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Weaning the World Off Oil
Greenpeace's occupation of an Arctic rig carries a simple message: stop drilling for fossil fuels
Ten days ago I received a letter from Cairn Energy, the British company at the centre of Greenpeace's current direct action
in the Arctic. I was told that its drilling operation is "relatively
straightforward" and that the blue whales, polar bears and kittiwakes in
Baffin Bay are safe, because, according to Cairn, "our programme is
conventional".
This industry has lost its grip on reality. Anyone who has seen the remarkable images coming from the Arctic over the last few days will know how unusual, dangerous and extreme this business has become. While icebergs the size of football stadiums are towed out of a rig's path, ships equipped with high-pressure water cannons blast smaller chunks into submission. And all the while the clock is ticking. As the winter freeze edges nearer, this frantic exploration company rushes to finish the job before sheet-ice cuts off the region completely.
One hundred and fifty years since the first oil well was drilled in the US, this industry has reached the end of the line. The Arctic is said to contain about 90bn barrels of recoverable oil, which is enough to keep the thirsty world going for oh, three or four years. As climate change warms the icy seas, more areas become accessible to drilling. As this oil is extracted and burned, the warming accelerates and more companies pile in. A neat circle, but one that risks engulfing us all.
Climate change is a clear and present danger, and a series of brutal "weather events" this year should serve as the final warning. We are careful to point out that no single flood, storm or drought can be blamed on climate change, but the trend is getting hard to ignore. We are faced with a choice: act with real urgency to move away from fossil fuels and develop the clean tools that will help us completely rebuild our economic system, or carry on squeezing out the last drops and hope for the best.
Cairn Energy is betting on the status quo. Its letter informs me that the company is basing its plans on an International Energy Agency report which suggests that, by 2030, fossil fuels will still supply about 80% of the world's energy. What it doesn't say is that this "scenario" - the most pessimistic of several the IEA has produced - could lead to six degrees of warming by the end of the century.
Six degrees sounds manageable. It is not. These companies are relying on us to keep quiet while they take humanity to the brink. Our climbers are on that rig with a simple message: Go beyond oil.
- Posted in
25 Comments so far
Show AllPeople would be eager to move away from fossil fuels if they could agree on the next step. Unfortunately, there is a big divide between people saying "just stop using energy" and "just change the source". Most of us fall between those two extremes. Perhaps we could pool together an endless number of ideas on reducing fossil fuel consumption while figuring out ways to make solar panels that can absorb more light energy and improve the design of wind turbines to produce more energy even if the wind speed is low along with limiting our biofuel sources to hemp and algae since they are the best of the biofuel sources to my knowledge and leaving the others alone and then deciding on a case by case basis which biofuel source is worthy of merit and corn certainly doesn't qualify. Unfortunately, the only "beyond oil" idea I see being pushed are electric cars with the likely source of fuel being coal and nuclear energy.
Unfortunately most 'renewable' energy sources don't appeal to big business because they're... well, renewable.
These businesses prefer gas addicted junkies who need a fill up everyweek. That's great for profits. Home solar farms that only need to be replaced every 40-50years on the other hand, aren't.
I don't remember who said this but someone brought up the fact that people living in apartments or in HOA controlled condos and townhouses will not be able to own solar panels. That would make it too easy for utility companies to go solar themselves on delivering the energy but profit more against the consumer. Restricting the sizes of allowable solar powered devices can be done. Big business is already catching up on it as we speak.
I did for one, and it's plain silly my carport roof is dead flat and gets the sun all day, all year long.
>^^<
Is it helpful to augment what you produce on your carport by using panels to reflect more light onto them during certain times of the day, or would they just get too hot?
Just curious.
