Richard Heinberg, author of “Peak Everything”, reviews the accelerating
events since mid-2007, including the credit crunch and fossil fuel
price volatility, noting that we’ve missed most of the best
opportunities to manage collapse. He asks, “how far down the staircase
of complexity will our global civilization have to go until we’re
sustainable?” His answer: when managed properly, with deliberate
simplification, not as far as we might otherwise. In addition to long
term efforts to relocalize our economies, he advocates developing
community “resilience” to withstand short-term catastrophic events like
food shortages or extreme weather. Noting that healthy fear can move us
into action, he encourages an attitude of clarity, concern and informed
action in this “calm before the storm” that he feels is soon coming to
an end. Episode 115. With transcript.
Today's Reality Report is a call-in show. Jason Bradford talks about climate change and peak oil, our understanding of history, and other topics with call-in interlocutors from Ukiah and beyond.
Richard Heinberg dips into the economic realities of oil prices. How do we reconcile oil industry claims that there's plenty of oil out there with a lived reality of ever-rising prices?
The Reality Report interviews Jeffrey J. Brown, an oil exploration geoscientist, primarily in Texas. We discuss the rapid rise in the price of oil, how this is being covered by media, political reactions, and the need to transform from an economy of mass global consumers to one of local producers.
Daniel Lerch, author of Post Carbon Cities: Planning for Energy and Climate Uncertainty, describes some of the short and long term challenges that peak oil will create for local governments. Peak oil will have very local repercussions, but prompt planning can take the edge off of some of the negative effects.
Post Carbon Institute's Julian Darley and Richard Heinberg present the facts and relevance of peak oil for policymakers at all levels. What is peak oil? What's the evidence? Why don't we just drill for more? How does this relate to climate change? And what can policymakers do in the face of these daunting challenges?
If the peak oil balloon really is going up, we should expect to see world leaders, politicians, business chiefs and the mainstream media in general realizing and admitting that something new is happening. But are we really at the tipping point for peak oil? Julian Darley answers: Yes, no and maybe.
Richard Heinberg: No one knows the long-term carrying capacity of planet Earth for
humans, absent cheap fossil fuels, but it’s likely a lot fewer than
seven billion. The implication is not just sobering; it’s paralyzing. So what to do with such traumatic knowledge?
A listener from New Zealand
asks James Howard Kunstler what peak oil holds in store for his island
nation. The picture isn't pretty: Kunstler says the Kiwis had better watch
their backs. China, Japan and even Australia could all pose threats to New Zealand as
they face shortages in the new energy future. At the end of the
program, a cast of listeners sounds off. Episode 16.
A listener from Canada asks if small cities will
be willing and able to absorb more people after peak oil makes big city
life problematic. James Howard Kunstler believes that many small cities
across North America are waiting to be reactivated. These places would
benefit from having more people living in them. But in order to prepare
for returning populations, they will need to return to a much smaller
increment of development. Episode 15.
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