Peak Oil News and Message Boards

Dear all you UK peakers, i have noticed that Peakoil.com gets a lot more postings than powerswitch does.

can we not start an orchastrated campaign to write to our MP's ASAP since UK energy policy is as useful as a vodka drunk in gorcky park in Moscow at the moment?

below is a recent letter i sent my local MP, although not the first time i sent one and yet to receive a reply:

Dear Sirs:

I f there is something that worries me, it's the current labor governments energy policy and the dangerous ramifications for Great Britain.

Malcolm wikes is running UK energy policy in the same fashion a drunk would run a pub. North sea oil and gas production has declined terminally last year and Britain will soon become hostage to foreign countries for energy supplies causing massive balance of payments deficits. This will have downward pressure on UK sterling forcing the bank of England to raise interest rates at a time when UK consumer debt is at record dangerous levels, causing record defaults of non secured loans and repo's of secured loans in the form of property having devastating effects on the Uk economy tipping Britain into recession.

The British public and there leaders have been asleep for the past 25 years with regard to energy policy, what do the Tories plan to do about this situation? Gordon Browne continues to do nothing, if that trend continues plus the unprecedented immigration into the UK we have seen over the past decade, Britain is in serious trouble.

A concerned constituent

Your MP-writing style could improve. My suggestions:

1) Avoid offensive expressions, such as "like a drunk runs a pub", "asleep", etc.

2) Instead of telling your MP stuff, ask questions. Questions demand an answer, and that means that somebody (possibly a secretary) will have to think about it. Telling people things, especially in an offensive way, doesn't require an answer or thinking anything except "another nutcase!".

Do you guys think there is enough time to switch?
My recommendation is: write to the news papers asking why you haven't got any response from your government in such a question. If your letter makes it to the papers I bet you’ll get their attention, and the general public’s attention maybe too.

Smiffy , you can write to your MP who will write to Minister for answers.

However you will get a standard reply, I have a letter from the previous energy minister as do several of the powerswitch members.

It reads something like 'The IEA says there is enough to meet demand for next 30 years if the investments are made, there is enough for a further 30 years with the development of shale, heavy oil and tar sands' etc etc

Total bullsh*t and I had to wait 6 months for this response.

Dear Doly,

You said "Avoid offensive expressions"...
Well, as a human, I agree...

However, as an engineer, I don't. I make many posts, and started new topics on forums, frankly I'm angry, and I express and show it.

Read how Simmons reacts or how Kunsler speaks, these are the real experts and they use "offensive expressions", maybe not like my language and my sarcasim...

It's the idiots that are running the world and destroying our future, and we must adjust our language so it all sounds good, and soft, and peaceful so we don't offend...

These leaders need to be smacked in the head, are they realy so stupid that they can't understand peak oil? Are they under so much pressure that they can't speak about it in real lagnuage? Maybe....

So many of these Peak Oil sites spend more time chosing language than talking about truth and speading PO info...

Regardless of what lagnuage is used, po will not be so diplomatic.

Leaf wrote:I predict a heavy backlash on him.

You’re predicting a heavy backlash against everyone! Don't worry I'm compiling a book atm, the worst predictions of all time - you'll be famous one day!

Don't bother writing to MPs. It's better to:

1. Form a lobby group.

2. Write a letter to a newspaper or special interest magazine.

The idea is to build a critical mass.

'The IEA says there is enough to meet demand for next 30 years if the investments are made, there is enough for a further 30 years with the development of shale, heavy oil and tar sands' etc etc

The shortspan of Politicians and Business. 30 years of the most vital energy resource to current civilization is time to wake up and act fast, even panic....

Ahh well I suppose it's someone elses problem to them...if only.......

BTW we have a British MP who posts on Powerswitch. His name is John Hemming and he is a liberal democrat MP.

I think he may even be running for the leadership with energy as a key policy.

I dont think he expects to win , but it will be good publicity for energy issues.

Trouble is, this is one of those 'cry wolf' subjects and it's not really all that scientific - although it does have some well qualified supporters.

The BBC did an 'End of Oil' programme in the 1970s, about 30 years too early. If someone runs with it, then they can be caught out. Having said that, Climate Change and the end of North sea Oil are important subjects for the UK and it's not really too early to start planning/making changes.

