 | A Life Cycle Assessment of Energy Products: Environmental Impact Assessment of Biofuels | The Oil Drum | DrumBeat: September 24, 2007 |  |
132 comments on Economic Impact of Peak Oil Part 1: A Flashback
Comments can no longer be added to this story.
The contents below are paid advertisements. Their appearance does not imply an endorsement by The Oil Drum.
“A third of humanity doesn't want to ride bikes anymore; that has profound geopolitical implications.”
—Anne Korin, the co-director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security (May 1, 2005)
Search The Oil Drum with Google
User login
Contact
- Content: editors at theoildrum dot com
- Tech support: support at theoildrum dot com
Personnel
- Editors: Prof. Goose, Heading Out, Stuart Staniford, Nate Hagens
- DrumBeat Editor: Leanan
- Contributors: ace, Engineer-Poet, Gail the Actuary, jeffvail, JoulesBurn, Khebab, Robert Rapier
- TOD:Local: Glenn
- TOD:Europe: Chris Vernon, Euan Mearns, Francois Cellier, Jerome a Paris, Luís de Sousa, Rembrandt, Rune Likvern, Ugo Bardi
- TOD:Canada: benk, Libelle
- TOD:ANZ: Big Gav, Phil Hart, aeldric
- Technician: Super G
Recently on TOD:World
TOD:Local
- Summer Streets a Success!
- Plan for Hydro-Fracture Drilling for Unconventional Natural Gas in Upstate New York
- Enjoying Life Close to Home: Fun Streets
TOD:Europe
- Freddie Mac/Fannie Mae bailout: Guess Who Wins
- UK Energy Flow Chart 2007
- Brown pretends to be tough on Russia
TOD:Canada
- Compressed Air Energy Storage - How viable is it?
- Oil Megaproject Update (July 2008)
- Weekend Energy Listening: Wind Power with Paul Gipe
TOD:ANZ
Peak Oil Primers
Blogroll
Energy Sites
- The Coming Global Oil Crisis
- Die Off
- Dry Dipstick
- Energy Bulletin
- From the Wilderness
- Life After the Oil Crash
- Peak Oil Crisis
- Peak Oil News and Message Boards
- Powerswitch
- Rigzone
- Matthew Simmons
- Wolf at the Door
Environment & Sustainability Sites
- The Daily Green
- EcoGeek
- Eco Street
- Green Car Congress
- Green Options
- green.alltop.com
- Gristmill
- RealClimate
- Sustainablog
- Treehugger
- WorldChanging
Blogs
- The Big Picture
- Casaubon's Book
- Cleantech Blog
- Clusterf
k Nation (Jim Kunstler) - The Cost of Energy
- Ecological Economics
- David Strahan
- Econbrowser
- The Energy Blog
- Entropy Production
- Environmental Economics
- European Tribune
- GraphOilology
- jeffvail.net
- The Mess That Greenspan Made
- Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis
- Mobjectivist
- Peak Energy (Australia)
- Peak Energy (USA)
- R-Squared
- Resource Insights
Organizations
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
GAIA Host Collective
My car was in the shop yesterday for some much needed repairs (new brakes) so my day was confined to working from home. I drive just as little as possible these days and try to take care of multiple errands in one trip but the thought of being without a car or having no fuel for said auto is going to take some adjusting on my part. I do run my business from home so I have a number of days per year where I put on no miles, but currently I could not continue to conduct my business as usual without an auto.
In my case:
1) A partnership business with a friend who has a car is an asset! We actually both worked at home - but he made the trip into the city about once or twice a week to pick and drop off things.
2) It's nice being able to cycle to work. Alas it's hard to get others interested in the idea - esp. if they need to dress up for work or are dashing around to get here and then get over there to pickup the kids ....
One thing that limits me in our co-housing project is that I want to continue to ride my bike to work - not spend $4k+/year having to get another car and commute (again the costs are purchase, insurance, parking and maintance - gasoline is very low on the list).
A co-housing project in BC called WindSong is interesting in that when they built it it was built in the boondocks and didn't quite meet the vision of the founders; but over the past decade the city swalled it and so public transit is now nearby and people changed their jobs so that cars are not needed ....
A friend (to counter my reduction in pollution and consumption) has a sprawling house all to himself and because it's so hard to walk the 2 blocks to work got himself an e-scooter; but is now finding out that it must be licensed and insured. I'm itching to see what the insurance costs him as the lions share is liability and that's why insurance isn't much less on a motorcycle than a car.
Having talked with a friend - I think that post peak will be a slow ratcheting down and down and down; denial that goes on for years and years. I'm just too cynical about human nature some times. After all - it was amazing how much of a fight there was against a ban against cod fishing; even when everyone (in their gut or research papers) on the east coast knew that they were pretty well fished to extinction. Years later no recovery yet ....
praetzel,
There is so much we could do with conservation and not in any way limit quality of life. For example, we could retrofit homes to be more energy efficient and much more comfortable and all of this with a positive return on investment. Why are we not doing this?, I can tell smart people are investing now in energy conservation measures, it just has not hit the mainstream.
We are. Are you?
I think you are right-on here. I am a CPA and have completed several energy conservation projects around my house over the years. Most recently sealing and insulating the ducting under the floor in the craw space. This is hard and painful work to say the least. At this point in cycle of higher energy costs, only the highly motivated folks take on this kind of self abuse.
I'm driven by the fact that more dificult times (higher energy costs) are just over the horizon. The populous is just to busy to care at this point.
I am also riding my bike to work and have made it part of my routine.
For now, only the driven are leading the way. The rest of the folks will need to evaluate their own tradeoff's before they make changes on the personal energy consumption.
I have been undergoing a conservation effort on my home for about 2 years now, reducing gas usage for heating by 1/2 and reducing electrical use by about 40%. Yes, some of the air-sealing in the attic was not fun but seeing the reduced heating and cooling bills are rewarding. We use less than 1/2 the electricity of our neighbors and far less than 1/2 the natural gas for heating.
Moto insurance is very polar. Insurance on scooters is practically nothing. Usually less than $100/yr. The factors they look at are: where you live and if the scoot will be licked in a garage at night. Second, they look at your experience. Third, they look at what category your bike falls into. If you're n00b rider, expect to pay a lot the first year. Make it through the first year claim free and rates will drop dramatically. Even back when I only had 15 years riding experience, I paid only $70 for a year's worth of full coverage on a Kawasaki 250. I've seen teenagers, buying the fastest sportbike they can afford, and pay $3000/yr to insure a $9000 bike. That's because the insurance companies know that 40% of them are totaled in their first year.
Actually the liability part cost is very low both for cars and bikes. The highest cost by far is uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, even more then comprehensive.
It is also something no one can afford to be without in view of all the illegals without insurance as well as the very low mandatory liability coverage.