If only the powers that be were as imaginative as environmentalists - or as cute! - we wouldn't be in the mess we are.

Well, my energy is certainly peaking right now!

I'll be completely honest - I'm a guy, and the sexy dancer spin did make me watch a video that I probably wouldn't have otherwise. Still, I'm a guy, and I really didn't hear much of what she said. I was even tempted to turn off the sound (guilt kept me from doing that).

So, I'm not sure how effective the tactic was.

Sami, I hear what your saying but I have to disagree with you a bit. This video is aimed at the "sheep" type population out there. Those who's major concern regarding energy is how much will it cost and will I have to do anything. There are options but I don't believe those options mean we have a cutover switch and start to cruise on the next thing(s) rather instead oil. I think all the things you listed in this post are great but MOST of them aren't business as usual for most Americans or anyone in developed countries.

I think it's okay to be a bit alarmist because if you make the story "were migrating to a new technology" the message people get is that there might be a hiccup but after that all will continue just as it is or even keep growing/using. That isn't how the alternatives will work. Individuals are going to have to change even with wind, solar, hydro, etc.

As for the vid I think it was great. Again for the audience this was intended for I think it works well. We are so easily distracted (and media is complicit) by Britney and the like that real issues don't seem to matter to many. I think the right pane (dancer) should have gone to black when she said if you didn't hear me refresh and watch again. Maybe put that text over the dancer side.

like many in the peak oil community, she seems to reject the idea of almost any solution that smacks of a techno fix

Just looking over the list of inspiring actions--over half are what I would call social fixes, not techno-fixes. Several more are arguably technological, but some of the technology is decades or centuries old. The technofixes, like algae bio-diesel, which will help us keep our head in the sand as long as possible, actually stand out like sore thumbs.

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Author's comment:
Thanks Ruben, I deliberately included a bunch of social fixes because I personally believe they are most important, effective, accessible and most desirable, but I think that techno-fixes, like algae-biodiesel and many others, are also important tools in our arsenal. The problem is so urgent that I don't think any one of them will help keep our head in the sand for long, but each can play a huge role in helping ease the bumpy ride ahead - none should be dismissed outright, unless they are proven ineffectual.

It didn't seem despairing to me... And besides, people are so apathetic now that they usually have to be SCARED to action. I'm all for it, really. I agree with Ken, and she is cute. >_>

Instead of kite-powered shipping, how about sail-powered shipping?

Yes, it's pretty much the same thing, but there's no need to call it a kite when it's a sail..
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Authors comment:
True enough, but the system I was linking to does have more in common with a kite than your average sail - fly's at altitude and can be adjusted accordingly, or reeled in when not in use. Either way, doesn't really matter what you call it - it's pretty cool whatever.

This video is only good if you mute the volume.

Is she talking?

(imagine if Al Gore had donned lingerie!)

Great. Thanks for that. I love Al Gore for what he's doing for the planet, but by the Blessed Spirit of Mojo Nixon, I'm not gonna be able to shake that unholy image off my Mental Etch-a-Sketch.

Cool. So, where was nuclear power in the list of fixes? It's better than wind and solar put together, but you didn't see fit to even mention it?

It's seems to me that we are underestimating human ingenuity. Really if we can put a man on the moon. Genetically engineer animals to grow ears onto other animals. Decode the human genome, is it really that hard to think that maybe somewhere, someone has already thought of the solution?

Really? Do you think that this problem hasn't been foreseen? That scientists and world leaders haven't found or thought of a solution yet.

The people of the daily grind are just children to the higher ups. I'm not talking of a vast conspiracy. Just the basic way things work in the world.

For example let us say you get an entry level job at company X. You start in the mail room. All you do all day is sort the mail. You don't worry about postage, the monthly budget, supplies, scheduling, etc. All you do is show up at time x and leave at time y. But as you move up the ladder you begin to see bigger and bigger pictures of the overall landscape of how the company runs.

Now lets put that into play on a world scope.

Again all that I am saying is we tend to be downplaying the role of human ingenuity. We as a culture (humans) have invented some pretty cool stuff. (the harnessing of electricity, the light bulb, the telephone, and the internet just to name a few that have moved us along).

Now stop talking and start doing!

I clicked mute and looked to the right.

The sexy dancer was very good looking, but I couldn't help but be more attracted to the speaker. She comes off as very intelligent and concerned, and also is amazingly cute. I'm a sucker for a smart lady though, and she made some very valid points.

It is much like the global warming issue, it is too late to change it, so we must adapt, and stop amplifying the problem.

Sami,

I think your characterization "but like many in the peak oil community, she seems to reject the idea of almost any solution that smacks of a techno fix" is unfair.

The two largest peak oil sites The Oil Drum and Energy Bulletin report and promote research/discussion of the problems we face. TOD goes from technofixes to doomerism, but at least it runs the whole gamut.

Yes, there will be progress made, but the race between the singularity/technology of Kurzweil et al versus resource depletion will not be very pretty.

