[[This post is a 'sequel' to other recent posts, below, on Peak Oil and 'Transition Culture']]
Peak Oil will lead to / is leading already to a reaching for other more carbon-intensive forms of energy. Let me put it this way: The strains that would be put upon our society by a rapid energy-descent are almost the least of our worries. If we as a society avoid/postpone those strains by means of dipping heavily into carbon-intensive alternatives to oil, then we will buy ourselves another decade or two of energy-obesity, at a terrible cost. For we will initiate then a climate cataclysm.
It seems to me that this is highly-likely to happen, without enormous political will. It is highly-likely, in other words, that politicians will not face the challenge posed by Peak Oil head-on, soon enough... There will be a direly-strong temptation to soften the Transition: by burning the oil shales, the tar sands, the heavy oil, the vast reserves of coal, and half-hearted gestures at doing so 'cleanly' will conscience-salve only...
Peak Oil makes the need for a cap to be placed on carbon emissions and for most fossil fuels to stay in the ground MORE urgent. Peak Oil will in effect precipitate climate apocalypse, unless we put in place the needful caps at national and world levels, fairly soon.
[See also the brilliant and terrifying http://www.climatecodered.net/ report, for more detail.]
We need to find ways of enabling people to understand the dire need for carbon rationing and 'contraction and convergence' soon; otherwise, our future, and the chance of building resilience in our society and effecting a transition to a low-carbon future, will be swept aside by an avalanche of CO2 emissions and 'positive' (sic.) feedbacks. This long crisis that we are entering calls for the strongest and bravest of leadership.
I will certainly do all that I personally can, to rise to the challenge.
Peak Oil will lead to / is leading already to a reaching for other more carbon-intensive forms of energy. Let me put it this way: The strains that would be put upon our society by a rapid energy-descent are almost the least of our worries. If we as a society avoid/postpone those strains by means of dipping heavily into carbon-intensive alternatives to oil, then we will buy ourselves another decade or two of energy-obesity, at a terrible cost. For we will initiate then a climate cataclysm.
It seems to me that this is highly-likely to happen, without enormous political will. It is highly-likely, in other words, that politicians will not face the challenge posed by Peak Oil head-on, soon enough... There will be a direly-strong temptation to soften the Transition: by burning the oil shales, the tar sands, the heavy oil, the vast reserves of coal, and half-hearted gestures at doing so 'cleanly' will conscience-salve only...
Peak Oil makes the need for a cap to be placed on carbon emissions and for most fossil fuels to stay in the ground MORE urgent. Peak Oil will in effect precipitate climate apocalypse, unless we put in place the needful caps at national and world levels, fairly soon.
[See also the brilliant and terrifying http://www.climatecodered.net/ report, for more detail.]
We need to find ways of enabling people to understand the dire need for carbon rationing and 'contraction and convergence' soon; otherwise, our future, and the chance of building resilience in our society and effecting a transition to a low-carbon future, will be swept aside by an avalanche of CO2 emissions and 'positive' (sic.) feedbacks. This long crisis that we are entering calls for the strongest and bravest of leadership.
I will certainly do all that I personally can, to rise to the challenge.
Comments