Oil Peak - Is the Party Over?

Wishful thinking, false hopes and denial, nothing will help, the fact is that most of the world’s easy to get oil has now been consumed. Oil has been the cheapest and most convenient energy resource ever discovered by humans and we are totally hooked on it. Will we be able to change from an energy-addicted society to a more sustainable way of life? We are in an ecological dilemma, which consists of three factors and all three are inter-related.

The first is POPULATION PRESSURE, the second RESOURCE DEPLETION and the third HABITAT DESTRUCTION. There are simply too many of us using too many of our planet’s resources too quickly. Climate change is here, human-induced or not. The real problem is that we are trapped in a perpetual growth machine that runs on unrenewable fossil energy - we are virtually eating out of an oil well.

With the end of cheap hydrocarbon energy we need an ENERGY DESCENT ACTION PLAN and a roadmap to sustainability.

Let’s start to examine our own consumption patterns and use of energy in transport, food (low food miles), in our buildings and recreational activities.

New Zealand has to catch up fast with the rest of the OECD countries; our wasteful and inefficient use of energy is one of the worst. If the government is too slow, we can always support the NGOs and other organisations that do brilliant work on energy conservation, e.g. Greenpeace. And of course push politicians in all parties. An energy descent culture as we call it in permaculture is a culture of place and living from renewable local resources mainly. Efficiency and renewable energy technology must be focused on and implemented wherever we can.