Greenest Before Dawn

Discussion with a Peak Oil (PO) activist about whether drilling for oil in ANWR is relevant to Peak Oil. (See Conoco deals ANWR drilling a blow.)

B: ANWR is a key oil vs environment issue, one we’ll see repeated again and again. Not just in the US, but worldwide.

L: Yes, which is why i feel need to focus on the donut not the hole, the disease not the symptoms.

B: Pressure on the oil companies seems to have paid off. Other groups may want to imitate these tactics

L: For how long tho, has ANWR been saved? Do you really think most ppl will give a stuff about beasties 100s of kms away when their heat goes off, or will they then say drill/dig/stripmine whereever the stuff is? Saving bits now, without stopping the culture of consumer capitalism, only means those bits will go last. Its like waking up to discover house is on fire, grabbing yr fav memento’s & running upstairs – no point if the house is still on fire, got to put the fire out.

B: Would it be accurate to say that you see PO as a spike, a relatively sudden event that will cause panic and disruption? If so, it would make sense to focus on the underlying problem (“consumer capitalism”) and fix it, presumably through small low-energy communities à la Ted Trainer.

I see PO instead as a set of interlocking crises … environmental, political, economic, cultural… that will manifest themselves in different places and different times. The mindset and infrastructure have taken hundreds of years to build up; unwinding the fossil fuel society will be a long, bumpy, multi-faceted process. For me, the important things are to make connections and establish alliances.

Thus, ANWR is an opportunity to understand the inter-connection between consumerism, oil, and environmental destruction. I recently saw “Oil on Ice”, a documentary that made these points. (Also see a page on the relationship of ANWR to energy). I talked to one of the filmmakers, who told me they were aware of PO and their next film would emphasize it. I said I would try to write a review of the film… maybe the discussion with you will prompt me into going ahead with it.

I don’t necessarilly share the recommendations of the film — for example in their emphasis on hybrid cars as a significant solution. But for me, the question is not whether I agree with them 100%, but are they going in the right direction and can we work together?

L is a smart guy with a gift for incisive criticism, so I await his next reply.