What a difference a year makes. Richard Heinberg must be grinning from ear to ear. A year ago (Summer 2007) we picked up a review copy of The Ecologist magazine. Although we praised it for being a great source of information we didn’t immediately pick up a subscription because most of the content followed a traditional “green” agenda of the evils of nuclear power and what we can do to save the fluffy bunnies. Climate Change was on the agenda but Peak Oil was not.
What a difference today. We kept tags on the Magazine through its weekly E:Mail newsletter. We were delighted to see it covering topics of relevance so recently took the plunge and took out a subscription. I had three month’s worth land on the door mat on Saturday. A browse through was a real eye opener. The Ecologist Magazine is now a Peak Oil publication! From practically no mention one year ago it has become front page news. Practically every page has an article that mentions “Climate Change” and “Peak Oil” in the same sentence. Every issued gets two entire columns written by Richard Heinberg himself. This is a revolution.
So, what changed? Well, of course resource depletion has always interested The Ecologist and I am sure they have mentioned Peak Oil over the last few years. I am only suggesting that there is a sea change in the extent of coverage. Suddenly every one of their writers are writing about it. It has entered their lexicon. By the latest calculations of ASPO we peaked LAST Year in 2007. However, the actual year may be a coincidence. What happened was the Oil Price sky-rocketed to $120 a barrel. Suddenly everyone is sitting up and taking notice. This is good but sad. Why did we have to wait until AFTER the peak for anyone to care? It was the same with global warming. No one cared until the ice caps melted and the Oscar/Nobel Prize Winning Politician could make a movie to go “Look! D’uh!” On a positive note – at least we have noticed. Hienberg said his worst fears would be that we would reach this point and that everyone would blame each other rather than mother nature’s limits. However, the readers of The Ecologist would know the truth. It is preaching to the converted. It is a long way from here to the words on the lips of a
So, there is no room for complacency. The Media and the Public consciousness moves far slower than the readers of The Ecologist. It took the News ten years to really get Climate Change on the Agenda. Even now the coverage is light and fickle. How long do we have to wait for every news bulletin to feature data on Oil Price and Oil Reserves? The tragedy is the Peak Oil will have a far quicker effect. It robs us of the energy we need to cope with climate change. When the sweet crude dries up we will end up burning dirty coal or pumping out the CO2 from Oil Tar extraction. Peak Oil is bad news for Climate Change yet the solution to one is often the solution for the other – clean renewables.
The Ecologist’s interest is great but until this gets the kind of coverage and action that World War Three would get, we ain’t out of the woods yet.
