Griffith University in Queensland, Australia, and SFU are the educational equivalents of Sister Cites. Both of their urban studies departments are exchanging ideas and, next month, visits – with a public lecture scheduled for April 12:
.
Drs. Jago Dodson and Neil Sipe will discuss concepts and methods for investigating oil vulnerability in metropolitan areas with examples from Australia, the U.S. and Canada. This will be followed by a wider discussion of regional planning and technological responses to oil vulnerability including the role of electric vehicles.
Associate Professor Jago Dodson is Director of the Urban Research Program, and Associate Professor Neil Sipe is the Discipline Head of the Urban & Environmental Planning Program, both at Griffith University (Brisbane, Australia). In recent collaborative research, the two have proposed methods for defining and mapping transport exclusion and oil vulnerability, and have co-authored “Shocking the Suburbs: Oil Vulnerability in the Australian City.” They are currently co-editing “Planning after Petroleum” due to be published by Routledge later this year.
The “Peak Oil Future” is a different idea than the “Running Out of Oil Future”. It’s not about volume, it’s about rate. That’s why it’s called a “Peak”, and not the “End”. In other words we can’t produce enough to sustain the economy and the world. Yes we will have oil, but not for all of us. Essentially the floating surplus that keeps the game going will evaporate and we will turn into a world where 7 billion people will want the very next barrel of oil coming out of the ground. It will be the end of cheap oil and the world will collapse.
When we think of the discoveries like off the coast of Brazil, they all sound so promising(15 Billion Barrels of Oil). Unfortunately the world uses 31.3 billion barrels a year so a discovery of 15 billion would only last a half a year. That’s if we could pump it fast enough, which we can’t. Even Saudi Arabia can’t do that from dry land.
When we think of oil, we picture the gas tank analogy. When the needle reaches E for empty is when we are in trouble. The world does in fact have a trillion barrels of oil left to produce. The real analogy is like a Pearl Harbor reconnaissance plane flying its mission over the ocean. The plane flies as far as it can for as high as it can. The pilot fulfils the mission of aerial photography of enemy positions. At a certain point though the pilot knows he must turn around at the HALF WAY point of the gas gauge to make it back home. When the needle reaches at half the tank the pilot MUST RETREAT and DESCEND to make it back to base. When the world has produced as much oil as it ever can in one day (peaked), when it has flown as far as it can for as high as it can the world economy MUST RETREAT and DESCEND.
Anyone know if there a video recording of this talk available? If so, I’d love if you would post a link to check it out. Thanks!
Author
Steven
No video that I’m aware of.