[Peakoil] [Peakoil-announce] Peak Oil in the ACT Assembly

[Keith Thomas]

> On 31/03/2011, at 11:46 PM, Ian Clark wrote:
>
> Thanks for this.  Couldn't imagine they'd even heard 
> of the Peak Oil concept, what with building new flyovers 
> and junctions on the assumption that another Saudi Arabia 
> will be found every year or so...
>
> Ian
==============
Dead right, Ian. They are like the Easter Islanders, building for a future that will never be. It's not just our roads, it's our whole infrastructure and the assumption that the future will contain only broader and sunnier uplands than the present. The Japanese earthquake, the wave of unrest in north Africa and the Middle East and yesterday's celebration of Mikhail Gorbachev's 80th birthday (a man who changed the course of history singlehandedly) show us with radiant clarity, that it's the "black swan" events that shape our times.

Peak oil is just one of the world changing events that most of the world is simply not taking seriously. But there are others, too, and the possible feedbacks between them are unpredictable. All we can say is that there will be massive feedbacks.

Here's the wonderful Nicole Foss talking about the Japanese nuclear problem.

Be patient with Max Kaiser's 2-minute introduction and the slow upload, and expect the vision to cease working after about 5 minutes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHrpCEpvo0o

The second part is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXCN8sY1OKQ

Pity she ducked the question on thorium.

This is especially good because Nicole is one of the few commentators who keeps her eye on the world economic situation, peak oil and the future of civilization as well as immediate issues. Here she says something no-one - NO ONE - is game to say in the mainstream media: "I'm not sure anyone is going to be able to afford to look after any of these nuclear power station in a few decades time following the depression I think we're on the verge of ... we will lose the knowledge and skills ... responsible management of nuclear power is not compatible with social breakdown...."
Nicole's university master's thesis was on how Russia handled Chernobyl. In the breakdown of the Soviet Union, the staff who were cleaning up Chernobyl were not paid for months at a time. In Russia these workers didn't have to pay rent or mortgages like workers do in the west. Nicole asks how nuclear workers with mortgages, credit card debt etc. would react to not being paid or having comprehensive backup while they managed an emergency.

This is one of the points I have been repeating for years: In a collapse/recession, don't expect workers to turn up if they have more pressing demands on their time. Police, plumbers, truck drivers, nurses, firemen - there will be a lot of AWOL.

One of the commenters refers to nuclear power stations, quite accurately, a "atomic steam engines"!
------------------------------ 
Keith Thomas
www.evfit.com
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