GREENING GUILFORD

"Peak oil" in the N&R

Starting this Sunday, the News & Record will feature a three-part series I worked on this year about peak oil. I'm encouraging you all to take a look because you will likely hear more about it in the news from now on.

If you want a head start, take a look at this article.

In addition, Peter Kauber of Guilford Solar Communities will do a two-hour presentation on peak oil on July 12. Details:

What:    Guilford Solar July Program: "Peak Oil -- Theory
           and Evidence"
Where:  Kathleen Clay Edwards Family Branch Library,
           1420 Price Park Road
           Greensboro
When:   Saturday, July 12, 10 AM -- 12 Noon
Cost:     Free
Description:  Transportation is the lifeline of our current global and US economies.  Over 95% of our transportation is dependent upon the refined products of oil -- gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, and bunker fuel.  As the price of oil sets new records weekly, the question naturally arises: Why is this happening?  One increasingly common explanation is that the rate of production worldwide of cheap, high-quality oil has peaked or will do so in the near future.  This is the "peak oil" hypothesis.  Guilford Solar's July program will explain the meaning of peak oil and will examine the evidence that supports it.  The presenter is Peter Kauber, who has researched the topic over the past four years.  Kauber was employed by Marathon Oil Company during the 1979-1981 "oil crisis" and thus brings a historical and industry perspective to the discussion.

Got pride? Better let it go

Across the country, American Dreams are evaporating in so many ways and for so many reasons it is hard to keep count. I was just reading today in the New York Times about homeowners who have been foreclosed upon now finding it difficult to rent apartments (including one 43-year-old woman who is renting kitchen-less space on the third floor of someone's house). Then you've got the destroyed homes and businesses in the Midwest from the floods, mounting layoffs, and then, of course, $4 gas.

What does this mean? Rejection letters from landlords. Sleeping in cars. Staycations (not trips to Myrtle Beach and Disneyworld). Beans and rice for dinner. Unemployment checks. All with the background noise of peak oil, climate change and drought.

How's all that for a slice of humble pie? I'm certainly eating it. All those years in college racking up debt while aspiring to build a career, own several homes, take weekend retreats and summer vacations (hey, maybe even travel overseas!), and retire at 60 could have been better spent preparing to live in an "earn less, make do" world. A world where people explore the nooks and crannies of their towns and cities rather than jet-setting, where homeownership exemplifies a person's commitment to their communities rather than a path to riches. A world where I have a blue-collar back-up to my white-collar 9 to 5.

Pride (as in "We Americans deserve it!") may have gotten us far in the the 20th century, but it will do us a disservice now. Sharing, sacrifice, solidarity, cooperation and common sense, all those things we pay lip service too, will be the currency that gets us through these next years and decades. It means sharing a house, a car, a garden. Counting the full cost of things you buy from production to sale.  Creating miracles for yourself and other people instead of waiting for them to drop out of the sky. Seeing God work in darkness as well as light.  

Throwing hissy fits is not going to get us through this deal.

Group seeks to overcome minority vulnerability to climate change

Did you know that African-Americans faced a higher immediate unemployment rate following the Middle Eastern oil embargos during the 1970s? Or that American families earning $10,000 or less per year spend 29 percent of their income on energy versus 13 percent for families with incomes between $10,000 and $25,000 and 4 percent for those earning more than $50,000?

Energy professionals and students from N.C. A&T State University gathered for a one-day conference on Thursday to discuss ways to overcome the vulnerability of minorities, particularly low income blacks, to climate change and environmental damage. The American Association for Blacks in Energy and the university co-sponsored the conference and the two hope to work together to provide internships and mentoring in the energy sector for engineering students.

Read more about the conference in Saturday's Monday's News & Record.

One of the reoccurring questions at the conference was the balance between innovation/technology and actual downsizing and sacrifice. For example, Carl Wilkins of Advanced Energy brought up the point that many newer model televisions use more energy than the older models and on top of that people just move the old tv to another room, not reducing energy consumption at all. Another issue is the paradox of energy efficiency in the fact that it can actually help increase consumption. So are we just kidding ourselves that Americans can actually have declining per capita energy consumption (let alone declining consumption as a population)?

One of the funnier points made was by Leslie Fields, director of environmental justice with the Sierra Club on how difficult it is to change the mindset of the American consumer:

"It is a huge disconnect," Fields said. "There is a disconnect in my own family. I'm a failed environmentalist. My brother drives an Escalade and he doesn't care what I think."

At lunch, Hilda Phinnix-Ragland of Progress Energy asked who in the room was driving an energy efficient vehicle. Only one person out of about 50 raised his hand (Read my reflection on that issue here). She asked who was conserving water? More hand went up, but there were several untouched glasses of water on the tables. Hello.

"We're so accustomed to heavy flows," Phinnix-Ragland said. "We expect to have water on the table whether we drink it or not."

But many at the conference aren't giving up hope. As Morry Davis of Peabody Energy Corp. cleverly put it: "There's no silver bullet. There's silver buckshot."

On a lighter note, UNCG had a strong turnout of about 175 people at the showing of Power of Community last night. After the showing, Joel Landau, owner of Deep Roots Market and former city council candidate, announced that he and others are working with Greensboro Mayor Yvonne Johnson to try to establish an environmental working group for city council. Let's hope for progress there.

USDA recalls already digested beef

Check out today's New York Times article about the U.S. Department of Agriculture issuing the nation's largest recall of ground beef (143 million pounds). It follows the airing of a scandalous undercover video showing workers abusing downed cows. How many times do you have to hear/see stuff like this before you just give up eating beef? 

Are the massive 2007 oil company profits good news?

Not necessarily, according to The Times (UK), The Daily Kos and the San Francisco Chronicle.