Do government know about Peak Oil?

[kenneal - lagger]

Last Friday I attended a conference in Winchester run by Southampton University and Winchester Action on Climate Change. One of the speakers was Alan Lawson MP, Labour, and ex government minister, who was fully aware of Peak Oil and the consequences. Another was ????? Channon MP, Labour, who also got it. So there is no way that the government cannot know about PO.

There was also a guy from SEEDA, the South East England Development Agency, who was talking about Sustainable Green Growth and how they were planning to achieve it. You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink! I don't think he had listened to the other speakers such as Richard Douthewaite from Feasta and Peter Harper from CAT.

Peter Harper's main contribution was to show that the biggest carbon savings that a well off person can make is not by insulating their home but in drastically curbing their spending. They buy so much stuff and fly so much that the available savings on insulating their houses are much less than their spending generate. That was a shock to the good, if rich burghers of Winchester! Rich man, eye of a needle, heaven and so forth!

By the way, Alan Lawson is not very hopeful about anything being done to plan for PO or CC. He is a doomer.

[biffvernon]

Did you read Ed Milliband's lecture from last week: http://bit.ly/4CZ5uZ
Government ministers are saying stuff that they would not have dreamt of a few years ago.

[Mean Mr Mustard]

ALL Tories should be aware of it, even if their constituents haven't engaged their MPs on this. (Mine got gven the 'Oil Age' Poster and the Strahan book.)

A word search of the Conservative Party's Quality of Life Report shows the phrase 'Peak Oil' repeated 6 times....

http://www.qualityoflifechallenge.com/

[Mean Mr Mustard]

Question for our own John Hemming -

What's the general level of PO awareness amongst MPs? Or have they been distracted by certain other, er, reputational issues...

[fifthcolumn]

So there is no way that the government cannot know about PO.

All western governments know about peak oil.
That they buy into the doomer line or the back-to-the-land line is another question entirely.

[Vortex]

So there is no way that the government cannot know about PO.

All western governments know about peak oil.
That they buy into the doomer line or the back-to-the-land line is another question entirely.

I expect that many secretly hope/expect the 3rd world to bear the brunt of cuts - or lack of growth.

Then the 2.9th world ... then the 2.8th world ...

First to be left to the wolves will be Central Africa, Burma, Nepal .. and then Vietnam, Cambodia ... and then some Central & South American states ... then Georgia, Slovakia, Serbia ... and after that it will be ... the UK and other weak European states.

Last Man Standing.

[clv101]

I expect that many secretly hope/expect the 3rd world to bear the brunt of cuts - or lack of growth....

Last Man Standing.

The opposite seems to be happening, never mind last man standing, more like first man falling!!



This is a chart from a really great essay by Stuart Staniford:
http://earlywarn.blogspot.com/2009/11/o ... overy.html

[PS_RalphW]

the OECD has the most opulent lifestyle, and so the most discressionary use of oil - at least at first. It also has the highest per capita earnings, so it can afford to outbid everyone else - err maybe not any more. We have a lot of debt to pay off, collectively.

As someone said (in a slightly different context) the party's over.

[Blue Peter]

This is a chart from a really great essay by Stuart Staniford:

Chris,

What happened to Stuart on TOD? He suddenly seemed to disappear, though, from the above, he is obviously still writing about PO,


Peter.

[Blue Peter]

To answer my own question, reading the comments, this article seems to be a return to blogging,


Peter.

[Mean Mr Mustard]

Scary graph, innit? Looks like ELM?