Stories tagged with "introducing peak oil to others"

The Coming Oil Crisis

Posted by Gail the Actuary on August 18, 2009 - 10:15am
Topic: Supply/Production
Tags: introducing peak oil to others, lionel badal, peak oil [list all tags]

This is a guest post aimed at the person who is unaware of peak oil. Be sure to send links to your friends! It was written by Lionel Badal, Postgraduate Student, Department of Geography, King’s College London. He can be reached at blionel3 at yahoo dot fr

Oil is unique in that it is so strategic in nature… Energy is truly fundamental to the world’s economy. It is the basic, fundamental building block of the world’s economy. It is unlike any other commodity. -- Dick Cheney, 46th US Vice-President (speaking as the CEO of Halliburton in 1999)1

We almost certainly are at or near Peak Oil -- Al Gore, 45th US Vice-President, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate (June, 2004)2

Over the past decade a fierce debate has emerged amongst energy experts about whether global oil production was about to reach a peak, followed by an irreversible decline. This event, commonly known as “Peak Oil” far outreaches the sole discipline of geology. From transportation to modern agriculture, petrochemicals and even the pharmaceutical industry all of them rely on one commodity: cheap and abundant oil. In order to sustain the needs of an ever globalized world, oil demand should double by 2050.3 Nonetheless, geological limitations will disrupt this improbable scenario. In fact, a growing proportion of energy experts argue that Peak Oil is impending and warn about the extraordinary scale of the crisis.

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Another Lobby May Get Air Conditioning

Posted by The Interloafer on August 3, 2006 - 8:55am in The Oil Drum: Local
Topic: Demand/Consumption
Tags: air conditioning, building politics, electricity, introducing peak oil to others [list all tags]

I live in a building with 195 apartments atop two stories of stores. Built in 1888 as an early coal-fired power plant and converted to residential use in 1979, it is one of those hundreds of thousands of New York buildings that predates the air conditioning age by many decades but have been retrofitted for modernity. In an effort to attract tenants, the landlord installed heavy duty window-mounted air conditioners in each apartment. The lobby, staffed by a doorman for 16 hours a day, does not have any air conditioning, so the doormen keep cool with fans. Some of the shops and restaurants have air conditioning and some don't. (The Indian restaurant where I got my lunch today was stifilingly hot, thanks not only to lack of a/c but also because of the kitchen, and all the drink refridgerators that were blowing hot air into the restaurant. People were sweating in there, but no less friendly than usual.)

Via our building's electronic bulletin board at Meet The Neighbors, residential tenants have started talking about a drive to install an A/C in the lobby. It seems to be driven not by a desire to keep cool while passing through the lobby, but by that quintessential New York democratic impulse to improve the working conditions of the working class staffers.

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