The most under-reported news story of the past decade concerns the fact that world oil production either is about to peak or has already peaked and won't be able to continue meeting demand, particularly with China and India wanting their share. As demand for oil outpaces production, the price will skyrocket and oil-dependent economies will be forced to adjust. It probably won't be an easy transition. But educating ourselves, individually and as a community, can help us prepare. If you are not familiar with this issue, you might consult some of the resources listed below.
Current Events and Upcoming Meetings
The next meeting of Cville Peak Oil will be at 7:00 pm on Monday, September 8, 2008 at 1200 East Jefferson St., Charlottesville. (Directions: Going east on E. Market St. from Downtown: turn left at 12th St. When you stop at the 'Stop' sign at E. Jefferson, the house is on your right.)
Contact: cvillepeakoil@yahoo.com
From Australian public television: A peak oil documentary, by Jonathan Holmes (From Energy Bulletin website listed below.)
David Korten: The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community Streaming video or downloadable audio of talk at the Canadian Centre for Peace in Vancouver, BC, on Sept. 22, 2006.
The End of the First Half of the Age of Oil: Dr. Colin Campbell (Excellent brief overview, on Google Video)
End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of The American Dream You can email the website editor (link below) to borrow a DVD of this.
Oil: A Travelogue of Addiction, by Paul Salopek
Peak Moment: Community Responses For a Changing Energy Future
Peak Oil: How Will You Ride the Slide? (A great, short animation.)
SUSTAINABLE ENERGY FORUM 2006 - Peak Oil and the Environment: May 7-9, 2006 Washington, DC .MP3 files of speeches and panel discussions available for download. Visuals used by the speakers also available for download (.PDF files). (If this website is unavailable and you would like access to these speeches, email me for assistance. Stephen Bach, website editor)
Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas (ASPO)
Beyond Peak: Prepare for Peak Oil and Economic Collapse
Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy
The Coming Global Oil Crisis
The Community Solution
Culture Change
DIE OFF
Dry Dipstick: A Peak Oil Metadirectory
Earth Economics (Ecological Economics)
Energy Bulletin (links to Peak Energy issues in the news)
From the Wilderness
Future Scenarios, by David Holmgren, co-founder of Permaculture
Global Public Media: Public Service Broadcasting for A Post Carbon World
Life After the Oil Crash
Oil Crisis
The Oil Drum: Discussions about Energy and Our Future
Peak Oil Blues
Peak Oil Crisis: The End of Cheap Oil
Peak Oil News (this news blog contains excerpts from other web pages)
Peak Oil News and Discussion
Peak Oil: News and Message Boards
Post Carbon Institute
The Relocalization Network
Transition Culture: An Evolving Exploration into the Head, Heart, and Hands of Energy Descent
Wolf at the Door: The Beginner's Guide to Peak Oil
Are We Ready for the Next Oil Shock? Article from Washington Post of August 11, 2006.
Bloomington Peak Oil Resolution
The Breaking Point, The New York Times, 8/21/05
Dick Cheney, Peak Oil, and the Final Countdown, by Kjell Aleklett, Uppsala University, Sweden, 2/04 (.pdf file: right-click to download)
Dick Cheney's Speech at the London Institute of Petroleum Autumn Lunch, 1999
The End of Cheap Oil, National Geographic, 6/2004
Energy Trends and Their Implications for U.S. Army Installations, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 9/05 (.pdf file: right-click to download)
Life After the Oil Crash, by Matt Savinar, (originally published 1/04; updated regularly)
The Mitigation of the Peaking of World Oil Production, by Robert Hirsch, prepared for U.S. Department of Energy, 3/05
The oil is going, the oil is going! Salon.com, 3/22/06
Peak Oil Resolution filed by Peak Oil Caucus in the House of Representatives, 10/24/05
Portland Peak Oil Resolution
Portland Peak Oil Task Force Briefing Book
The Rainwater Prophecy, Fortune, 12/26/05
Rebuilding Our Communities: A Primer for the Post-Oil Era
San Francisco Peak Oil Resolution
Seattle's Proposed Peak Oil Resolution
Testimony by Rep. Tom Udall (D - New Mexico) and Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R - Maryland), 10/05-1/06
Tompkins County power point presentation on preparing for PO
Tompkins County Relocalization Plan
Waiting for the Lights To Go Out, The London Times, 10/16/05
Beyond Oil: The View from Hubbert's Peak, by Kenneth S. Deffeyes. Hill and Wang, March 2005. (Deffeyes is a retired Princeton geology professor and Shell geologist.) For his announcement that the peak has been reached,
Click here. And a follow-up.
