Nicole Foss on Peak Oil

The third installment of The Nation's, Peak Oil and a Changing Climate is now on-line. I posted about the previous episodes that included an overview of the series and one featuring Richard Heinberg.

The latest episode is by Nicole Foss: We Need Freedom of Action to Confront Peak Oil. Here is the blurb:

In the third video in the series “Peak Oil and a Changing Climate” from The Nation and On The Earth productions, co-editor of The Automatic Earth, Nicole M. Foss, explains how energy relates to the economy and what our impending energy crisis will look like. Foss discusses the issues associated with peak oil in financial rather than environmental terms, because she finds that peak oil has much more to do with finance than it does with climate change.

Foss talks about what she calls a “false positive feedback loop,” which involves optimism leading to “caution being thrown to the wind.” When this happens, Foss believes that people become angry. Succumbing to fear and anger might lead to engagement in destructive behavior, which would make it harder for society to confront peak oil and climate change.

Reacting to former vice president Dick Cheney, who once said "the American way of life is not negotiable," Foss says, "That's true because reality is not going to negotiate with you."

She says:

I tell people, this is coming. You must resist the temptation to engage in behaviors based on fear and anger. There is no point in worrying about what you no longer have and trying to play a blame game. A lot of people will do it. It just sucks the energy right out of you. You simply have to say that was then and this is now and move on and say what can we do. We have to stay in a constructive head space.

Here is your midnight movie:



I am going to be making a presentation on Peak Oil during Sunday's adult forum. Join us at 9:45. I have made a powerpoint presentation and will put it on our congregation's website next week.