Latest on peak oil

Well actually it’s not the latest because this story was published on Monday, but…

It seems the world is much closer to running out of (extractable) oil than official estimates have been admitting.

[Question: If officials admitted we were close to running out of oil, what do you think would happen? Is it in their interest to tell us?
Alternatively, if they don't tell us, and then we run out, what happens next? Is that a better outcome for them?]

A senior official at the International Energy Agency has claimed that there has been a deliberate policy of under-playing the coming shortages, for fear of triggering panic buying.

The USA, allegedly, “played an influential role in encouraging the watchdog to underplay the rate of decline from existing oil fields while overplaying the chances of finding new reserves.”

The British Government, meanwhile, has long been using IEA statistics rather than producing figures of its own, and their position has consistently been that there is little threat to long term oil supplies.

MP John Hemming, who chairs the all-party parliamentary group on peak oil and gas, says the revelations confirm his suspicions that the IEA have underplayed how quickly the world was running out of oil. This clearly has profound implications for government energy policy.

Colin Campbell, a former executive with Total of France told a conference: “If the real [oil reserve] figures were to come out there would be panic on the stock markets … in the end that would suit no one.”

You can read the Guardian story in full here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/09/peak-oil-international-energy-agency

That page also includes an audio interview you can listen to here:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/audio/2009/nov/10/oil-international-energy-agency?popup=true

There is also a rather excellent ‘Energy’ section, here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/energy

And one on Oil here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/oil

Sustainable energy without the hot air

Cambridge University physicist David Mackay recently published a much-reported book called Sustainable Energy without the hot air: “a book that comprehensively reveals the true facts about sustainable energy in a form that is both highly readable and entertaining.”

You can read the book on line for free, here, or buy a paper copy for under £20.

But if you don’t have time for all that, or if you’d just like to see the headlines, watch here:

Stop press!! Growing Fruit and Encouraging Bees

Dear all,

Sorry about the short notice but have just found out about this course which may be of interest.

The cost is very cheap and should be well worth it!

Note that the course is in Brixton.

Visit to eco-house in Elstead

On Saturday 7th November Tom, Ros and James, Robert, Joyce, Paula and Neil, Paul, Susie and Fleur Tavares visited the new, eco-build, home of David and Betty Moxon.

After some lovely drinks, David and Betty gave us a fascinating tour of the home that they built to replace their previous wooden house, ‘temporarily’ put up in the 1940s. The house brings together a number of features to reduce its energy and water requirements whilst providing a fantastic, comfortable open living space.

Passive design
The passive design features include the large number of high specification double glazed windows on the south side to maximise ’solar gain’. The house also uses

Notes from last night’s meeting

Well, after all that only 5 people turned up to the specially arranged meeting at 40 Degreez, but we nevertheless had a good time and a good meeting, and a good chat with Janet Maines.

Paul wanted to talk about insulating his windows. Joyce wanted us to support the FLFI on any upcoming dig days. Taff told us the locations he has arranged for the next four meetings. And newcomer Ruth from the USA told us that there is a Farnham just outside New York. (She also gave much other useful input.)

And we also did a cracking trade in home-grown eggs and apple juice.

Next week’s meeting will be at The Plough Inn, 74 West Street.

Round up of the Transition Week

Welcome to another round-up!

Monday’s meeting was held at the home of one transitioner — a new departure for us, and rather fun to share food together as well as discuss ideas. We discussed the Interstitial Spaces project, loftbusting, Alice Holt, and the possibilities of holding a new series of meetings. We also arranged a visit to a local eco-home. More details are here.

As part of that meeting we also decided to move over to a new social networking site for our on-line discussions. Ning gives us all the functionality of the googlegroup site we have been using, plus the ability to form groups interested in specific topics, and send messages directly between individuals. We hope that you like it. You can read more about it here, or join us here.

Also this week, Transition Haslemere reported their first birthday party. Warren Buffet placed a $26bn bet that the Transition Movement is right. And 350 set out their stall in Barcelona. You can also watch a video here of a Transition Initiative in the USA.

Finally, next Monday 9 November we will either be meeting at 40 Degreez or The Plough in West Street. Neither has been finally arranged yet so please check the Contact page on Monday for final details.

Apologies for any inconvenience. I’m off now on my permaculture design course tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday. Have a great weekend! From all of us at Transition Town Farnham.

Transition Network Newsletter November 2009

http://tinyurl.com/transitionnewsletter

CONTENTS

FOOD

• Transition Network Food Project Database Launch
• A Transition Food Strategy
• Sowing the Future In Forest Row
• Time to Take Action on Food!
• ISEC Food Roadshow back on tour

NEWS

• Royal Transition Town Visitor

Muy bien!!! 350 in Barcelona

Here is a lovely video from Barcelona.

Sorry that I don’t have time to say more!

HappeNing!

We have been wondering for a while about whether to use a different tool for our on-line discussions between meetings.

Quite soon after we started last year, we started using Googlegroups.

The tool was simple, cheap (free!) and easy to use.

But recently it has become clear that we now want to achieve more than we can using Googlegroups.

Old discussions about Facebook resurfaced, and we began to look again at other tools.

At Monday’s meeting we decided to switch to Ning. This tool is also free, and has the same core “Discussion Forum” functionality as Googlegroups.

But the layout is better looking (we think), and Ning also allows discussions to be focused around specific groups. Like Facebook, ning also allows people to sign up and send messages directly to one another.

So the old Googlegroup will be left just where it is, and people who want to continue existing discussions can copy them over and paste them into the new site.

The address for the new tool is now: http://transitionfarnham.ning.com/

We believe this tool will be much better at enabling us to form an on-line community, so please visit us and join in!

Happy Birthday to Transition Haslemere

Transition Town Haslemere recently held their first birthday party.

It was attended by nearly 90 people, and a good time was had by all.

We wish them many happy returns of the day!