Monday 8 July 2013

Peak oil debate

It might help if everyone studied the Peak oil debate more - or it might make people go into a panic.
YT - BBCHardtalk, Fatid Birol, Chief economist of International Energy Agency Jan 11th 2013, interviewed by Stephen Sackur on 9th January.
At end of video Fatid warned of severe weather disruption due to global warming if we don't dramatically reduce burning of fossil fuel. Also he pointed out that fossil fuels are going to be used up one day.

See http://odac-info.org/peak-oil-quotes
also http://www.hubbertpeak.com/hubbert/hubecon.htm

Here are some ideas that might be just too different for most people to accept:
M. King Hubbert back in 1960 recommended moving to a steady state economy. This would involve basically giving people rations of just enough food & other essentials guaranteed for life.

A radical solution would be to ban all car use. This would make the roads much more quiet and safer for cycling and pony & trap.  If we set up pony & Hansom cab instead of taxis there would be many benefits. The ponies would require hay which would require many fields be changed to grass, this could increase amount of
clover available for bees and help save them too. The horse is the ultimate green energy engine.  A Hansom cab owner could have a pony for morning and another for afternoon. This would create many jobs. The cabs could be made of carbon fiber like a modern Smart car sealed from wind & rain.
  Battery power assisted bicycles are great fun and can be fitted with solar panels to help charge up while driving.
   Possibly a lane on roads could be designated for bicycles & horses and two lanes for lorries ? That could be tricky
    We should be reserving remaining oil for agricultural production & feedstock in manufacturing.
   Get most people to do virtual travel using computer. Ban airtravel.
  Can you imagine the economic disruption that would cause ? I think our situation is like the patient needs heart surgery but is too overweight to survive the operation.

  See also Jeff Rubin, " Why our world is about to get much smaller " for Peak oil is real point of view. He was chief economist for Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.
   Daniel Yergin, " The Quest: Energy, security and the remaking of the modern world ", gives competing view that technology will get more oil out the wells than pessimists say. I think he might be like the Christian apologists - denying reality.

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