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Thursday January 01 1970

Fuelling the Future Conference

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Thursday April 21, 2005 16:59

by Rob Hopkins - Fuelling the Future

info at fuellingthefuture dot org

Kinsale, Co. Cork

023 47001

The Challenge and Opportunity of Peak Oil - a community conference

A 2 day conference on community responses to the coming energy crisis.
Full details at www.fuellingthefuture.org
Kinsale Further Education College, Kinsale, Co. Cork
Saturday 18th – Sunday 19th June 2005

Many experts are now agreeing that world production of oil is reaching its peak and that we have reached the point of maximum production from which the only way is down. What will this mean for a country as dependent on oil as Ireland (Ireland has the 7th highest consumption per person of any country in the world, the USA is 30th)? We import over 80% of our food, and over 85% of our energy. How can be begin be become more self reliant, and thus less at the mercy of international events?

‘Fuelling the Future’ is a two day conference which will bring together many of the world’s experts on what is known as Peak Oil, and at how the impending energy crisis will affect our lifestyles, our communities and how we design our economy. From this point on, world oil production will no longer be able to keep up with demand, it is in effect the end of the age of cheap oil. This has profound implications for how we feed ourselves, house ourselves, and organize our communities, as well as where we live and work. Hosted at Kinsale Further Education College, home to the ground-breaking Practical Sustainability course, which has done much to bring permaculture and other aspects of sustainability into mainstream education, this weekend is about solutions as well as problems, what we can do ourselves to prepare for a lower-energy future.

Speakers include;

Richard Heinberg – author of The Party’s Over – oil, war and the fate of industrial societies, and Powerdown – options and actions for a post-carbon future, Richard is one of the world’s leading lecturers on Peak Oil and what we can do about it.

Richard Douthwaite – economist, author and founder of FEASTA, the Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability, Richard writes extensively on ‘green’ economics and on localization. He is author of many books, most recently he edited FEASTA’s latest book ‘Growth – the Celtic Cancer’. He lives in Westport, Co. Mayo.

Dr Colin Campbell is regarded by many as the foremost authority on how much oil is left in the world, where it is and much longer we have until the oil crisis really starts to hit home. He worked in the oil industry for 30 years, and since his retirement he has dedicated himself to the Association for the Study of Peak Oil.

David Holmgren is the co-founder of permaculture, together with Bill Mollison in the 1970’s, since when he has devoted himself to demonstrating and teaching permaculture, both in his native Australia and around the world. David’s latest book. ‘Permaculture – principles and pathways beyond sustainability’ has done much to reposition permaculture and to place it right in the centre of the whole sustainability debate.

Rob Hopkins teaches permaculture at Kinsale Further Education College and widely around Ireland. A founding director of The Hollies Centre for Practical Sustainability, he has done much to pioneer permaculture design and natural building in Ireland, and was recently awarded Cork Environmental Forum’s prestigious Roll of Honour award.

Jim O’Connor runs www.planorganic.com, Ireland’s foremost organic farming website, which attracts over 65,000 hits per day. He is an outspoken advocate of organics and of a common sense approach to farming and land use.

Eamonn Ryan is a Green Party TD, and is the first member of the Dail to use the term Peak Oil. He is leading the way in mainstream politics as regards the Peak Oil issue, what does it mean for Ireland, and what can we do about it?

In addition to the main speakers, the programme will also include breakout sessions looking at areas such as renewable energy options, local currencies, local food, natural building, creating sustainable community and fuel crops. These will be led by some of the country's leading experts in the field.

For the latest line up and all the information about the conference, as well as for booking, please visit the Confererence’s website, www.fuellingthefuture.org

To find out more either phone 087 635 9662
Email – info@fuellingthefuture.org
Or write to The Hollies Centre for Practical Sustainability, Castletown, Enniskeane, Co. Cork, Ireland.

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Comments (3 of 3)

WHAT WILL WE EAT AS THE OIL RUNS OUT?

by dunk

Fri Jun 17, 2005 13:26

http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=70245
should link in with your stuff

have you a community garden, do you want to start one?

Re: WHAT WILL WE EAT AS THE OIL RUNS OUT?

by Terry

Fri Jun 17, 2005 14:30

Well the oil isn't running out. The Cheap oil though is running out.

What we will eat? Well obviously industrial agriculture which has been so incredibly destructive is going to cost an awful lot more, even though the environmental costs which have never been added are very high, -its going to lead hopefully to a lot more organic agriculture because the manufacture of fertilizers and pesticide is very energy intensive making industrial agriculture 'uneconomic'.

The only problem though is, land that has been subjected to fertilizers and intensive agriculture, when these inputs are removed, the soil fertility can plummet and it can take years with lots of care and work to return those soils to their former fertility.

See for example: The Limits of Energy Based Agricultural Systems and the "North Korean Food Crisis" at
http://www9.ocn.ne.jp/~aslan/dprkeng0409.pdf
More interesting docs at
http://www9.ocn.ne.jp/~aslan/

In this document the author shows what happened to North Korean during the 1990s when their was an oil embargo imposed on North Korean largely at the behest of the US. In effect what happened was an experimental version of the End of the Cheap Oil scenario. The production of fertilizer due to energy shortages dropped by more than 50% and resulted in dramatically reduced fertility in its soils which were farmed industrially for years. As we all know famine occurred there during this period.

What is interesting is that you would imagine under the despotic rule there, everything would be centrally planned and prioritized and fertilizer production would get preference. Clearly it didn't and the whole thing has important lessons for the rest of us.

June 18

by iosaf

Thu Jun 30, 2005 01:43

one those dates in your agenda.
twas an anniversary. 'twas a day of mass mobilisation.
twas the first annual autistic pride day.
and it saw this article by michael clark a londoner published as part of [ the related to above event ]
ongoing examination of british and part british corporate control of gas. It concerns the imminent "soar" in gas prices,
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/business/articles/timid401466?source=This%20is%20Money-
throughout the european union, but focussed on London a big city of many millions of people which uses BP stored and processed gas from scotland which is resold by various end-supply users.
This however is a bit dis-ingenious as gas is one of the fossil fuels "in shortening supply" which lends itself well to second storage and thus price speculation and "cartel-esque market value manipulation".
That means it sort of belongs in the rock strata that held it for squillions of years, its first storage, and thereafter it gets moved...........
oft by pipeline.
& before it gets to your house, to cook your favourite brekkies, (if you cook your brekkie not everyone does) it often gets "stored".
the second storage.
Now for the purpose of "share value", the storage is generally exagerated. As was the case with Shell Oil consistently over the period 2001-2004.
Ireland & Europe enjoying the "preferential" (what sarcasm) trade status / stata / statum
that we do with the largest gas reserve producing states on earth, know about storage.
Coz the poor people store gas.
And other people buy stock in it.
think about it. Inquiry time. (you can be an expert too)

http://www.energybulletin.net/4235.html
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/business/articles/timid401466?source=This%20is%20Money-
http://www.energybulletin.net/6798.html
http://www.countercurrents.org/peakoil-blance170404.htm
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=11391
"you are held in a queue & your call will be answered shortly"

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Comments (3 of 3)