Journalist Tom Whipple
Portland – March 14
Tom strikes again. Once again, the Falls Church News-Press alerts me to the news of the completion of the Report by the Portland Task force on Peak Oil, commissioned by the Portland City Council in May, 2006, with instructions to recommend actions to deal with that impending crisis. The report is out, and it is, to use an archaic phrase, a humdinger. Notably, the Task Force was composed of significant members from government, business and various organizations and citizen groups. They’re not messing around. They see a big bad problem and they tell the City Council what to do in no uncertain terms.

Quoting Tom, “As someone who is familiar with the literature and follows the peak oil story on a daily basis, I can report that the folks on the Portland Peak Oil Task Force have produced a succinct, outstanding report that should be read by every local official everywhere. While there will naturally be many local variations, Portland’s approach to the problem contains much that seems universally applicable.”

You can read Tom’s 3/14 article on EB (www.energybulletin.net) and click the link to the Task Force Report. Or you can go directly to the Report itself at www.portlandonline.com/shared/cfm/image.cfm?id=145732.

Whipple Wave Theory
I’ve admired journalist Tom Whipple before and I’m going to do it again. Tom has initiated what appears to be a series of articles appearing in the Falls Church News-Press. He is speaking of four great inter-related waves that threaten to overwhelm us. Each influences the other, and Tom offers only to watch what’s happening, rather than make predictions on which order or when they will arrive. The series was begun 3/1/07, with a follow-up piece on 3/8/07, all on EB. Be interesting to see if he continues the reports. Rather than try to summarize a splendid writer, I’ll quote the first paragraph of the 3/8 article.

“Last week I discussed how the great crisis could be thought of as four interrelated sub crises: peak oil production, peak oil exports, climate change, and economic decline. Each of these will have an impact on the others and the order in which they arrive and interact with each other is likely to have a lot to do with our lifestyles in decades to come.

You want to know what’s the difference between peak oil production and peak oil exports, read Tom’s 3/1 piece. Tom writes well, something I admire, he’s well read, something else I admire, and as far as I can tell he’s straight-arrow. Tells it like it is without subterfuge and hidden messages. Also, since we’re on the same wave-length I find him a jolly good read.

Available to anyone on EB and they have re-publication rights which I don’t have.

Lane County News
The U of O Climate Leadership Initiative is proceeding as planned, with the first class of Climate Masters working their way through their curriculum. When completed, the 29 residents of the selected area will receive their diplomas and be prepared for the next step. They will go out into their community, offer and perform audits on household energy consumption, and show/tell residents how to save energy and reduce expenses. The U of O will monitor the program, and if it shows promise will expand it into additional neighborhoods, until some sort of saturation is achieved. Very promising indeed. According to the Portland Peak Oil Task Force, folks are going to need to know.

IPCC Assessment Report No. 4
The completion of AR4, of which the Summary for Policy Makers was recently published, is proceeding nicely. Reports on the contents of the actual science are reputedly raising eyebrows - dire consequences suggested in at least some parts of the world – among those who know what the reports are going to say. It would be uncommonly difficult to keep the lid entirely on these things – something like 1200 scientists are involved in constructing the reports, and then the representatives of, if I remember correctly, 140 governments get a whack at it. Scientists don’t believe in keeping a lid on information in any case, and there’s not much concern about secrecy anyway. The only thing scientists concern themselves about are reports that are not actually based on the science itself. A watchful eye on the IPCC web sight, and checking on what’s reported by the four work groups will keep interested observers fully up to date. Note: the full report will be lengthy indeed. It will be published in book form, probably not too long after the full report is in later this year.

England
The British government, frequently allied with Washington, parts company on climate change. Tony Blair has submitted legislation containing a binding obligation to reduce carbon emissions. The mandated targets change with time, until a sixty percent reduction is greenhouse gas emissions is realized by 2050. It is the British hope that the U.S., China and India can be induced to take action themselves.

Personal Business
I shall soon launch myself upon what I trust will be a splendid journey using Via Rail (trans Canada) and Amtrak. The final destination is Atlanta, where my son has recently returned from Baghdad. Unhappily, he’s talking about a return to that place and I felt it wise to go see him for a few days.

In August of 2001 (a month prior to 9/11) I took flight from California to Portland, where my mother had passed away. Security at the airport hassled me half to death on that occasion (did you know shoes have a metal piece in them? I didn’t. She (the lady at the gate) did. Waited a goodly length of time to let me know about it. Got to glare and scowl and demand I try harder in the meantime. She knew all along what the problem was.) Recalling that and the truly awful conditions in at least the economy section, I quite dislike the idea of ever getting on one of those things again.

I’m told the Canadian Rockies are rather grand, even at this time of year. And that trip down the Mohawk and Hudson is truly awesome – been there, done that. I’m traveling first class on the train (too darn many days not to see a bed and a bath), so I intend the trip to be delightful. I’ll carry my Ipod and a chunk of library, and possibly even a dram of single malt. Be envious. Be back middle of April. ‘Till then.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 16th, 2007 at 8:58 am and is filed under Energy Future, Environment, General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.