Thursday 10 September 2009

Doom porn #1 - Dan Miller - A Really Inconvenient Truth

Starting off with the much asked for doomer porn series is Dan Miller with his talk titled "A Really Inconvenient Truth". Apologies in advance to Dan Miller, who is by no means a doomer nor is his intentions to frighten people. Just tell it like it is and then work to find the solutions - both of which he's doing himself.


With that said, here's an hour worth of inconvenience for all of us on why IPCC estimates are actually the best case scenario and why it's unlikely that we'll end up in the best case scenario, but in something far worse.














What does this have to do with energy? Energy is food we eat (meat), mobility that moves us and our globalized stuff around (oil), our buildings (embedded energy) and thus, greenhouse gas emissions. Once oil and natural gas start going, what's left is coal and that's far, far dirtier in terms of climate change than the previous two. And that's the good stuff. Wait till we get to tar sands and oil shale. All of which won't be enough to mitigate the fall, but will still be burned and thus released into the atmosphere with no abandon.

This is why peak oil is such an important issue. It brings climate change related issues fast forward from the future to today - or actually, yesterday. We should have solved this stuff 15 years ago. We more than likely don't have till 2020 to start fixing, certainly not till 2050.

As you watch the video, ask yourself:
  • How do I feel?
  • Why do I feel like this?
  • Is there anything I can do to this emotion?
  • Is there anything I can do to stop the things causing this?