Meeting the Energy Challenge

Peak Moment 129: Richard Heinberg, author of Powerdown, makes plain the dire situation we're in as declining oil supplies fail to meet demand. He notes there are no easy "supply side" solutions (like substitute fuels): we must reduce demand, initially through conservation and efficiency. Julian Darley, president of Post Carbon Institute observes that while personal action is very important, individuals can only do so much. A deeper response must come at the municipal level -- to change infrastructures on how we heat, transport, and power our society. Sharing, he notes, can bring enormous energy reductions almost immediately: after all, two people rather than one in a car cuts energy use per capita in half. Bottom line: Americans love rising to a challenge. And this IS a challenge! http://www.postcarbon.org

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Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• energy
• peak oil
• government
• localize
• challenge
• global
• environment
• sustainability
• power
• transition
• powerdown
• Richard Heinberg
• postcarbon
• collapse

[KrunchyJD]

Freddie Mercury from Queen, has part of the answer, Bicycle Bicycle, Bicycle..........

[FreesWorld]

Loved this one, as always. One question, my city has a lot of old unused rail lying about. A couple of us have been kicking the idea around of placing it back in service for commuting. Or would we be better off, just going with elevated monorails which follow the freeways that cut through El Paso from east to west and north to south? Anybody out there got any ideas?

[FreesWorld]

Don't laugh. The Amish way of life has been sustainable for 10,000 years.

[Bytesmiths]

Left out of the coal discussion is that the highest grade of coal (anthacite) is already past-peak and in decline.

The next highest grade (bitumen) is probably at peak, and has had flat production for some years.

There may be lots of sub-bitumous left, but it contains far less energy than anthracite or bitumen. And we're starting to mine a lot of lignite, or "brown coal", wh

So those who claim coal will be around for a long time are misleading us!

[blueeggsitter]

love all the peak moment videos! Thank you for doing them.

[jer4703]

Go Green and become amish.lol

[Teratornis]

When Heinberg says peak oil doesn't mean "we are actually running out of oil" that is somewhat misleading. Peak oil certainly does mean someone is running out of oil. As the supply of oil falls farther behind demand, different people will effectively run out of oil at different times, as they get priced out of the oil market. When a person gets priced out depends on how much value they can generate from a unit of oil, which determines their purchasing power.

[wreckerpecker]

its true