end_of_suburbia ([info]end_of_suburbia) wrote,
@ 2006-06-27 03:26:00
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Director Greg Greene and I have had the opportunity to attend a number of screenings of The End of Suburbia across North America to do Q&A, and sit on discussion panels with experts from the doc, such as Matthew Simmons, Richard Heinberg, Julian Darley and Mike Ruppert. This is still a challenge for me. I’ve always been shy, and I’m not a great speaker, which is why I produced a documentary in the first place. Let the experts and pictures tell the story. I’ve often said that I feel like an idiot savant, as I’m neither an expert on energy, nor suburbia. But I have had the pleasant opportunity to rub elbows with those who are, and they have been great teachers. And it’s surprising how much information I retain from hours of reading news stories and commentary.

Last month I was invited to a screening about an hour from where I live. It was organized by a small Post Carbon Institute group that had recently formed. I shared the floor with a member of that group, and he was able to back me up with additional information every time I mentioned a news story, report or study. As I drove home, it occurred to me that the pressure for me to excel as a guest speaker is over. I think now I can stay home and save some fossil fuels. It seems that so many people are now peak oil experts that they are able to pick up the ball and run with it themselves. But maybe "experts" is the wrong term. Recently Jan Lundberg of Culture Change wrote this about Matthew Simmons:

He reminds us that the word "guru" only means leader or guide, not expert.

The peak oil meme is being virally marketed and there are now thousands of oil depletion "gurus" out there. You’re probably becoming one yourself without realizing it. When the time is right, people will seek you out for enlightenment, but there’s no reason to be intimidated. There’s plenty of room on the mountaintop for more gurus.

Barry



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[info]tnrkitect
2006-09-08 11:04 pm UTC (link)
Just wanted to drop you a note along the lines of this post. I happened upon the concept of peak oil about 18 months ago, and have been educating myself on this and related topics ever since.

As an architecture student in his last year of school, knowledge of peak oil is paramount as I will be one of those responsible for creating the bult environment of this nation over the next 30-50 years.

Your video "The End of Suburbia" has been part of that education, and I have loaned it to my Urban Design instructor to be shown in class next week along with "The Community Solution: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil". I am unsure of the reception those two films will get from my classmates, but it is paramount that they see them, as they will be my contemporaries in the industry.

Thaks for putting the film together, and I look forward to "Escape From Suburbia".

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Not living with peak oil, but delaying it.
(Anonymous)
2006-09-28 04:29 am UTC (link)
We can predict a day not far off that we will see a gradual decline in the availability of carbon based fossil fuels. We should go a bit further and say a prayer of thanks that we may thus avoid completely poisoning the earth's oceans with carbonate ion, perhaps even slow down global warming a minuscule amount.

But nobody seems to see peak oil as the bonanza it should be. We should be inducing a 70% reduction in the amount of fossil fuels we extract from the earth, a comparable reduction in the amount of CO2 we push into the air and ultimately into the oceans. That is, even before we reach the point where we MUST cut back our consumption, we should take the proactive step of preserving for future generations that 70% of fuel that we do not consume now.

The rationale should be obvious. We are mostly wasting the fuels we are extracting now, and within one generation we will have to adapt to that lower rate of extraction. We need to prioritize our uses not on a one year basis, but on a 300 year basis. If we do, we can be confident of our ability to sustain that 30% extraction level for those 300 years.

We will not be able to continue our current profligate lifestyle that is poisoning our planet. Should that be stated with apologies or rejoicing?

Donadl E. Fletcher

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Re: Not living with peak oil, but delaying it.
[info]flosters
2007-12-06 07:00 pm UTC (link)
Your not far wrong...and the prices will go through the roof soon.

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[info]metalservices
2008-05-03 12:07 am UTC (link)
The price of petrol is just ridiculous in the uk now...something has got to change.

The Dark destroyer

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