Thursday, March 10, 2011

Big Meetup Last Night!

This was the third and by far the largest turnout for the Los Angeles Peak Oil Meetup Group. Once again, we met at The Cat & Fiddle in Hollywood. When I arrived at 7:05 last night, there were already seven people at an outside table. Within a half hour, I think the number in attendance reached a peak (bad pun unintended) of 16 people! This was probably the first time where instead of one dominant conversation lasting throughout the meetup, multiple conversations around the general topic were cropping up. It was great to see such lively social interaction, but I hope that it wasn't too overwhelming for some. We'll definitely need to find a more accommodating venue in the future, the wait staff seemed as though their patience was being tried over our scooting three tables together to try to squeeze everyone in.

I wish I could have had time to connect with everyone on a personal level. Going over the threads of conversation in my head from last night, I thought I would post some links. Alex, regarding what we were talking about concerning government awareness and planning for Peak Oil, here is the Department of Energy report from Robert Hirsch on the mitigation and expense for Peak Oil. Bahar, I think you had asked about a Peak Oil primer, this is one that I've shared with others. Also, I remember talking about the International Energy Agency admission that global conventional oil production peaked in 2006. Mainstream media did a pretty good job of burying that revelation, it was STORY #4 in my UNDER THE RUG blog post.

For everyone else at the meetup last night, I thought you might enjoy seeing this week's installation of The Nation's ongoing series of interviews with Jean Laherrère:



Jean Laherrère: Why Cheap Energy Is a Bad Thing




In this tenth video in the series “Peak Oil and a Changing Climate” from The Nation and On The Earth Productions, petroleum geophysicist and author Jean Laherrère explains that we are in the current energy crisis not only because fuel is running out, but because it's cost is too cheap. Laherrère, a former TOTAL oil company employee, used his insider knowledge to co-author a game-changing 1998 article, "The End of Cheap Oil," which studied oil depletion based on the most accurate database of the world’s oilfields at the time. The article's findings were not reassuring.
Many European countries have responded to the impending fuel crisis with taxes on energy, driving down consumption with higher prices. But the US hasn't followed their lead, and the consequences may be disastrous for our collective future. “We have been living for the last 10,000 years with open space," Laherrère explains. When you have a problem, ‘go west,’ open space. There is no 'west' to go anymore. We have reached the end of the world limit."
Go here to view last week's video, Thom Hartmann talking about how corporations are fueling our peak oil crisis. Go here to learn more about "Peak Oil and a Changing Climate," and to see the other videos in the series.
more...
http://www.thenation.com/video/159001/jean-laherrere-why-cheap-energy-bad-thing


Next week, The Nation will be posting an interview with one of the authors who first got me interested in Peak Oil back in 2004, Mike Ruppert. Should be good!

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