Matt Simmons and Peak Oil: How to Silence Fast Money Team

Peak Oil Changes Everything
We already know that talk of peak oil makes a lot of people uncomfortable, even if the talking is done by young women in lingerie. But to see just how uncomfortable folks can get when they start hearing about the end of cheap fossil fuels, you need to look no further than this clip from CNBC’s Fast Money. When Matt Simmons, head of the oil investment bank Simmons and Company International, is asked what we should do about high gas prices, he suggests we put a floor under them and keep raising it as prices go up; we start living in villages and growing our own food; we eliminate long distance commuting; and we start an unprecedented R&D effort into alternatives. Needless to say, the folks at Fast Money are a little taken aback. Priceless. Click below the fold for some of our own suggested responses.

Some Potential Responses to Peak Oil
• modifying our driving habits and mastering hypermiling
• community-led transition initiatives
• kite powered shipping
• backyard permaculture
• urban aquaponics
• More efficient jets and turboprop aircraft
• local farming systems
• bikes, cargo bikes, electric bikes, electric scooters, electric cars, and electric trucks
• telecommuting
• new urbanism
• trains
• vegetarianism and reduced meat diets
• algae and waste grease for biofuels
• community gardens
• DIY hydroponics
• Freecycle
• car sharing
• airships
• micro- , macro- and bloody-massive-scale wind turbines
• solar power to power a house or to power the world