A few things to think about before Xmas 2006- Another week in the Capital
With the recent fall in oil prices many residents of greater Wellington got back into their cars and clogged up the motorways during peak times. The nearly completed bypass got a new name. The Regional Council missed a window of opportunity for transport mode shift, while local and and regional councillors sat on their hands during the fuel shock.
Peak Oil proponents had been warning of of the coming crisis. Public transport failed to deliver a suitable alternative and with the oil price dropping the public voted with their feet and got back into their cars. Even the use of the humble bicycle has fallen! People feel it is just too dangerous with inconsiderate motorists-shame.
You can't blame commuters not wanting to stand for twenty minutes after a long day in trains built in Eastern Europe in the 1960s. After all, the reinforcement of social status by motor vehicle manufacturers and oil companies for the best part of a hundred years has locked us in a behavioural iron box.
That brings me to another more pressing issue that we appear unable to address in the hierarchy of inconvenient truths that are emerging in the popular culture, and begrudgingly in the media, in sufficient doses of confusion to bewilder ordinary folk. I'm talking about the problem of global dimming that has come about by carbon admissions. If you want to know more about this serious sequence of unattended events just type global dimming into Google and get educated about what a mess we are now in.
You would think that local government and government would be able to do what the rest of us are able to do just by sitting at our laptops for a few minutes and thinking. It appears there is a problem that prevents even that when it comes to administrating our public affairs. I suppose it can be rationalised by a Tofflerism, namely that we are still in the grip of "second wave institutions"(1). Added to that is the fact that we are all carbon based junkies driven by consumer vampires.
At Friday's Strategy and Policy Committee, myself and Councillors Ritchie and Ruben, tried to get Wellington City Council to fund the legal costs of a group of conservationists with their Environment Court appeal against Council's Consent for a Fish Zoo and cafe at Te Rae kai hau Point. However, BMW driving little blue penguin saving Councillor Ahipene-Mercer and Green Councillor Wade Brown would have nothing to do with it. Ahipene-Mercer launched a vitriolic attack on us for wanting to protect the rights of opponents of the destruction of Te Rae Kai hau Point. Councillors Wade-Brown and Ahipene Mercer prefer to support the commercialisation of this natural heritage. God save us from the Greens.
*The Third Wave /Alvin Toffler
Cheers
Bryan Pepperell
Peak Oil proponents had been warning of of the coming crisis. Public transport failed to deliver a suitable alternative and with the oil price dropping the public voted with their feet and got back into their cars. Even the use of the humble bicycle has fallen! People feel it is just too dangerous with inconsiderate motorists-shame.
You can't blame commuters not wanting to stand for twenty minutes after a long day in trains built in Eastern Europe in the 1960s. After all, the reinforcement of social status by motor vehicle manufacturers and oil companies for the best part of a hundred years has locked us in a behavioural iron box.
That brings me to another more pressing issue that we appear unable to address in the hierarchy of inconvenient truths that are emerging in the popular culture, and begrudgingly in the media, in sufficient doses of confusion to bewilder ordinary folk. I'm talking about the problem of global dimming that has come about by carbon admissions. If you want to know more about this serious sequence of unattended events just type global dimming into Google and get educated about what a mess we are now in.
You would think that local government and government would be able to do what the rest of us are able to do just by sitting at our laptops for a few minutes and thinking. It appears there is a problem that prevents even that when it comes to administrating our public affairs. I suppose it can be rationalised by a Tofflerism, namely that we are still in the grip of "second wave institutions"(1). Added to that is the fact that we are all carbon based junkies driven by consumer vampires.
At Friday's Strategy and Policy Committee, myself and Councillors Ritchie and Ruben, tried to get Wellington City Council to fund the legal costs of a group of conservationists with their Environment Court appeal against Council's Consent for a Fish Zoo and cafe at Te Rae kai hau Point. However, BMW driving little blue penguin saving Councillor Ahipene-Mercer and Green Councillor Wade Brown would have nothing to do with it. Ahipene-Mercer launched a vitriolic attack on us for wanting to protect the rights of opponents of the destruction of Te Rae Kai hau Point. Councillors Wade-Brown and Ahipene Mercer prefer to support the commercialisation of this natural heritage. God save us from the Greens.
*The Third Wave /Alvin Toffler
Cheers
Bryan Pepperell
posted by pepptalk at 7:19 AM
2 Comments:
Kia ora Pepp.
Pepp says:- "one could be excused for thinking that things have gone to the dogs." Woof woof: - the top dogs and the fat cats!
Paimarire
Roz
<2007 oil intelligence>
Comments: What is worrisome and unfortunate is how policy makers in the US and the EU -- in association with NGOs -- are using climate change as a tool to tackle Peak Oil. This is wrong for several reasons: 1) The public will not feel threatened by a problem that is not immediate and will therefore be reluctant to take action 2) By not openly discussing Peak Oil and the world's energy predicament, policy makers are leaving the public in the dark about the single issue that is most relevant to everyone's livelihood and future. Scaring the bee-Jesus out of everyone for the wrong reason will not be conducive to achieving a global change in energy consumption behavior in the short-run. Whenever confronted by a problem, our government attempts to address it; its solutions and methods are questionable and violent, and almost always lead to the senseless loss of life. I don't see our government at this juncture doing anything to really fight global warming, say dramatically reducing the consumption of hydrocarbon energy domestically and forcing other nations -- with the threat of war -- to follow suit; rather, I see it engaged in war (direct and proxy) on many fronts for the control of the oil reserves in the Middle East and the Caucuses: our government's tailored solution to Peak Oil. You guess now which of the two problems [Global Warming or Peak Oil] is more urgent.)
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