'Peak oil' not just for fascists after all

OK, so it's not only the BNP that is talking about peak oil, as I reported in my last post. The Green MEP Caroline Lucas gave this talk at the launch of Rob Hopkins' fantastically inspiring Transition Handbook last week. She explains how important it is for communities to rebuild resilience and move away from reliance on oil supplies - and describes how hard it has been to interest mainstream politicians in what they still describe as "just a theory".

Meanwhile London mayor Ken Livingstone, hardly typical of his own Labour Party, has described peak oil as an opportunity - to force through the policies needed to combat climate change.

Comments

[Christopher Mims]

I hate to say this, but they'll be turning coal into oil long before we give the stuff up. It will get expensive, sure, but it won't go away. Of course, that's an American perspective, and we're the "Saudi Arabia of coal."

[tonyw]

There are a few politicians who "get" Peak Oil but nowhere enough. US Congressman Roscoe Bartlett says that the speech by geologist Hubbert explaining Peak Oil in 1956 will be seen as the most important of the 20th century.

I think it's probably a case of denial that people don't want to face up to the reality that the age of cheap and plentiful energy is coming to an end.

As they say, we have to deal with reality or reality will deal with us. So the time when fruits can be flown half way round the world at any time of the year will soon come to an end. Same for the stream of useless "stuff" manufactured far away we feel compelled to buy.

[tonyw]

There are a few politicians who "get" Peak Oil but nowhere enough. US Congressman Roscoe Bartlett says that the speech by geologist Hubbert explaining Peak Oil in 1956 will be seen as the most important of the 20th century.

I think it's probably a case of denial that people don't want to face up to the reality that the age of cheap and plentiful energy is coming to an end.

As they say, we have to deal with reality or reality will deal with us. So the time when fruits can be flown half way round the world at any time of the year will soon come to an end. Same for the stream of useless "stuff" manufactured far away we feel compelled to buy.