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Author's comment:
I certainly don't wish to generalize about everyone in the peak oil community Davis. My comment is based to a large degree on personal experience. I have many friends actively involved in transition intiatives, power down groups etc, and many seem hostile, sometimes openly, sometimes subtly, to discussion of any solution that could be seen as offering business as usual.

Take solar panels, for example. I have a good, well meaning friend doing great work on community solutions to peak oil, but I've heard them argue so many times that solar panels take more energy to produce than they will ever create. When I have showed them studies and numbers refuting this fact, they've shrugged and said "well, we need to find alternatives, not rely on a technofix". The reasons seem partially because they are scared that talk of solar/hydrogen will be used as an excuse for inaction, and partially because they just have a preferance for a a more agrarian movement.

Now don't get me wrong, I think that solar will not come close to replacing oil any time soon, and we do need massive conservation efforts. I also think that there are many advantages to building closer, tighter knit, more resillient communities. But we should be arguing for both societal/community fixes AND a massive investment in promising technologies, not either or.

I know many in the peak oil community will agree with just what I'm saying, but I think there is also an element that is so fearful of folks using technology as an excuse to do nothing, that they risk rejecting the benefits that it can have in helping us ease the transition.

She is cute enough that she doesn't need to dance. OK I came for the dance - but I stayed for the cute. She could have cut in some fast facts to get peoples attention off her looks a bit.

Definitely could have been more positive

While fission nuclear power is a foreseeable short term option, it is by no means a solution. Just like oil fissionable Uranium must be mined and will have a peak production point at some points. [I've seen estimates that Uranium could only cover the world's current energy consumption rate for ~30-60 years (e.g., you'd have a peak problem at ~15-30 years). Couple that with the fact that Uranium power can't be used (safely) locally for travel and you significantly cut down on the efficiency of the power.

Future energy research needs to be well funded. Good thing (US) FY08 budget crunch (due to the Iraq war) did things like stop projects like ITER [international research on an experimental fusion reactor: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITER ].

Oh jeez, were not running out of oil, theres still a crapload on this planet.

In Alberta, Canada, there's more oil there than all of the middle east combined. Hell around Newfoundland, there's more oil than all of Saudi Arabia.

The only problem with these oil sources in Canada there not as easily accessible as in the middle east. But with all this mass profiteering from the oil companies you think they would spend the money to get at it. But nahhh it's too much work for them, there greed has priority.

james -

I've also seen estimates of how much uranium there is available. They range from 5,000 to 47,000 years at 2005 levels.

http://www.worldenergy.org/documents/fig_uranium_6_7.gif

My estimates are from a multinational group of respected scientists that have devoted their careers to this problem. Where do yours come from?

And nuclear power can be used safely for travel. Electric public transit, for one. Electric automobiles, for another. Recovery of petrochemicals through thermal depolymerization for another, and cracking of hydrogen for yet one more way that nuclear power can be used for transportation.

what was she saying?

Another distraction to keep big oil in charge.
Here is what big oil does not want you to know:
Methane Hydrate is free for the pumping and has more energy than gasoline.
There are methane hydrate deposits offshore of every country; the one off the coast of North and South Carolina has more energy than all the oil that was ever in the world.
Big Oil tells us "it can't be pumped" and "it will ruin the world if we pump it", Japan is pumping it now, China will pump it soon. Why does Congress only listen to Big Oil?

Another distraction to keep big oil in charge.
Here is what big oil does not want you to know:
Methane Hydrate is free for the pumping and has more energy than gasoline.
There are methane hydrate deposits offshore of every country; the one off the coast of North and South Carolina has more energy than all the oil that was ever in the world.
Big Oil tells us "it can't be pumped" and "it will ruin the world if we pump it", Japan is pumping it now, China will pump it soon. Why does Congress only listen to Big Oil?

re: James

oh yes, they are getting at that oil in Canada... and now a small Northern Alberta town of 100,000 people is creating 20% of all of Canada's green house gas emissions... and tailing ponds of toxic waste with cannons that go off every couple minutes to keep birds from landing in the water.

Check out the "Toxic Alberta" video over on Vice TV... http://www.vbs.tv/shows.php?show=987200225

Oh Shut up already! The sky is falling the sky is falling... It's like she is on the verge of either tears or panic, but probably both.... Give it a rest.. Yes we know resources are being depleted, but it's not the end of the world like she makes it sound.... Heck Brazil just discovered a new oil field that rivals those of the Middle East!
Not to mention those tricky methane hydrates contain at least 100 times the energy of all oil reserves....

Whatever works.. i hope this actually did at least she got some excersise

Eric, Dan Jones:

Even if we make completely new findings as large as all the oil we already know about plus everything we've already mined combined, it won't last very long. You'll still likely see the peak during your life time.

Read this, this was my wakeup call:
http://globalpublicmedia.com/transcripts/645

Or video, if you prefer it to reading: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5051121482067161853&q=%22Arithmetic%2C+Population+and+Energy%22&total=11&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

whats this peak oil everyone is talking about??

cute skirt

Well something is peaked