Peak Oil AND Climate Change

Aubrey Meyer runs the Global Commons Institute and is the creator of the approach to climate change known as Contraction and Convergence.



[T]he confluence of the two [peak oil and climate change] still remains, for me, problematical, and ... relative to climate change ... the problem of oil depletion was immediate, in the sense that people felt the need to start planning for coping with peak more quickly than somehow taking account of planning for climate change. The psychology of preparing for peak, on the face of it, may appear similar, we’ll develop Transition Town Totnes programmes everywhere, local food, local production, local sustainable energy systems and so on, whatever it is, in the belief that doing this secures you against the consequences of oil depletion and, quote, you’re “OK”. It’s the last bit which is the problematical bit. You may be, against oil depletion, but you can definitely not make those assumptions about being OK vis-à-vis climate change.

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