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Transition Tasmania |
Peak Oil and Climate Change
Peak Oil
All the world's crude oil was created over 90 million years ago.
Over just 150 years of use we have become dependant on oil for many things, from petrol to plastic, polar fleece to polystyrene, fertiliser to vaseline, detergents, preservatives and even medicine. What is not made of oil is transported by it.
Oil is a cheap source of energy. But not for much longer. When oil production peaks, production begins to decline. The quality of oil available declines (for example tar sand), and it takes increasingly more energy to extract the oil that is available. We have entered a phase where demand will begin to outstrip supply over the long term. This will have an impact on everything in our lives …and there are no quick-fixes.
While climate change and peak oil may herald some major shifts in the way we live, there is no reason why the creativity and ingenuity that got us to the peak will disappear as we have to work our way down the other side. In rising to these challenges it is quite possible that we will find ways to live simpler, healthier and more fulfilling lives.
For information on how peak oil will impact Tasmania specifically and what we can do about it, visit Peak Oil Tasmania.
Climate Change
(A brief explanation)
We are becoming accustomed to reports of extreme weather events, species decline, and record temperatures. "A recent report by Oxfam suggests that 26 million people have already been displaced as a result of climate change, including the 425,000 people who never returned to New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina and the 800,000 forced out of their homes by Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar (Burma)." (www.europeanvoice.com)
As much as a scientific theory can be proven, climate change and mankind's contribution has been proven. It has been confirmed by the International Panel for Climate Change (IPCC), a worldwide group of scientists who have reviewed all available scientific research. Some Tasmanian scientists are among them.
The IPCC reports that there is no more debate, the science is clear. The only question is how fast can we act to achieve the necessary reductions in atmospheric CO2.
Once global temperatures rise to certain levels positive feedback loops will cause further releases of greenhouse gases, leading to runaway climate change. On the best evidence we need to keep temperature rises to less than 2° C. Emissions already made have not yet had their full impact – so we are perilously close to reaching this even if we reduce emissions dramatically now.
Time to act
Climate change leaves us in no question: we need to learn to live sustainably. For those of us still unsure of the necessity to change, peak oil will force our hand.
"One day we will run out of oil, it is not today or tomorrow, but one day we will run out of oil and we have to leave oil before oil leaves us. The earlier we start, the better, because all of our economic and social system is based on oil, so to change from that will take a lot of time and a lot of money and we should take this issue very seriously,'' Chief economist, International Energy Agency (IEA) Faith Birol.
People are starting to see peak oil as the Great Opportunity, the chance to build the world they always dreamt of. Transition Towns is a movement that embraces this great opportunity to choose our own path to our inevitable low energy future.
The Transition Towns model is working all around the world. Born of permaculture, itself a product of Tasmania, Transition is a response to peak oil and climate change that every Tasmanian can have a part in.