That would be something like a more sophisticated system such as a solar thermal collector. Imagine a curved mirror that focuses light on a tube with water, boils it, which turns a steam turbine. That's advanced solar power and beyond the scope of a private carport project.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_thermal_energy
Just good old fashioned photovalech cells storing energy in some batteries or a car is the way to go for individual folks. There's a fellow in Oregon who has a cell bank on his carport. He makes it available to the neighborhood for free electric car charging. Communities could start little projects like this as collectives and invest in their own solar 'gas' stations. Big corporations and cities are starting to go this direction too.
http://pluginbayarea.org/fileadmin/materials/zero_emissions/EV_and_PHEV/Solar_Fuel_Station_Brochure.pdf
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2009/12/toyota-industries-corp-develops-solar-charging-station-for-evs-and-phevs.html
In our society of laser beams and computers sometimes I believe we think that the only solution to a 21st century problem is a bunch of scientist at MIT coming up with some new breakthrough. Many post have been made bringing up the subject of using hemp to supply our energy needs. Usually the same glib replies about the stoner wanting cheap weed or the comment is just ignored entirely and written off. If we in the progressive movement would stop drinking the Koolaide they have been serving about cannabis for 70 years we could see the answer is so simple.
The infrastructure is already starting to be put in place but for a net energy loser in corn based alcohol. Replace corn with hemp and now you have a net energy gain. Naysayers who say that alcohol based cars just cannot perform I guess don’t know what Formula 1 cars run on. Hemp oil could replace diesel made from petroleum. That is just two of the 20-30,000 products that can be made from hemp. Now picture an area slightly bigger than Arizona and New Mexico planted in hemp that could achieve energy requirements for our cars. That is about the same acreage that the US gov pays farmers to leave land fallow. Really!
Here in California Prop 19 will legalize possession and cultivation of cannabis. My dream is that it will open the door to the use of hemp for everything that is not made out of glass or steel. This is a plant that is a gift from mother earth, and that is why it has been illegal as murder for 70 years. We CAN grow our way out of it. Educate yourself about hemp. Sometimes the answer is growing in your own backyard.
If it is true that the petro-industry spent around 2 billion on disinformation campaigns against alcohol as a fuel, then that alone tells us that alcohol might make a fine gas.
The criminalization of cannabis could tell us that maybe it is a miracle healing plant that, when used at low enough temperatures, threatens the cancer industry.
SoCal Libertarian, I'm on the same page you're on with hemp. I've said a lot about hemp but even some of the best progressives here thought I was nuts. I understand that no biofuel could possibly be as low density as light sweet crude oil but even then, hemp for oil isn't a bad idea. I thought that we could have more green jobs with changing the gasoline engines to diesel engines and farmers growing hemp for industrial purposes. Good luck in California and I hope it passes but we'll still need to eliminate the federal ban. Ron Paul tried to bring up the Hemp Farming Act but that has as much chance as single payer health care. Even with solar panels and wind turbines, the plastics on them could come from hempseed oil instead of fossil fuels. There's lots to say but thanks for responding and I'm glad to know I'm not alone on this.
I don't see the 3rd industrial revolution any time soon. And the fact is we desperatly need it now, more than ever.
>^^<
What makes us think we can continue to consume non-renewable resources at the rates we've grown accustomed to?
Selfishness and ignorance.
John Sauven--
What is your Plan B in case your current campaign isn't working fast enough to avoid dangerous AGW--which it isn't?
http://vortexengine.ca (= Plan B)
By funding Plan B, achieved by pooling your resources together with other groups of your stripe instead of wasting resources in your current escapades, a COMPLETELY CARBON FREE technology for electricity generation, which is significantly cheaper than current methods used to generate it, could be scientifically established.
It could be proven in under three years, and deployed at sufficient scale in 20 years to cut carbon emissions resulting from power generation by more than half!!!
All "new" power generation facilities installed in China and India could be "carbon-free" within 5 years.
Or you could continue with current tack, which will generate more noise than results. "Noise" won't save the Planet from AGW.
