[Peakoil] A couple of useful resources

[POLLARD,Sandy]

Keith, many thanks for this.
 
It points out very clearly the (often hidden) ways that cheap fuel has
subsidised profit-making elsewhere (selling off the warehouses, staff
costs) - and, in a sense, distorted the infrastructure.
  
Sandy Pollard
 
-----Original Message-----
From: peakoil-bounces+sandy.pollard=dewr.gov.au at act-peakoil.org
[mailto:peakoil-bounces+sandy.pollard=dewr.gov.au at act-peakoil.org] On
Behalf Of Keith Thomas
Sent: Sunday, August 28, 2005 9:45 AM
To: ACT Peak Oil discussion Oil discussion
Subject: [Peakoil] A couple of useful resources


While researching to compile the peak oil web page at www.natsoc.org.au
(which itself exists as a reference for the one-page peak oil primer
downloadable from the same site), I came across many items that I found
useful in imagining the early stages of an 'orderly transition' (to use
Paul Thompson's phrase). 

I'd like to bring two of these to your attention. 

One is the report compiled for a Canadian government of the September
2000 fuel blockade in the UK. The fuel blockade lasted for just a week,
but rationing was introduced (the report lists the organizations given
priority for fuel). Possibly the greatest disruption came from the
reliance of manufacturing, retail and service industries on
'just-in-time' inventory control. Just-in-time relies on complex
computer networks, barcoding and the assumption that transport costs are
trivial. It was introduced in the 1980s and 1990s and enabled the
elimination of warehouse staff and the sell-off of warehouses. Prior to
just-in-time, shops had a storeroom 'out the back' or a warehouse in a
low-rent suburb which backed up the inner city shop. Now smaller
businesses rely on overnight courier services and the supermarkets
receive truckloads of goods from suppliers overnight that are unloaded
and stacked on the shelves in the very early morning. Shops hold just a
few days supply of goods 'out the back'; for some lines, ALL the stock
is on the shelves. 

The service sector depends on just-in-time as well. In the UK, one of
the earliest exposures in the National Health Service appeared in
hospital laundry. This is run on a just-in-time basis with a small
supply of clean bedding in the hospital, a laundry in a low rent outer
suburb and vans carrying the soiled and washed linen back and forth
daily. A number of hospitals were running out of clean bedding within
three days of the blockade beginning. 

The report on the UK blockade brings out the interdependencies of oil,
electricity and information flows. Resolving blackouts, for instance,
depends on rapid communication and the prompt despatch of repair crews
in their trucks. Armoured vehicle services are needed to shift coins and
banknotes throughout the day. 

The second item is quite different: David Holmgren's 52-minute video
interview recorded last month. He ranges more widely than permaculture
and peak oil into nitrogen fertilizers; 'food security' being accepted
by governments 50 years ago as one of their key responsibilities;
sensitivity of crops to climate shifts (c.f. gradual climate change) -
Australian farmers being more accustomed to this than farmers elsewhere;
human population decline, the shape it may take and how we should or
should not plan for it; role of women. 

Links to both these and much else is at the Nature and Society Forum
website 
http://www.natsoc.org.au 

-------------------------------------------- 
Keith Thomas 
www.evfit.com 
--------------------------------------------

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