Surviving
the Immediate Future after Peak Oil
Have
we peaked yet?
My
view is that easy oil has probably passed its peak.
- Jeroen van der Veer, (CEO Royal Dutch Shell), 24 January 2006
We
may be at a point of peak oil production.
- Bill Clinton, 28 March 2006
Peak
oil is a reality. In May 2005 we had peak production, at 74 million
barrels a day.
- Matthew Simmons (Chairman, Simmons & Company International)
Conventional
oil production peaked in 2005–2006.
- Richard Heinberg (professor, journalist & author), September
2007
Oil
prices have doubled over the past year.
- Tehran Times, 13 May 2008
Oil
will go through $200 like a hot knife through butter.
- Matthew Simmons, 11 May 2008
The
crucial point isn’t when oil runs out, it’s when the
supply starts to run down. That started in 2005. We’re on
the slippery slope. In August and September 2007, oil went up
in price and the start of the meltdown of the American economy
began. Anything you want to do will be harder next week than it
is this week. It will be harder to do next month than it is this
week, and much much harder to do a year from now than it is now,
because the price of petrol and oil is going up. There’s
not much time.
- Kevin Moore (author) Taranaki Daily News, 19 April 2008
Peak
oil
Peak
oil signifies a rapid decline in the availability
of cheap oil - a non-renewable resource that
is a component in just about everything we use
and do in our daily lives – and the far-reaching social,
financial and environmental impacts it is likely to have for all
of us. An abundance of cheap oil over the past 100 years or so
has permitted tremendous expansion in areas such as large scale
food production, which in turn has supported an explosive growth
in the global population.
Survival
Hawke's Bay
This
site is based on the premise that rapidly rising energy costs,
escalating food prices, and financial decline are already upon
us, that these trends are likely to continue, and that we may
have little time left to prepare with friends
and family for the major lifestyle adjustments we will probably
need to make.
Alarmist?
Some of the material is certainly intended as a wakeup call but,
just like installing smoke detectors, the time to plan is before
an event occurs and, if your preparations are never needed, so
much the better!
The
aim of this site is to focus mainly on the Hawke's Bay region
and on peak oil and its likely fall-out, such as widespread financial
decline and the end of cheap imports (in a country now heavily
dependent on importing many of its manufactured goods, and even
its food).
This
is in no way intended as a reflection on the excellent initiatives
now underway in the Bay to deal with other major issues such as
climate change, but it is felt that the ramifications of the decline
in cheap oil may be more immediate and imminent.
I
believe I have a personal responsibility to at least consider
the impact of a rapidly changing society on friends and family.
Please do not base your conclusions just on the selective material
presented on this site, but do your own reading and investigation.
I look forward to your feedback and suggestions, in the hope that
this can become more of a community-based site.
Tony
2
July 2008 |