There is a good chance that we wont be weening ourselves off of oil in any desirable way. Although fossil are dirty, they are amazingly efficient. Read the link below for some details.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/0901/german-report-peak-oil-collapse-democracy/
ExxonMobil is like a milk cow with 310 million tits ...
Once again the QUICKEST way for the US, which consumes 25% of the World's oil, to kick the habit is to run public transit and trains.
70% of US oil use is for transportation and the bulk of that is cars, trucks and airplanes.
Yet 150 cities are reducing transit services, raising fares and
thus cutting off access to public transit while continuing to
waste billions on roads, cars, ambulances, the whole auto addiction complex.
In New Jersey 50% of the population lives within a few miles of a train station. Yet trains continue to run primarily as
conduits in and out of New York City and not local transit.
According to the Federal Highway Administration 79% of the US
lives within an urban or suburban area.
Yet there are abandoned rails all over this country which could be pressed into service without a huge investment.
Even in remote rural Vermont I discovered that the rail line which already runs freight trains 6 days a week along with seasonal leaf-peeper and "Santa" trains used to run 16 trains
a day connecting town centers when Vermont's population was
a fraction of what it is today.
Chances are wherever you live in the US if you walk a mile or so in any direction you will find railroad tracks!
The program is:
1)Stop any more highway expansion, new lanes etc
2)Take that money and RUN trains as local/express transit all day, weekends as already done for Peak hours
3)Buy Hyprid/electric/clean gas shuttles from train stations to workplaces, malls, other points
4)expand all parking lots to parking garages with some retail stores and solar power roofs
5)put old rails back into use
6)Build new rails right down existing highway lanes or medians
We could cut oil usage by 20% in just 1 year, 50% over 5-6 years
Oh yes also increase gas tax to at least $1 per gallon or more in phased increments to make it more palatable and use that to fund transit
All we need to do is get rid of the Republocrat politicians that are so easily bought off. Start voting 3rd party.
There are tons on alternatives like public transportion out there, just no political will to do any of it. The greasy Politicians are too busy being bought and staying bought. I'd hardly expect the current batch to do anything for the people any time soon.
>^^<
I agree that we waste far to much "oil" running private SOVs (single-occupancy-vehicles) within and between our urban areas that could be done much more efficiently with "new-and-improved" concepts in collective transportation.
Although more train service could be part of the solution in some areas, it's going to take a whole lot of new investments to achieve this, which we're not set up to do very quickly, or should I say not "quickly enough".
In parallel with such a plan, some cities could vastly improve the efficiency of urban transport by abandoning the "stop-light" mode, which causes vehicle stoppage every couple of minutes, to a "timing" mode, which also involves "one-way" thoroughfares in which left-turn lights (and lanes) are abolished.
Traffic would flow unimpeded for 10 or 15 minutes on north-south avenues, followed by 10 or 15 minutes on E-W avenues. Not every street would be utilized--only ones separated by 1/2 mile or so.
A new generation of 10 passenger vans, designed for 45 mph top speed, which could even be driven by remote control, would displace many private autos in this scheme. Some could be 3-wheeled and have electric drives.
Would like to see some traffic engineers, capable of outside-the-box thinking develop this idea more.
Ours aren't capabable of thinking in english! I swear I don't know where they get these H1S rejects from.. I hope at least they work cheap :)
>^^<
We cetainly need a new direction. But we are too entrenched in our old ways and fear the new, unknown road ahead. A great illustration is the old English classic with Alec Guiness "The Man in the White Suit."
Weaning the World Off Oil,,,,
Will be like telling men who use Viagra to find a new way to get hard.
You tell them, and then run.
Oil companys have what we want, and they have trillions of dollars to screw with peoples lives that get in the way, or try to stop them with competitive clean energy products.
They have their own private army's of organized gang stalkers, and the countrys elected officials and the USA military.
We have been getting screwed a long time now, so if they have to force us to start liking it, they will put the hand cuffs on , or kill us if we try to end the sick abusive relationship.
