Peak Oil

Oil is central to our high living-standards

Oil provides the energy required to make many everyday items:

Plastics

Synthetic fibres

Lubricants

Food grown using common fertilisers and pesticides

Roads and tyres

All these things and more are produced using oil. Almost everything is then transported using oil. Cheap oil is essential for car use. Oil has become such an integral part of our lives. Imagine not having these products. Imagine if car use were prohibitively expensive.

Peak oil will make our current way of life impossible.

What is “peak oil”?

An oil peak is not the same as “running out of oil”. An oil peak is when we reach the maximum rate at which oil is extracted from a given area.

Localised oil peaks have occurred before, for example, in America around 1970. We are now approaching the global oil peak.

The global oil peak will occur within a few years. A widely accepted date is 2008. Some estimate that it is already occurring.

What effect might peak oil have?

If oil becomes more expensive, people will be likely to burn more coal to make up the energy shortfall. As coal is “dirtier” than oil, this will probably accelerate the rate of global warming.

Increased global conflict over scarce energy resources is already happening.

At an extreme it could result in a severe economic collapse. It will likely pose the biggest challenge facing our society in our lifetime.

This is a pretty bleak picture, is there anything we can do?

Decide what kind of society we want.

Invest in and encourage alternative energy sources.

Help everyone to understand that we need to make changes.

Rationalise our consumption.

Investigate more effective transport options.

What can you do?

Join our Canberra discussion group and meet other people who are interested in these issues.

We are a new group, comprising of concerned individuals. We are interested in lobbying government and helping to raise public awareness of peak oil.

Everyone’s problem

Peak oil will have an impact on every aspect of our lives.

Our group includes people in the fields of economics, engineering, IT, law, international security, environmental policy, politics, social workers, sociology and more. They all bring a unique perspective to the discussion. Members are also interested in related issues like climate change, geo-politics, renewable energy and urban planning. Why don’t you join us and add your point of view!

Find out when we meet and contact us

http://act-peakoil.org/

or email alex-po@trevbus.org

Where can I get more information on peak oil?

www.peakoil.net

fromthewilderness.com

www.endofsuburbia.com

“The Party’s Over” by Richard Heinberg

“Powerdown” by Richard Heinberg

“Limits to growth” by Meadows, Meadows and Randers

ACT Peak Oil Group – http://www.act-peakoil.org

Peak Oil

My Computer

2005-04-04

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