What can we do to change the minds of decision makers and people in general to actually do something about preparing for the forthcoming economic/energy crises (the ones after this one!)?
Michael Ancram (Conservative deputy) seems to be aware of Peak Oil, or something very like it. We need someone in his constituency to contact him and see where he stands, and make him aware of PowerSwitch. His constituency is Devizes in Wiltshire.
mikepepler wrote:Michael Ancram (Conservative deputy) seems to be aware of Peak Oil, or something very like it.
I imagine one of his researchers has picked up on the North Sea oil and gas decline rates (Unlike Saudia Arabia, we can in this country at least be proud that our decline is out in the open on the DTI website for everybody to see!) and has explained the implications to him. Britains economic free ride on the back of our own oil and gas will shortly be over. Gordon B isnt going to be able to fudge the figures for much longer. He will be forced to wield the knife on public spending or abandon his own borrowing rules. Balance of payments / Sterling crisis anybody?
mikepepler wrote:Michael Ancram (Conservative deputy) seems to be aware of Peak Oil, or something very like it.
I imagine one of his researchers has picked up on the North Sea oil and gas decline rates (Unlike Saudia Arabia, we can in this country at least be proud that our decline is out in the open on the DTI website for everybody to see!) and has explained the implications to him. Britains economic free ride on the back of our own oil and gas will shortly be over. Gordon B isnt going to be able to fudge the figures for much longer. He will be forced to wield the knife on public spending or abandon his own borrowing rules. Balance of payments / Sterling crisis anybody?
The BOE will no doubt have to raise rates if GB doesn't reign in the trade deficit and public sector borrowing.
OK, but is anyone reading this in his constituency? Or maybe you know someone who is in it? The more MPs we can get on PowerSwitch the better, so we need someone to write to him.
I've already asked him twice, and he's now promised to do it, so I can't really badger him again. But, if I know the "closing date", and I can see whether he's signed up a few days before, if he hasn't, I can send him a reminder, gentle-like
Forgive my ignorance, but what is the EDM motion? I'd like to contact my MP soon and bring Peak Oil to their attention, if there is something immediate and practical they can do then I'd like to know. Likewise I have a colleague at work that has entered into a lengthy correspondance with his local MP on another matter, so I'm sure I could get him to sign as well. Once I know what it is all about.
"If the complexity of our economies is impossible to sustain [with likely future oil supply], our best hope is to start to dismantle them before they collapse." George Monbiot
Thanks, I'll get to work on it. I'm going to write up something that I can hand out to colleagues at work to send out to their local MPs. We come into work from all around London, must be able to get some of them to help out and cover quite a few MPs from in and around the capital.
The "Table office" opens on Monday 10th October. This EDM will run for the session (not quite sure when the session ends - a bit of an admission, but I am a newbie).
10th of October, that is just a week away. Does that mean the 10th is the cut off date, or is the end of the session when our chance ends? Looks like it will have to be phone calls rather than letters if it is the former, but there are several people I know I can count on to join in on this when I get back to work on Wednesday night. Got a couple of green friends up and down the country that will definitely fancy a bit of MP-bothering if it might help.
Thanks for giving us the opportunity to try and do something, even if it doesn't end up amounting to anything. Beats sitting around waiting for the end of the world twiddling our thumbs.
Edit: Depressing to note that while the Peak Oil EDM has only 18 signatures (just about all Labour and Lib Dem), there are 39 signatures on an EDM (mostly Conservative) objecting to a Welsh offshore wind farm!
Can't let a bit of clean energy get in the way of tourism now can we? Shows just how little awareness there is in Parliament about what is coming. Makes getting some signatures even more important.
