Stories tagged with "oil dependence"

Transport and adaptive capacity: An integrated approach to UK policy evaluation

This is a guest post from Robin Lovelace (lovelacerobin@yahoo.com), a graduate student at the University of York, UK. As part of his Environmental Science and Management MSc Robin was asked to pick a policy area and discuss how it could adapt to climate change. Due in part to the Oil Drum, he decided to include peak oil in the discussion, with a reluctant ‘OK’ from Professor Mike Ashmore. Robin is a qualified bicycle mechanic, writing part-time for Interclimate, starting an interdisciplinary PhD in energy research next year and wants to save the world.

The electric wheel - a breakthrough in car efficiency

Since the first automobile emerged in the 1880’s, the design of a car with an internal combustion chamber has been prevalent in human society. The car industry and the oil industry have become interdependent on this design, based on the combustion of crude oil. This interdependence can be observed in the struggle for survival of several car companies. Huge losses are made by General Motors, Ford and other car companies because they continue to think in the old ways, holding on to the production of big expensive and inefficient machines as long as possible. Soon this way of thinking will be extinct because the incentives in these industries are changing. The increasing fuel costs and pressure from lobby groups, civilians and politicians that care about the environment of the earth are changing the fundamental basis of the car. Super efficient new technologies have been developed which will soon arrive at a home near you.