Blood and Oil: the Dangers and Consequences of Americas Growing Dependency on Imported Petroleum, by Michael T. Klare. Metropolitan Books, 2004. (Klare is professor and the director of the Five College Program in Peace and World Security Studies at Hampshire College, as well as the author of several books on world security.)
The Carbon War: Dispatches from the End of the Oil Century, by Jeremy K. Leggett. Allen Lane, 1999.
A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order, by F. William Engdahl. Pluto Press, 2004. (Engdahl is a consulting economist who has written on energy, politics, and economics since the first oil shock in the 1970s.)
The Collapsing Bubble: Growth and Fossil Energy, by Lindsey Grant. Random House, 2005. (Grant is a retired foreign service officer who served as Director of the Office of Asian Communist Affairs, National Security Council staff member, and Deputy Secretary of State for Environmental and Population Affairs, among other posts.)
The Coming Oil Crisis, by Colin Campbell. Multi-Science Publishing Co. Ltd., 2002.
Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil, by Michael C. Ruppert. New Society Publishers, 2004. (Ruppert is the editor and publisher of the newsletter, From the Wilderness.)
The Empty Tank: Oil, Gas, Hot Air, and the Coming Global Financial Catastrophe, by Jeremy K. Leggett. Random House, 2005. (Leggett is a former geology consultant for the oil industry and faculty member at the Royal School of Mines in London.)
The End of Oil: On the Edge of a Perilous New World, by Paul Roberts. Houghton Mifflin, 2004. (Roberts is a journalist who contributes to Harpers, The New Republic, Newsweek, etc. He is featured on Chevron's Will You Join Us? web site.)
The Final Energy Crisis, by Andrew McKillop. Pluto Press, 2005. (McKillop is a writer and consultant on oil and energy economics who has worked for the Canada Science Council, European Commission, OPEC, the World Bank, and the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and South Pacific.)
High Noon for Natural Gas: The New Energy Crisis, by Julian Darley. Chelsea Green Publishing Company, 2004. (Darley is an environmental writer and co-founder of the Post-Carbon Institute.)
Hubbert's Peak: The Impending World Oil Shortage, by Kenneth S. Deffeyes. Princeton University Press, 2003.
The Last Hours of the Ancient Sunlight, by Thom Hartmann. Three Rivers Press, 2004.
The Long Emergency: Surviving the Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century, by James Howard Kunstler. Atlantic Monthly Press, 2005. (Kunstler is the author of The Geography of Nowhere, Home from Nowhere, and The City in Mind: Notes on the Urban Condition.)
Oil Crisis, by Colin Campbell. Multi-Science Publishing Co. Ltd., 2005. (Campbell is a retired petroleum geologist and founder of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil.)
The Oil Depletion Protocol, by Richard Heinberg. New Society Publishers, 2006.
The Oil Factor: Protect Yourself and Profit from the Coming Energy Crisis, by Stephen and Donna Leeb. Time Warner, 2004. (Leeb is the president of Leeb Capital Management and editor of the newsletter, The Complete Investor.)
Out of Gas: The End of the Age of Oil, by David Goodstein. W. W. Norton & Company, 2004. (Goodstein is vice provost and professor of physics at the California Institute of Technology.)
The Party's Over: Oil, War and the Fate of Industrial Societies, by Richard Heinberg. New Society Publishers, 2003.
Petrodollar Warfare: Oil, Iraq and the Future of the Dollar, by William R. Clark. New Society Publishers, 2005. (Clark manages performance improvement at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. His research on oil depletion and oil currency issues received a 2003 Project Censored Award.)
Powerdown: Options and Actions for a Post-Carbon World, by Richard Heinberg. New Society Publishers, 2004. (Heinberg is core faculty member at New College of California.)
Resource Wars: The New Landscape of Global Conflict, by Michael T. Klare. Owl Books, 2001.
A Thousand Barrels a Second: The Coming Oil Break Point and the Challenges Facing an Energy Dependent World, by Peter Tertzakian. McGraw-Hill, 2006. (Tertzakian is Chief Energy Economist of ARC Financial Corporation, an energy investment firm.)
Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy, by Matthew R. Simmons. Wiley, June 2005. (Simmons is chairman of Simmons & Company International, an energy investment banking firm. He serves on the U.S. Counsel of Foreign Relations.)
Also:
Hour-long interview with Simmons.
Speech at Miller Center of Public Affairs, Univ. of Virginia, Nov. 30, 2005
The maturation of Matt Simmons
, by Jan Lundberg, in his Culture Change Letter #134 - June 24, 2006.