous editions: a tedious compendium of tables and text on global energy trends. Looked at another way, however, it trumpets the headlines of the future -- and their news is not comforting.

The global energy equation is changing rapidly, and with it is likely to come great power competition, economic peril, rising starvation, growing unrest, environmental disaster, and shrinking energy supplies, no matter what steps are taken. No doubt the 2010 edition of the report and those that follow will reveal far more, but the new trends in energy on the planet are already increasingly evident -- and unsettling.

You should prepare.

[Petros]

You know that quote is strikingly similar to one I read, from a very similar report, about 30 years ago. Did you forget about that one? Were you even born then? What about one I read about from about 30 years before that one, and one about 20 years before that too.

The world (and our gasoline supplies) did not end then, or then, or then, and it is not likely to end now.

I do not waste fuel, I am always looking for ways to improve the economy and extend the life out of our Tercels, but taking a long view of similar warnings that have occurred about every 20 to 30 years for the last 100 years or so, I will give THIS one all the credibility as I would give crystal ball readings, Tarot cards and similar forms of divination.

History has shown none of the previous "official" predictions and warnings have even been close to accurate, I doubt this one is either.

You should also look into the latest understanding of how crud oil is formed underground, in the subsurface "biosphere", not from decomposing dinosaurs as incorrectly believed by many to this day. The term "fossil fuel" may turn out to be a misnomer and incorrect.

[Neu]

Let alone the untapped amounts of oil that there is..canada to the rescue.

[takza]

As much as the amount of oil and other energy sources available vs population and demand...it is also an issue of the cost of oil.

Peak oil was predicted for the US...and it happened more or less on schedule.

Even if oil is formed as a geological process...relative to human terms it really makes no difference as far as the amount and cost of oil.

Speaking of expensive oil in terms of environmental damage and just plain cost...the Canadian tar sands are it.

You should prepare.

...

Richard Heinberg's Peak Everything - Part 1 thru 6

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybRz91ei ... ated&pos=1


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boj9ccV9htk


"There are two things which cannot be attacked in front: ignorance and narrowmindedness. They can only be shaken by the simple development of the contrary qualities. They will not bear discussion." — Lord Acton

[gerviswaddell]

Ditto on the shittyness of the tar sands...My lady friend is up there planting trees at the moment, apparently its an absolute wasteland, a deeply frightening and disheartening place, the tar sands are also the reason Canada went from world environmental up-and-comer to bottom of the barrel polluter in less than a decade.
Sad, but true, tar sands oil is just not worth it.

[keith]

If you used nuclear energy for extracting the oil, you'd have a win win. Low pollution and more oil, and the nuclear power plants won't be in anyone's back yard.

[simon84]

I would agree that we close to or past peak oil (we are definitely past cheap oil). The ALberta tarsands are one solution but have many problems (High CO2 emissions, uses and pollutes lots of water, total devastation of the landscape). I've been there and seen it and it is sick! Yet I drive and use petroleum products but I'd rather be part of the solution than the problem.
I recently read a good book on oil called a thousand barrels a second (the current world thirst for oil). And a decent documentary called a crude awakenining.
They both talk about possible solutions, solar, wind, hydro, nuclear and the idea that technological breakthroughs will solve this. The one thing that nobody wants as a solution is to have to change our habits and our lifestyles. Well, without that technological magic bullet, that will inevitably be the best solution. Other parts of the world are adapting and have a much more practical approach to energy and transportation. North Americans are slow dinosaurs. The party could be over very soon.

[takza]

http://priceofoil.org/2009/09/15/canada ... #more-3792


Timed with perfection to undermine the meeting between Canada’s Premier Stephen Harper and Barack Obama, Greenpeace has issued a new report labelling Canada as a “climate change bully” that is doing everything in its power to undermine a new agreement at Copenhagen.

Tomorrow will be the second meeting between the two leaders, who are expected to discuss the contradicting issues of expanded extraction from the tar sands as well as commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at the upcoming crucial Copenhagen Summit.

This contradiction is played out in the figures: Canada’s greenhouse emissions have increased by more than 26 per cent since 1990. But Canada’s goal is to reduce emissions by 20 per cent from 2006 levels by 2020, a target that in itself far short of what Canada must do to combat climate change. But the emissions from tar sands will mean that this target will not be met.

So Obama cannot have it both ways – he cannot talk green yet crank up America’s imports of this dirty, dangerous oil whose development “could tip the scales toward dangerous and uncontrollable climate change.”

[Snax]

Leaving politics aside, I don't see our situation as so dire. Particularly here in the NW USA, where millions of tons of fruit goes to waste from large producers like apple and plum trees, and thousands of acres of Marionberry brambles. What I am saying is that there is a bevy of ethanol stock that is allowed to rot away year after year after year. Surely it cannot meet all of our demand, but it can provide a significant buffer as we shift to other means of transportation if/when the need arises.