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I no longer blog on this site. You can now find me, my general blogs, and the work I am doing researching my forthcoming book on imagination, on my new blog.
Come find me at robhopkins.net
Archive for “Peak Oil” category
Showing results 591 - 595 of 635 for the category: Peak Oil.
5 Jan 2006
Just came across this the other day, and it brought back memories of my early teens. It is the Protect and Survive manual that was distributed to every household in the UK to tell them what to do if the bomb drops. Totally useless advice for what we proles are meant to do while the powers that be that caused the mess in the first place are esconced in their underground bunkers (no doubt thumbing through their copies of that extremely useful book, ‘Wake Up! Survive and Prosper in the Coming Economic Turmoil’ by Jim Mellon and Al Chalabi). Compared to threat of nuclear obliteration, I must say, peak oil has a significantly more vivid silver lining.
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5 Jan 2006
As you may know I am in the middle of doing an MSc, for which the dissertation will look at peak oil and how we engage communities in developing grassroots-led responses to it. There is a large gap in the peak oil literature in the area of how communities and organisations might be empowered to begin to design solutions. There is much thinking along these lines from areas as diverse as social change, transition management, community work, human evolutionary development, the anti-globalisation movement, spiritual thinking and eco-psychology that is relevant to this question. I have finished the **first draft of the first section** which is the literature review on peak oil. Inspired by Richard Heinberg‘s approach, I am putting it out there and inviting anyone who can be bothered to read it to offer comments and feedback, for which I would be very grateful. I will do likewise with drafts of the subsequent sections. You can access the document here. MSc Draft. Thank you for your time.
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4 Jan 2006
It has been a question for a while what those of us interested in peak oil and how the world might be beyond it should refer to ourselves as. Albert Bates of The Farm in the US coined the term ‘postpetroleumologists’. The PowerSwitch folks in London favour the term ‘peakniks’. I’m sure there are others, but now finally, the ideal term has been suggested. We are all, apparently, **catastrophist apocalyptic cultists** (kinda trips off the tongue doesn’t it?). That’s that cleared up then. A recent article by Vaclav Smil, a professor at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg entitled Peak Oil – a Catastrophist Cult and Complex Realities, accuses Peak Oilers of
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3 Jan 2006
One of the leading figures in the peak oil community is **Robert Hirsch**. I have written about him previously at Transition Culture, his ‘Hirsch Report’ has been hailed by many as one of the most important pieces of research in this area. The report was asked to look at how far in advance it would take to prepare for the peak, rather than when the peak would be. The results shocked even Hirsch and his team. The scale and magnitude of the challenge they identified was such that Hirsch admits to feeling overwhelmed; it took a few months before he felt able to go out into the world and be constructive and positive about the challenge of oil peak. Hirsch has not given that many interviews (at least not many that I have come across..), so I was fascinated to see that David Room of **Global Public Media** has just posted an interview with Hirsch. It is fascinating, sobering and illuminating listening.
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2 Jan 2006
As you will have seen from my previous posting, someone I admire greatly is Michael Shuman of the Institute for Local Self Reliance in the US. If I had a *’People I Would Like to Meet in 2006’* list, he would definitely be in the top three. His book **Going Local** is one of the best books on the subject of localisation. The ever-wonderful Energy Bulletin drew my attention to the fact that the latest edition of Hope Dance magazine is all about energy, and contains an excellent inteview with Shuman called Going Local: Creating Self Reliant Communities Now. Do check it out, I think he has a lot of interesting things to say. There are lots of other interesting pieces in the magazine too.
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As you will have seen from my previous posting, someone I admire greatly is Michael Shuman of the 
