As President George Bush arrives in San Diego today for photo-ops with the fire survivors, I sit in my living room where I have dismantled the smoke detector because I can't take the intermittent beeping warning me of the poor air quality (we're not in actual fire danger here in Carlsbad), and I am on-line getting the beegezus scared out of me as I read deeper and deeper into the various peak oil websites and reports. Nothing like a local disaster to shake me out of my complacency and help me re-focus on the larger problems at hand.
First is was acid rain (my high school report), then it was corporate environmentalism (my honors thesis in college), recently it has been 'environmental sustainability' issues in general, and now it's peak oil that I'm most concerned about. All the issues are interrelated of course, but peak oil is such an immediate problem. The idea that we are running out of cheap oil- the very thing relied upon by our entire existence as we know it- is scary. Is it an exaggeration that there will be major (ongoing) recessions and a possible collapse of the global monetary system within a 10 year time frame? I believe our lives will need to change in very substantial ways- from where we live (not in the suburbs) to where we produce our food (locally)- there's even talk about developing local currency. If you've got the time to read my blog, then you've got the time to become familiarized with the unprecedented issues that will be changing our lives in the very near term. The upshot of what is otherwise just gloom & doom is that that we could be headed towards a new type of community-based life wherein we are more closely bonded to our families and neighbors. Here's my quick-list of good links:
- The Energy Bulletin Primer on Peak Oil
- Our World is Finite: The implications of resource limitations - a good overview of potential impacts by the very fine publication The Oil Drum.
- A 10-minute video clip from Local Future Network which is a good overview, but doesn't go into solutions too much.
While there may very well be some great technological solutions (alternative fuels etc.), technology alone will not be enough. We will have to consume less, conserve more and focus on localization as a immediate and long-term solution. Here's my pick-list for solution-based organizations:
All of these sites will have more references to books, articles and reports that are important to read. Thank god for links!
Happy Reading-
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