Saturday, September 29, 2007

ODAC-Oil Depletion Analysis Centre

ODAC-Oil Depletion Analysis Centre

One of the issues I am most consumer with is peak oil. This web site is for a British organization dedicated to educating the public on oil depletion and related issues. I just took a quick look around, but I saw it referenced in n article I read recently. Supposedly, they issued a report this year with analysis indicating that peak oil production could come in the next 4 years!

The article that really turned me onto this issue was this one by Peter Maass in the NYT in 2005:

http://www.petermaass.com/core.cfm?p=1&mag=124&magtype=1

Peter's always been a favorite of mine and his lengthy analysis on this topic is important and gripping. We do seem to be whistling past the graveyard. I have not heard a major presidential candidate address this in any serious fashion. Yet, if peak oil - or the point where demand outstrips supply - is just over the horizon, we are already far behind where we need to be in terms of deeloping affordable alternate sources of energy. We cannot change our economy from oil-based to something else overnight. The economic disruptions could be dramatic. Add to it the other fundamental economic challenges - $9 trillion federal debt, weak dollar, mortgage and housing crisis, personal debt crisis, infrstructure that needs repiar and replacing (bridges, electrical grid, water and sewage systems), etc. and our ability to deal effectively and efficiently with the peak oil "breaking point" could be quite limited.

So where's the leadership and vision on this issue?

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