The Crude Fact

Jeremy Leggett, writes in the "comment is free..." blog of the Guardian. He has an interesting commentary intitled: The Crude Fact which nicely sums up the problem of peak oil . The notion that, when the global extraction rate of oil reaches a maximum value and starts decreasing. Resulting in supply shortages of an ever more energy hungry world, giving rise to high oil and energy prices.
Sadly mainstream media has been ignoring the problem in years gone by. But it seems to me that the problem has seen a bit wider coverage this year. This has been helped along a lot by top oil company bosses like the CEO of Total and Jeroen Van Der Veer the CEO of Royal Dutch Shell supporting the notion that oil supplies around the world are very tight and a real supply problem exists.

Image from: www.suburbanhousehunters.com

Jamais Cascio writes a very interesting article about the role of environmentalism. He clearly points out the pointlessness of the "save the planet" meme. Environmentalism should really be focusing on trying to preserve human civilisation, not the Earth and the current state of its ecosystems. As he accurately puts it: "The grand myth of environmentalism is that it's all about saving the Earth. It's not. The Earth will be just fine. Environmentalism is all about saving ourselves."
Of course preserving ecosystems and the availability of clean water supplies, topsoil, etc. is of the utmost importance. Preserving the environment in order to support human activity on the planet, ie. sustainable living should be our greatest concern. "Human civilization could not withstand and recover from the same kinds of assaults the planet itself has shrugged off in eons past. We remain entirely dependent upon myriad Earth services and systems, from topsoil and clean water to carbon cycles and biodiversity. Activities that undermine those critical services and systems quite literally threaten the survival of human civilization."

The Manpollo Project

I have started this blog in the hopes of further promoting the ideas of a US high school science teacher regarding climate change and how the problem should be addressed. Every person should be as clear thinking as this man is. When faced with the threat of climate change and its consequences it is simply foolish and morally wrong to stop and argue about whether the problem is man made or not, assuming that you can not afford to be wrong. Fact being that the majority of people and politicians do not act in a responsible manner in advancing sustainable living. Watch the video yourself and maybe post a comment about what You thought about the arguments presented.



Sequels to the video can be found at manpollo.org and wonderingmind42.com and on youtube.