A local community response to Peak Oil and Climate Change

by Admin on September 11, 2012

We often forget, or perhaps do not even realise, how dependant on oil we have become. Oil is the biggest single source of the world’s energy. In the short term, we already know that vital public services like ambulances, fire-engines and public transport are all put in jeopardy when fuel supplies run low.

But oil is also fundamental to our modern means of food production and large scale agriculture has become almost totally reliant on cheap crude oil. It is essential to manufacture and run its tractors, combine harvesters and other farm machinery, and vast amounts of oil and gas are used as raw materials and energy in the manufacture of fertilisers and pesticides.

Harvested crops and food products require yet more energy for processing and packaging, and fuel to transport the final products to factories, warehouses and shops.

One shopping basket of 26 imported organic products could have travelled 241,000

kilometres and released as much CO2into the atmosphere as an average four

bedroom household does through cooking the meals over 8 whole months! Locally produced food is not only fresher and healthier, it avoids the ‘food miles’ incurred in transporting it long distances.

Such inefficient use of energy results in increasing CO2 emissions which in turn results in more environmental damage and frequently reductions in crop harvests. And other problems emerge as less developed countries which used to account for 26% of oil demand in the early 1970s develop their own energy intensive systems. Demand for oil and energy in the new economies of China and India is fast increasing and will no doubt continue to grow.

If we are honest we must know that fossil fuels can’t last forever, but are we investing enough in alternative sources of energy like solar power and wind farms? Shouldn’t we be encouraging people to reduce their energy consumption?

We believe the Vale can become a low-carbon economy! We can respond in a practical way to the challenges of peak oil and climate change! Why don’t you join us?

For more information, please download our Peak Oil Leaflet

box garage in legno prezzi May 1, 2015 at 7:12 pm

Altri vantaggi si hanno nei brevi tempi di esecuzione e spesso, ma
non sempre, i costi piĆ¹ contenuti.

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