Blogs & Ecology

Image credit: Transition Towns Wiki – creator unknown.

Peak Oil Educators Embark on World Tour

The global Make Cars Green campaign is an ambitious 10-point plan to steer drivers towards more environmentally-friendly habits, including checking tyre pressure regularly and reduce loads. The campaign builds on the principles by the FIA Make Cars Green declaration, together with Bridgestone, and outlines how policy makers, industry and consumers can all play a constructive role in the future. But with the current economic downturn, isn't it too little too late? Many of the concepts are ob...

The 2008 Transition Towns Conference - Image Credit: Mike Grenville

Peak Oil Response Continues to Grab Headlines

New Guide to Oil Depletion for Local Authorities

While TreeHugger readers are generally optimistic types, there is no question that with climate chaos, peak oil, economic meltdown and whatever else might be the fourth horseman of the apocalypse, things could get pretty dire, and pretty quickly.

So when I was asked to liveblog the Re-Imagining Cities: Urban Design after the age of Oil conference I expected some urgency about the subject of urban design after the age of oil. Yet everyone was surprisingly relaxed....

photo: Chrystal Parsons

Though the World Energy Outlook report by the International Energy Agency isn’t due out until next week, the Financial Times obtained a pre-release copy of it, and if you had any hopes that the currently low oil prices we’ve seen after record highs earlier in the year were a sign of things to come, you should probably forget about it.

(Photo of IEA director Nobuo Tanaka visiting Russia)

Ready for peak oil, anybody? The Financial Times has gotten hold of a draft of the International Energy Agency's annual report, which states that the rate of output decline is 9.1 per cent at the world's biggest oil fields. This is the first ever authoritative public study of oil reserves - most countries such as Saudi Arabia prefer to keep the data as well-kept state secrets.

This is a speech I delivered to the Sydney Institute last night. You can also listen to it here [forthcoming].

Sydney Institute, October 27th 2008.

Green Politics, the Balance of Power and the Green New Deal.

Good evening. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you this evening about Green Politics, Balance of Power and the twin global meltdowns of climate and finance. There has never been a more critical time to be a Green and there has never been a time when the philosophy and experience of Green politics - based on forty years of environmental, social justice, peace and democracy campaigning - has been more important. The decisions that will be made in the next five years are crucial for the future of life on Earth.

Transition City LA Just One of Many
It looks like it may have been almost a whole month since I last wrote about Transition Towns – covering the arrival of the Transition movement in Japan, and the incredible growth of Transition Towns in New Zealand. I make no secret about it, I’m a huge fan of this community-lead response to peak oil and climate change.

In excellent news this morning, The Age reports that Christine Milne's amendments to the Luxury Car Tax, exempting fuel efficient vehicles from the levy, are already having an impact!

Ian Porter writes:

"THE changes made to luxury car tax have already started to influence the design of premium cars, with Audi announcing plans to install smaller diesel engines in some of its models so they consume less than seven litres per 100 kilometres - and become exempt from the tax."

Audi Chief Joerg Hofmann is quoted as saying:

Oil Banker Warns of Energy Crisis
James Howard Kunstler is not the only one who sees parallels between the current financial crisis and a coming energy crisis. Matt Simmons, head of the oil investment bank Simmons and Company, has long been a prophet of peak oil, silencing the Fast Money team with his dire warnings ...

Transition Towns Spread Throughout New Zealand
It seems like only yesterday that I wrote about Transition Towns reaching New Zealand. Well, a lot can happen in a short time – as the above video/slideshow shows, the people of New Zealand/Aoteoroa have been remarkably busy. Transition groups are appearing all over the country, and events and workshops...

photo: Stanley Johnson

Collective Responses to Peak Oil and Climate Change Gain Traction