By Roger Diamond If I tell you there is a storm predicted for tomorrow night that is going to blow your roof off, you’ll listen. If I pass on a rumour your boss will fire you next month, you’ll also listen. But if I tell you your pension fund will collapse in twenty years time […]
Peak Oil Perspectives
POP believes that the problem posed by the imminent peaking of global oil production is something warranting serious attention.
The group is made up of a small yet diverse group that brings together theoretical skills on geology, economics and strategy, with practical application of alternative lifestyle choices.
POP is dedicated to raising awareness of "peak oil", its likely impacts on South African society and the possible solutions to living in an energy reduced future.
The contributors are all members of ASPO-SA
Posted inGeneral
Forget climate change, tackle something here and now
By Roger Diamond. Let me be clear — I am not a climate change denialist. But given the chance, that we all have, of selecting something meaningful to do with our lives, to leave a positive legacy or at least to reduce the negative impacts of our consumptive lifestyle, pick something tangible and manageable. Climate […]
Posted inGeneral
Climate change being blamed for too much
By Roger Diamond According to a recent news article in the Guardian (UK), parts of the Nile Delta are being flooded by rising sea levels. The rising sea levels are, of course, being blamed on climate change. Indeed, sea levels are apparently rising and it is almost certain that most of this rise is caused […]
Posted inLifestyle
Manage your expectations, not the future
We all have expectations of what our future could be like, but where do these come from and how true are they? The most obvious way to see what our lives could be like is to look at our parents and their peers. This is typically filled with some sense of revulsion that we’ll turn […]
Posted inLifestyle
Peak oil: Should I be worried?
By Roger Diamond Imagine one of those fine hotel buffets, with lots of food and places to sit, drinks to order and generally a good old time is being had by all. You’ve probably been there. Imagine the people just keep streaming into the restaurant steadily and the food just keeps being renewed, replaced, new […]
Posted inGeneral
The kind of disaster everybody wants
By Roger Diamond There’s something about being in trouble together, a binding force that brings people together, a mutual challenge or a common enemy. It seems to me that people would rather focus on such a threat, even though it’s remote or unlikely, than something more likely, but discriminatory. Take for example climate change, which […]
Posted inLifestyle
Reduce now or forever live in regret
By Roger Diamond We’ve been arguing the relative merits of nuclear power and other energy sources for the last few weeks, but I want to change tack and look at energy usage and ultimately, reducing it. This post will not be a list of 100 green tips for your household, as much as those are […]
Posted inLifestyle
If nuclear power is so great, why aren’t we doing it?
By Roger Diamond My last article generated some good discussion, including some vehement pro-nuclear commentators who reckoned I should climb back into my time capsule and go back to the 1980s. This post aims to point out the merits of such time travel! Firstly, if nuclear power is so great, why is it not being […]
Posted inGeneral
Nuclear power is well-disguised fossil fuel
by Roger Diamond As global warming gets hotter on the international political agenda, and with recent oil price volatility, the nuclear power proponents have jumped on a bandwagon to promote “the peaceful atom” as a means to power our society. Although some of these proponents are reasonable and measured about the realities of nuclear power, […]
Posted inGeneral
Economic growth a dream with dwindling oil supply
By Roger Diamond I hear and read everywhere that what we all “need” is economic growth, but nobody seems to be talking about how this can be done. Let’s make jobs, let’s stimulate industry, and so on, but not much proper thinking into the roots of what comprises economic activity. The simple fact of the […]
Posted inGeneral
Your life is awash with oil
By Roger Diamond Oil is filthy old stuff that causes nothing but pollution all the way through our use of it, but why, oh why do we keep going back for more. Pretty simply, we’re addicted. Whether it is good for us or not, and in the long term it undoubtedly is not, we are […]
Posted inLifestyle
Simple is good, simplistic not
By Roger Diamond I recently read there are proposals afoot that use a geoengineering approach to deal with climate change. Geoengineering involves making changes to the Earth’s surface and basic physical makeup on a scale that can influence large-scale systems such as weather, river flows and so on. Humans have been geoengineering for centuries, chopping […]