ODE Analyst warns of peak oil consequences
January 20th, 2009John Kaufmann, Senior Policy Analyst for the Oregon Department of Energy, will be giving a presentation Wednesday, Jan. 21 at the Bagdad Theater in Portland about peak oil and its implications.
The slide show he presented at the APA conference in May 2008, titled “Peak Oil: Causes and Prospects“, can be downloaded from the Post Carbon Cities website. The conclusion that presentation leaves you with is not comforting: there are no silver bullet solutions to the energy crisis we face – in fact, there are no solutions at all that will let us continue business as usual. The solution that we will either embrace or that will be forced upon us is to move around less and consume less stuff.
He has a long list of things we need to start doing right now: jumpstart renewables, develop next generation vehicles, reinvigorate rail, invest in transit alternatives, consume less stuff, expand energy efficiency programs, dramatically change our transportation and land use policies, and reinvigorate our local food production capabilities.
The biggest changes that will be needed are changes to ourselves:
- Consume less! (of everything, not just energy) – ask yourself – do I need it?
- Develop internal sources of strength – pleasures of the mind, spirit
- Build skills – trade skills, basic skills, needed skills
- Get civically active – if politics are broke, fix it – don’t ignore it!
- Proselytize – spread the word
It’s amazing (and disconcerting) to find that there are folks within our government agencies that really “get it” – but that this somehow fails to get translated into policy. What needs to be done gets watered down into what politically can be done – which means that far little will be done, and far too late to do much good.
Kaufmann is available for speaking engagements. His contact Info is:
John Kaufmann
503-378-2856
john.kaufmann@state.or.us