I'm not sure which forum is proper for this one, but here goes. I wrote a letter to my representative at the finnish parlament, mr Kasvi. (the guy I voted for at last election) I wrote about peak oil, die-off and extinction of mankind and asked how are they prepared.

Now Kasvi's assistant called me. He told me that Kasvi had asked ministry of trade and industry what they are going to do about peak oil. They said that they haven't given any thought on that.

Kasvi's assistant wondered if global warming melts away artic glaciers, so that we could drill oil from there, but that sounded like a propeller-hat idea to me. It's no surprice to me that they are unprepared.

OMG! Is this for real? They actually said that? Global warning in their "solution" to peak oil?

Well, I'm impressed you got an answer, anyway. My representative would probably give me a form letter, if any reply at all.

I don't think he had thought that thing throughly before saying that. He also hoped that there wouln't be a superspike and price would go gradually up, boosting research for alternatives.

He called at a tough spot, I had trouble consentrating on the call as trains passed by making horrible noise.

Hi! I am new here, writing to you from The Netherlands. I actually did the same thing. I wrote an e-mail to the greenest party I could find here but I never got a reply. I guess that we are here -as anywhere else in the world- in big trouble too. There are some Dutch sites that mention Peak Oil. We even had a report on Peak Oil on television. This was last January. I think I've never seen a television host so shocked by what was told. The strange thing was however that one week later there was a new report (same program) with some experts stating that Peak Oil would not happen before 2035 and that by that time a new energy resource would be available. And that was it...they never mentioned it again.

As far as I can tell, Iceland is the only nation that has a plan for becoming free from fossil fuel.

Marry an Icelander and move there?

Wow, I'm not necessarily surprised that they are unaware and unprepared, but I'm surprised that they actually called you up to discuss it further! I've been thinking about doing the same here, but I need to find out who to get in touch with. It would be great to get some awareness on the subject before the election this fall.

They better get prepared for it or when it hits they'll be finnish'ed.

ugh I know, well someone had to say it..

That was actually kind of funny, you know in a dorky kind of way


Good job Tuike, if only we had more people like you who would try to inform their representatives about peak oil. It's a sad world though when people have to inform them and not the other way around and it's even more sad to hear a politcians assistant spit out that "if global warming melts away artic glaciers, so that we could drill oil from there" non-sense.

I don't think any government is really "prepared" to peak oil. But yeah
here in Finland the odds for politicians speaking up and informing people are pretty slim.I guess it's too much to ask for a debate about it in the parliament. And discussing about is only the first step, but they're not even willing to do that. What are the chances of them admitting that there is a problem that will effect the people that voted for them.

But you know them politicians, always thinking incredibly short-sightedly (is that even a word?) and lying through their teeth to get elected again.

What really bugs me is the finnish mainstream media which hasn't been reporting about peak oil too much. Yeah there was one segment in a big tv-program but when you think about the share scale of this issue, that isn't really enough, now is it?

And even if a newspaper taps onto the subject, they fail to connect the dots between rising oil prices and it's geopolitical implications (Iraq war, Bush regime trying to oust Chavez etc.)

One of the most ridiculous things that I've seen in a long time was when the biggest and most influental finnish newspaper (finns here know what rag I'm talking about) had an editorial article about Iran and it focused on
the same old bullshit propaganda about how the mad mullahs in Tehran mightpursue getting WMD's and how they should continue the talks with EU so there would be a peaceful solution. Can you believe this stuff?
I might have as well been reading the friggin' Washington Times.

Not a word about peak oil, the currency war or iranian oil bourse. Or about how US (with Israel and the coalition of the willing) will make sure that there isn't a peaceful solution if Iran won't ditch the plans about their own oil bourse.

I've wondered why they don't report these things, especially now since peak oil has hit mainstream even in the US mainstream media.
New York Times, the once paper of the record, covered it and there was even an article about it in the Rolling Stone for god's sake! And here all the papers write about is how the sheeple are getting angry when the price of fuel rises 5 cents.

I am so glad we have a media that truely afflicts the powerful and comforts the afflicted. [/ sarcasm off]


________________________________________________________

"I hate patriotism. It's a round world last time I checked" - Bill Hicks

Hey, I got an e-mail from Kasvi's assistant!

It says that there is a new EU directive, that precentual amount of biodiesel from fuel use should increase year after year.

mininum precent of biodiesel of all fuels
Year - %
2005 - 2,00
2006 - 2,75
2007 - 3,50
2008 - 4,25
2009 - 5,00
2010 - 5,75

He said that Finland has horrible biodiesel tax, but there is currently underway a proposal in the parlament that biodiesel tax should be removed.

Perhaps there are some preparations underway for peak oil after all.

BTW. Kasvi is a member of the Green party

I think that Finnish government is well aware of the peak oil. Finland upgraded the power of some nuclear reactors. And it will build the fifth nuclear reactor by 2009. Nuclear energy is a wise choice to deal with the rapidly increasing electricity demand in Finland rather than relying on gas and coal.

I wouldn't count on government knowing too much about peak oil. Some individuals probably but generally not.

Finland has active research on non fossil energy mainly for ecological reasons though. Nuclear powerplant decisions were not PO driven. There was large opposition on building the fifth nuclear PP and if an argument of probable and serious decline (withing 5-10 years) in fossil fuels had existed it would have been used.

Also I heard that Neste (Finnish oil company - refinery) is starting to build a big bio-diesel refinery and I think farming / vegetable oil companies such as Raisio are gearing up to be able to feed that refinery.

We are in good shape in sense that we do have forrestry industry that provides wood pellets etc. which are relatively commonly used for heating and in industries. But we do not have any fossil energy resources of pur own and we do have long distances so transportation is going to be a big problem as prices go up.

For normal transportation the high tax can be used in balancing changes though.

Heikki

And where do you get this info?

I have been sending articles to the Greens up here - mostly where greens around the world have commented on PO, along with more main stream press articles. They humor me and thank me for the information, but I suspect it gets trashed unread.

I have not yet met one icelander who has a clue(except my uncle, who I educated). The only writeup so far was in the daily tabloid - and then based on a article from the Guardian.

No. Iceland is in the middle of a growth orgy. Airlines are buying shitloads of planes. The banks and retailers are invading europe, buying other banks and companies. The housing prices have gone up more than 20% in just a few months. Personal debt is one of the highest in the world. The stock exchange is at its all time high. And everyone thinks it is here to stay.

Iceland may be better off than most, but it is far from being prepared for anything of this magnitude.

It's no big secret that the editors of Helsinging Sanomat have been Bilderberg-indoctrinated , and don't care for anything else but getting Finland in NATO and pushing their neoliberal economical agenda.

There will hopefully be an article about Iranian oil bourse in the next month (October) issue of Voima (add-funded alternative publication which if freely distributed in public libraries etc.).

I've been emailing about PO (and other energy related things) with Finnish MEP's Satu Hassi and Esko Seppänen, and both have been responsive - but not necessarily in agreement with my Trotskyist political views!

101, I found a link to the proposed Iceland project: link

Implented by a Norwegian company though. When it comes to best place to be after PO starts to hurt, my vote goes to Norway. 90% electricity from hydropower, huge supplies of natural gas and current oil production at 20 times domestic consumption (should be self-sufficient for a while ). Not to mention excellent location for windpower.

But the people here are whiners though... And the politicians don't have a clue here either. It's 100% luck that we're well off.

Vikings' times are to come back in that case ^^