Tuesday, November 07, 2006

The Other Inconvenient Truth

The End of Suburbia

The End Of Suburbia

You've heard of Global warming, but what about Peak Oil? It's set to be the other defining environmental, economic and social issue of our generation.

Come and see Peak Oil documentary "The End of Suburbia" at the St Barnabas Church Offices (4/173-179 Broadway; enter from mountain Street) Monday November 20, 7pm for a start. Bring your own popcorn/snacks.

For more info drop me a comment....

ALL WELCOME

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good on you guys for getting this organised! This really is the 'other inconvenient truth'.

The "Peak Oil" concept can be hard to get your head around. It's hard to conceptualise just how reliant we are on oil, and what life would be like without cheap oil.

Another problem conceptually is that it is very likely that the end of cheap oil and all that goes with it won't creep up on us slowly, but hit us hard and fast.

In other words, we are travelling at 100kms/hr now, but we could hit 0kms/hr in no time at all.

I really encourage everyone to do your research on this. Check out the science and find out why the oil reserves quoted by middle eastern countries are completely unreliable. To quote Richard Heinberg, "There is no oil cop checking on oil reserves with a giant dipstick". No one knows how much oil is there, and the middle east has historically had huge financial incentives to overestimate their oil.

But what about the link between oil and food. We practically eat and drink oil. Literally!

Too preposterous a claim??? The simple way to find out is to check the facts. Of course, if you disagree let me know. But check the facts first.

If anyone has any questions I'd be happy to try to post answers here too if that is OK Rachel.

byron smith said...

Good work for getting it organised Rach. Looking forward to it!

Rachel said...

Hi Dave, wow how did you find my blog? My husband has been very inspired by you and your work!

we are really looking fowrd to this night and the subsequent discussion it will bring (and very curious to see who/how many will turn up - I have a feeling we will be pleasently surprised!)

Yeah i know what burnout is like (I say while writing a paper on program management at 1am). I have moved away from issues close to my heart (refugees in detention centres) and moved on to environmental issues that are still heartbreaking but just that little bit removed from my emotional 'zone'.

it is good and healthy to have breaks from activism and community education though! I saw too many breakdowns and divorces when i was heavily involved in refugee activism.

thanks for commenting dave!

Rachel said...

yes I think we are more excited than worried about the reality of peak oil. As a little family with no morgage and no substantial loans or assests we don't have heaps to lose. We ahve been looking at land somewhere for a while but we are just not likely to ever be in a position to buy. We figure that God will work powerfully as He always does and the Church in turn will need to work powerfully in the community to help those in need - and there will be many in need! I think that we will all be more reliant on fanily/ freinds/ churches etc in ways that we have not seen since the Great Depression and that it is not nec. a bad thing - sometimes just a hard thing for our individualised culture.

I'm excited for those that will build loaclised communities based on food production etc. like Ted envisages. I don't think it will happen everywhere - people will be attempting to maintain their lifestyles at all costs (as many do now at the cost of their relationsgips and general quality of life). People will 'fight' it and hoild onto their cars OS holidays etc in a state of disbelief.

As someone who is doing a masters in Internation development I do fear what will occour in third world countries. I fear that many people will cease giving to aid agencies and I fear that mnay will simply have to stop running due to costs of travel etc. I hope and pray that people will still give out of their poverty.

ps Dave you are welcome to visit anytime! I'm sure Ted would love to meet you. Ted's tors are amazing! I will let you know when the next one is on.

Anonymous said...

Despite having worked for World Vision for 6+ months, presented seminars for them, promoted child sponsorship etc etc, I really still know little about how aid funding actually works on the ground.

But it seems that there is a strong movement towards 'relocalisation'. So that means that instead of being reliant on (for instance) selling coffee to Westerners in far flung countries to raise funds to buy food (probably back off the West), the focus is on growing a wide variety of crops locally so they can eat their own food and sell the spare. Something like that anyway, and I'd love to know more about it.

"Relocalisation" is one of those terms that we are more likely to hear about when peak hits. I've been thinking about it quite a bit as it relates to my local area (Cowra) and how we will fare as far as food security goes. We're good at growing grapes, but how many grapes are we going to eat in a food crisis? At least the basic watering infrastructure is there to quickly switch to other crops.

Anyway, watch this inspiring clip on Ansokia valley on this page http://www.worldvision.com.au/wvconnect/content.asp?topicID=33

byron smith said...

Jason: Relocalisation - I like it.

Dave: I've never really made it onto the discussion boards at SydAng, but maybe once exams are over I'll dive in.

Rachel: I've started a short series trying to offer some theological reflections upon the doco and issues over here.

Jason said...

Hi Rach, How did the End Of Suburbia showing go?