Living for the future
Date: 15 Aug 2008 :: By: Vicki Stebbins
Peak Oil, what's it all about? – Part 1
We are now seeing huge changes to our world and those things we have come to expect as cheap and part of our lives are fading into the distance.
We hear the terms 'Climate Change', 'Peak Oil', 'Sustainbility' and wonder where is this taking us and how do we survive and 'what does it mean for me'.
Let's start with 'Peak Oil', Peak Oil is the term given when we reach 'the peak' which is the 'most oil ever produced, then production goes down. Then you find that demand exceeds the declining oil production capacity, to maintain our lifestyles. There is a lot of dispute on when the peak will be reached or if in fact it has, but science agrees there will be a peak and sooner rather than later.
Oil isn't just about our petrol, it covers the many things that use oil or oil derivatives and the flow on effect from that. This means all our machinery, plastics, tyres, fertiliser, pharmaceuticals and materials such as nylon as well as many many many more products that we don't recognise are made from or use oil to make them. Of course this effects our food, which uses tractors, fertiliser, factory machines and trucks to get it to our supermarkets where it's contained more often than not in plastic.
What will this mean for all of us?
We need to take a good look at our lives and what is really important and what things we can modify, do without or absolutely love and want to keep. Then work on a plan and chip away to achieve what you can.
Here's a few things we can think about now:
Tips for Bulk Buying:
Websites of interest:
Part 2: Why Preserve, tips and recipes - next issue Coraki News
This article was originally written for and appeared in the Coraki & District Newsletter.