[Peakoil] letter to editor

[Jenny Goldie]

Sir/Madam

It was good to read Bill Harcourt's objective analysis of the problems associated with extracting Australia's oil reserves, largely locked up in oil shale (Times 2, CT, 28 June). We await with interest to see whether CSIRO's new superficial solvent extraction can really deliver oil that is cheaper, less energy-intensive and produces less greenhouse gas than the old high-termperature retort method of extraction. 

Let us hope so from an oil supply viewpoint. Without it, Australia may experience economic melt-down as conventional oil supplies become increasingly expensive. 

The worry is, however, that in seeking solutions to our coming energy crisis that climate change will be forgotten. In our efforts to maintain oil supplies and the kind of economic growth that has characterised the last few years, we will forsake the need to reduce global emissions by 60 per cent globally by mid-century. This cut is necessary to stabilise the atmosphere and prevent runaway global warming. 

If you think a couple of degrees won't matter, just look at the projections for Australia. A drying right down the east coast, the Murray-Darling Basin and southwest Western Australia - all the heavily inhabited areas. Off-setting this will be wetter conditions in the northwest. What do we do? Move everyone to Wyndham? 

No, far better to keep climate change as the top priority and adjust everything else to fit - and that includes oil supplies. If they are too expensive in greenhouse terms to extract, then leave them in the ground.

Jenny Goldie
256 Baroona Road
Michelago  NSW  2620
Ph: 02 6235 5488 (w) 02 6235 9190 (ah)
jgoldie at snowy.net.au
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://act-peakoil.org/pipermail/peakoil/attachments/20060628/2a967dd4/attachment.html