[Peakoil] Recent forum

[Alex P]

Hello from Beijing!

Regarding the recent forum, I looked up "Chatham House Rules". There is 
only one rule:

The Chatham House Rule reads as follows:

"WHEN A MEETING, OR PART THEREOF, IS HELD UNDER THE CHATHAM HOUSE RULE, 
PARTICIPANTS ARE FREE TO USE THE INFORMATION RECEIVED, BUT NEITHER THE 
IDENTITY NOR THE AFFILIATION OF THE SPEAKER(S), NOR THAT OF ANY OTHER 
PARTICIPANT, MAY BE REVEALED".

So I don't feel constrained to not talk about the forum at all.


The forum was quite fascinating and confirms Peak Oil is a very real issue.

For me the most interesting aspect was the context. It seems very much as 
if the Howard government carefully seeking more information on a topic that 
scares it deeply. It has assigned a person it can trust to that task, who 
they know will at least not advocate "anti-market" solutions and doesn't 
buy into climate change. They have deliberately kept the terms of reference 
limited and not strayed into crucial areas like food production. ie they 
have as yet not sought a comprehensive study of the crisis.

It is also now clear that the Howard Government only became aware of Peak 
Oil last year, well after committing to the invasion of Iraq. So it is true 
that as far as Howard goes, the War in Iraq was not about oil. But it does 
mean Howard has been taken for a ride by the oil-driven neocons, just like 
everyone else.

So the Howard Government has an explosive situation on its hands and fears 
events will get out of its control. This is largely because the solutions 
to Peak Oil are completely outside the thinking of the Government's slash-
and-burn ideology.

That's my quick summary.

Alex

Canberra Oil Awareness Meetup
http://oilawareness.meetup.com/12/

ACT Peak Oil discussion list
http://www.act-peakoil.org