Energy alarm sounding for the EU (Kjell Aleklett):
Last Monday (April 13) there were two articles in the Financial Times, either of which would be troubling by itself. However, if one analyses them together there is every reason to sound the alarm. On the first page there was an article on oil, ”Crisis hits N Sea oil search” and in the supplement that reports on investment funds there was an article on renewable energy, ”Inflows into clean energy drop by half”. In the article on future oil production in the North Sea it states that the oil industry has pulled on the emergency brake in terms of investing in the search for new oil fields. Investment has fallen by 78% compared to one year ago and in the article on renewable energy they state that investment has halved. The combined consequences can be devastating for our future.
[...]
The fact that production in the North Sea is on its way to fall by half and that, simultaneously, we are not investing in the substitutes that are needed means that it is time to sound the alarm in the EU.
...og i Norge, burde vi kanskje legge til. Norsk oljeproduksjon faller som en stein; det er ikke lenge til det er minimalt igjen av det produktet som har gjort Norge til et av de beste landene i verden å bo i. Her er det ekstremt viktig å kunne tenke to tanker på en gang. Oljealderen må forlenges så mye som mulig. Alt annet er økonomisk selvmord. Men samtidig er det også essensielt at vi begynner å skaffe erstatninger for oljen NÅ; og som jeg har skrevet tidligere, den alternative energikilden som gir mest mening for Norges del er thorium. Dessverre kan det se ut som hele samfunnsapparatet i Norge er spesialisert mot olje- (og gass-)utvinning i så stor grad at en snuoperasjon i beste fall vil ta lang tid... en symptomatisk artikkel: StatoilHydro rår over forskningen (morgenbladet).
En annen sak som føyer seg fint inn mellom dette og forrige post er denne: Limits to Growth Model Worth Another Look på The Oil Drum (nok en gang kudos til TOD!).
De diskuterer en artikkel i American Scientist som dessverre er bak en betalingsmur...(OPPDATERING: Nå også tilgjengelig fra prof. Hall direkte) konklusjonen er:
Together oil and natural gas supply nearly two-thirds of the energy used in the world, and coal another 20 percent. We do not live in an information age, or a post-industrial age, or (yet) a solar age, but a petroleum age. Unfortunately, that will soon end: It appears that oil and gas production has reached, or soon will reach, a maximum. . .
Most environmental science textbooks focus far more on the adverse impacts of fossil fuels than on the implications of our overwhelming economic and even nutritional dependence on them. The failure today to bring the potential reality and implications of peak oil, indeed of peak everything, into scientific discourse and teaching is a grave threat to industrial society.
Innlegg
