Peak Oil - What is it all about?

The term 'Peak Oil' gets thrown about a bit in the media, but what is it all about?


Simply put, oil is a fossil fuel. We are extracting oil out of the ground at an incredibly fast rate. The 'peak' is when half of the oil is used. Out of the top 65 oil producing countries, 54 are past their peak and are now in decline.

As this graph shows we simply aren't finding enough oil to fill our insatiable demand.

Lots of articles, websites and lectures have been put together to make sense of it all.

Try this article on Richard Heinberg in the SMH; http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/when-oil-dries-up/2006/08/25/1156012745906.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap3

Richard's talks can be downloaded onto mp3. Well worth listening to. Try this one; http://www.globalpublicmedia.com/lectures/446

Watch the ABC TV Four Corners broadband edition on Peak Oil; http://abc.net.au/4corners/special_eds/20060710/

Or ABC's Catalyst program; http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/s1515141.htm

Visit ASPO (Australian Association for the study of Peak Oil and Gas); http://www.aspo-australia.org.au/

Sydney Peak Oil has a site; http://www.sydneypeakoil.com

And, go here too... http://www.eclipsenow.org/

Update

Zekie watering the Broccoli. Celery is wrapped in newspaper on the left to make the stems longer as it grows upwards to catch the sun.

Parsnips which were the amongst the first things planted have been going great. It's really pleasing to see them come good. Can't wait to eat them.

Loads of tomatoe plants, maybe a 10 or so. There's more to plant after the seedlings grow some more. Hopefully we can preserve the extras somehow.

On the left you can see the remains of the snap peas. They were hit hard by the frost and died after producing just a few peas.

Loads of stuff here. Lot's of Lettuce - too much for us to eat. The Yellow Zuccini is fantastic! Lot's of Brussel Sprouts and well as Lemon Thyme and Chinese Cabbage.

Some seeds have been planted in the seed boxes on the right.


Currently trying to work out where to plant all these seedlings. We are running out of room in the front yard, and will have to extend into the back yard.

Heres a list of what we have planted;
Spinach (6 Fantastic plants. We keep eating, they keep producing)
Silverbeet (appx 6, have produced all the Silverbeet we've wanted & more)
Strawberries (appx 15)
Cabbage (hit hard by bugs though. We need to learn more about organic pest control)
Cauliflower (also hit hard by bugs)
Red Onion
Celery
Spring Onion
Brussel Sprouts
Squash - Yellow
Squash - Green Buttons
Zucchini - Yellow
Chinese Cabbage
Cos Lettuce (Powering along. Too much for us and we've been able to give away a few lettuce plants)
Pumpkin - Golden Nugget
Chilli - Red Cayenne Hot
Eggplant
Rhubarb
Parnsip
Tomato -1st Prize
Tomato - Apollo
Tomato - Tiny Tom
Celeraic
Passionfruit
Capsicum
Jalepeno Peppers

And also some herbs;
Basil
Chives
Mint
Lemon Thyme
Thyme
Marjoram
Peppermint

And many varieties of seeds have just been planted in seedling containers.

All of the above has been planted in a very small area that borders the front garden.