“I spoke earlier of climate change as the crouching tiger; the danger we can see. It is real, dangerous and imminent.
I suggest that we face an even graver threat, that is even more imminent than global warming, and in response to which we have chosen to look the other way for 50 years.
The hidden dragon I speak of is resource depletion; of the peaking supply of those sources of energy that have enabled our explosion from around 2 billion people on the planet in 1900 to 6.5 billion today.
This is truly the unseen threat that will confront us all soon enough, whether we choose to see it or not.”
So does this mean that certain parts of the Government, Media and general public are either ignorant of, or simply putting their heads in the sand about the issue? The popular media continuously mentions high petrol prices, but blames price fixing by Oil companies, which I think is only partly true, and the Governments solution is to put a price watchdog in place to make sure the Oil companies are being honest to conform with the public outcry. The general public struggle to pay for the higher prices, but continue to do so because that’s the norm, no questions asked. The question everyone, except the dedicated few like Colin Campbell, Richard Heinberg, Matthew Simmons, and those at the Association for Study of Peak Oil & Gas (ASPO), continue to ignore is have we reached peak production of oil and gas in the world?
So why don’t many government officials talk about Peak Oil? Many more of our elected officials other than Andrew McNamara must know about it. My theory is that they don’t raise the issue so as not to panic the Australian public, who are complacent about complaining about higher oil prices. If word got out that we may soon have world oil shortages, then mass panic may ensue, and therefore panic buying, which would in turn create bigger shortages. A simple, but reasonable theory.
My very simple solutions for Peak Oil, the hidden dragon, are as follows;
- Don’t Panic! (sounds like the Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy)
- Grow your own food
- Drive less
- Uses more Public Transport
- Use less stuff
- Get in touch with your local community
- Live simpler lives, but still enjoy yourself
- Love the one your with, and
- Be active in the community, as everyone will need their fellow humans in the times to come
I will leave you all with this quote, that sums it all up;
“We have allowed oil to become vital to virtually everything we do. Ninety per cent of all our transportation, whether by land, air or sea, is fuelled by oil. Ninety-five per cent of all goods in shops involve the use of oil. Ninety-five per cent of all our food products require oil use. Just to farm a single cow and deliver it to market requires six barrels of oil, enough to drive a car from New York to Los Angeles.” Jeremy Leggett : What they don’t want you to know about the coming oil crisis,The Independent, January 2006
You’re right and you know what? It is a lot more fun growing your food and living simply than rushing about buying stuff, stuff, stuff all the time. Stuff never made anyone happy but it is a great feeling to pick food from the garden, gather eggs from the chooks and generally be outside, living the life .