Wildwell wrote:Trouble is, this is one of those 'cry wolf' subjects and it's not really all that scientific - although it does have some well qualified supporters.

The BBC did an 'End of Oil' programme in the 1970s, about 30 years too early. If someone runs with it, then they can be caught out. Having said that, Climate Change and the end of North sea Oil are important subjects for the UK and it's not really too early to start planning/making changes.

This is my approach as well. Sheeple will not believe that oil is running out no matter what, and we don't know for sure, either. My line while I was back in UK was to say "Granted, we don't know how much oil we have left. But the North Sea depletion is a fact, Middle East instability is a fact, and UK dependency on fossil fuels is a fact. Better to be prepared for all scenarios, not just the best one."

Not that I was hugely successful. Brits LOVE their cars, the gas heaters and US-style lifestyles, plus quite a few seem to have almost pathological hatred against renewables -just count the number of trees in UK. Sherwood forest has ONE tree left.

Still I loved living in UK while it lasted.

smiffy wrote:Dear all you UK peakers, i have noticed that Peakoil.com gets a lot more postings than powerswitch does.

can we not start an orchastrated campaign to write to our MP's ASAP since UK energy policy is as useful as a vodka drunk in gorcky park in Moscow at the moment?

....

The British public and there leaders have been asleep for the past 25 years with regard to energy policy, what do the Tories plan to do about this situation? Gordon Browne continues to do nothing, if that trend continues plus the unprecedented immigration into the UK we have seen over the past decade, Britain is in serious trouble.

A concerned constituent

I honestly don't think getting peak oil to the attention of the collection of village idiots running the country is going to help now as we're staring at the peak right now. Actually I do wonder, if we did manage to get someone there aware of reality - what could we actually expect them to do ? They're not going to go against the "free market" or implement anything that might lose them votes.

Our long term plan for energy three years ago was natural gas, looking at their track record I'd say the rule now is quick fixes only. They haven't shown a single care about the future state of the country beyond the next election.

Even the past years events didn't wake anyone up short of Gordon Brown asking OPEC to supply more oil (thus reducing the price - cunning ploy hey! Shame they didn't fall for that one ).

Longsword wrote:Sheeple will not believe that oil is running out no matter what, and we don't know for sure, either.

Well, unless one takes the line that oil is abiotic, is being formed in quantities that would satisfy our needs forever and that we'll discover how to tap such quantities before the stuff we have found runs out, then there is no question that oil began to run out when the first barrel gushed out. That's the problem with a finite resource; it's finite.

I agree, though, that this simple fact is lost on most people.

Tony

Longsword wrote:
Sherwood forest has ONE tree left.

I was in Sherwood Forest just before Christmas and I saw considerably more than one tree, where did you get your information?

mrniceguy wrote:

Longsword wrote:
Sherwood forest has ONE tree left.

I was in Sherwood Forest just before Christmas and I saw considerably more than one tree, where did you get your information?

I lived in Nottingham for four years. They were showing this ancient tree as the sole survivor of the forest to the tourists. Having said that, there could be other small pockets left of the forest somewhere around it that I was not not aware of. If so, I apologise, I was misled by the signs at Sherwood forest.

My point though is that UK is hardly betting on renewables such as forestry.

The only way you would ever alert the UK public to peak oil, would be by getting either Matt Simmons or Colin Campbell into the 'Big Brother' household.

Personally, I was hoping for a few power cuts as we went into Christmas, or maybe a few instances of that grand old British tradition of clearing the supermarket shelves whenever a shortage is forecast.

It will take observable effects, rather than 'what if?' discussions, before this country wakes up to anything.

Meanwhile, back at the bread and circuses . . .

untothislast wrote:The only way you would ever alert the UK public to peak oil, would be by getting either Matt Simmons or Colin Campbell into the 'Big Brother' household.

I disagree. When I organized a Brighton peak oil meeting, with minimal resources, the response surprised me. There is more awareness than one normally sees.

Doly wrote:I disagree. When I organized a Brighton peak oil meeting, with minimal resources, the response surprised me. There is more awareness than one normally sees.

Doly, I'm genuinely pleased to hear that.

But the problem is, Brighton is completely atypical of the UK as a whole, being a socially progressive and generally issue-aware place, and a hotbed of generally 'green' groups.

I don't think I'd raise quite the same level of interest in Birkenhead!