There is a war coming, and it will be oil company's vs. the rest of the clean energy inventing world.
I hope clean energy wins.
While we're bickering over whether we should switch to other (undefined) sources, or just stop using energy altogether (yeah, right), the oil industry is already placing ads on TV to frame this debate in the publics mind. I was just watching Rachel Maddow and an ad came on that featured 'aw shucks' ordinary people telling me they didn't think an oil and coal tax was a good idea. Like: 'Aw Shucks, we're taxed enough already!'
I recall a line from 'My Fair Lady': 'While you're fiddling in the parlor there're burglars in the bedroom!'
The World cannot survive without oil. All the talk about alternative energy is just that; talk. There is no alternative to oil and its energy.Of course there is wind and solar power but most if not all of that energy is used very near where it is produced. People say we must produce more electric cars but that is not the answer either simply because they must have rubber tires to run on, oil for lubrication, plastics to build them (made from oil),vinyl or other oil based materials for interiors,rubber windshield wipers, rubber molding and it takes seven gallons of oil to produce one tire. Just in the U.S. we use and produce 300 million tires per year!
All plastics used in the World today comes from oil.Much of the electric power generated in the World comes from natural gas generators. The gas being a by product of wells drilled for oil. Without electricity there is no lighting, no a/c, no refrigeration no power for anything let alone to recharge the batteries in all those electric cars.
There is no alternative for oil as a power source existing now or in the near future.Once oil becomes scarce, really scarce there will be war and anarchy to obtain what little is left........and the beat goes on.
This is incorrect. Very little of oil produced today is used for electricity--it's used as a transportation fuel--much of which enables either "joyriding" for the wealthy in airplanes and/or SUVs, or the operation of a highly dysfunctional, unnecessarily congested, urban transportation system (commuting).
Much, if not most, of the diesel fraction is consumed in transport and distribution of "water" in bottles, or in beer or soda cans, as well as TONS of other types of "consumer garbage". When you've found you have dug yourself into a deep hole, for God's sake--STOP DIGGING!
A $2.00 per gallon equivalent tax on this use would not only provide government with the revenue it needs for essential service, it would reduce the extraction rate, leaving more for the "real" needs you have described and "push back" at least, the arrival of scarcity, as well as the need to drill in deep water, or in the arctic, to meet the need you describe.
As far as using natural gas to produce electricity is concerned, a potentially more economic and carbon-free renewable source of energy, CAPE, can and should be developed.
http://tornadochaser.net/capeclass.html and http://vortexengine.ca
Lets not wait for global warming to melt all the ice.
And make the Arctic safer for oil drilling.
Lets be the first to drill down for profit avarice.
A race to photo shoot off a with methane flaring.
With trillions of dollars of riches just waiting,
the corporate race gets rabid for its Fantasia.
Who cares that our climate is decompensating
and Mr Big Oil can only help with our Euthanasia.
A warm blanket of deepest carbon breathings.
Continents and reefs eaten by ocean acid soluted.
The greatest extinction event is the last of our leavings,
in which Mr Big Oil should be most certainly included.
One hundred percent renewable,
Do it fast, do it now.
Or become one hundred percent extinct-able.
Going fast, going now.
Waste vegetable oil (wvo) is a viable alternative fuel for any diesel engine. And, although you need to convert the engine to include a veggie grease tank and filters, the cost is nowhere near the cost of a new electric vehicle, most systems are well under $1,000 for a car or truck, and for larger RVs or buses up to $5,000. If you can get free fuel, yes free, than you will make back that money in no time in fuel savings. And, even if you pay for veggie, it is significantly less than regular gas or diesel. And, no dependence on oil!
There is a movement of people doing this, let's spread the word to get even more people aware of how they can get off oil and reuse a waste product. Check out http://www.livelightlytour.com to see how one family did just this in a RV on veggie.