Welcome to our website. Kings Heath Transition is developing projects locally to build a more sustainable community in and around Kings Heath. Our aims are to work together in facing up to the twin challenges of peak oil and climate change in order to build a reslient community. Our website banner comes from the words of our members describing Kings Heath Transition.
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Click here to go to the Transition Network website for more information about Transition Towns. Another good place to find out about Transition thinking and developments is Transition Culture (blog of Ron Hopkins, co-founder of Transition Towns).
Some of us are just catching on to the sustainability issues you are highlighting so keep up the great work, it is good to make people aware by highlighting what is going on.
It is especially good to know such a committed and enthusiastic team are on our doorstep.
It is a shame that you are caugth up in the dual hoaxes that are climate change and peak oil.
And its a shame you haven’t left any contact details so that somone can respond to your statement! ozzz@blueyonder.co.uk
J. I tend to keep an open mind on all this. For me it depends on which conspiracy theory has any credibility versus the trendiest propaganda of the day issued through the mainstream media info-funnel. Somewhere in between there exists the truth – perhaps. I mean you can get views suggesting that “global warming” is all just a scaremongering conspiracy led by the 1% in support of their globalist agenda to subjugate the 99%. Others believe that “peak oil” is a certainty that will end in a crisis (as perpetrated by the 1%) that will result in purposeful mass famine and the collapse of society as indicated by a “eugenics agenda”.
Personally I’m not really convinced by man-made global warming (I don’t understand the science and neither do the scientists or policy-makers IMHO) but I am naturally persuaded by the peak oil argument. I also don’t believe in the infinite financial growth model as sold to us by Western governments in a world of finite material resources. For me the notion of peak oil is obvious. Oil being a fossil fuel, and thus by definition taking thousands, if not millions, of years to develop is not readily replenishable, yet we keep guzzling it with such an insatiable appetite. So at some stage, it’s going to run out or at least become increasingly difficult to extract as dwindling reserves only become apparent in ever demanding locations where the extraction cost-to-profit ratio becomes meaningless. But are we now at the point of peak oil, is it yet to come in the distant future or has it already been and gone? Who knows. But one day, I’m fairly convinced, we won’t be running individual vehicles off oil.
I also have an issue with gimmicks like the govt sponsored “Feed-in Tariff” scheme which appears to me to be a poor-to-rich stealth tax enabling the wealthy to benefit in the longer term once they’ve put the money up front to have inefficient photo-voltaic solar panels erected on their south facing roofs. I mean, who’s going to pay for this daft scheme in the end? The tax payer of course. And for those who were saving up to benefit from the obligation of utility companies to pay a subsidy to those in the scheme, well forget it. That subsidy has just been halved. I think in this country, ground and air source heat pumps would be a far more efficient and reliable system but what do I know. And for those who argue that we needed such schemes to bolster green business and support “Early Uptakers” who test markets and technologies, then fine. But tell it how it is.
The one criticism of this site? Quoting Goldman Sachs in their analysis of peak oil. I mean there are conspiracy theories and there are conspiracy theories. The one thing I’m pretty certain about is the controlling influence of an organisation that somehow brings into disrepute the very sovereignty of nation states, which for me, even implicitly dictates whether or not a country can have a referendum on its commitment to the Euro.
In the end it comes down to evidence and judgement. I’ve changed my mind on all this stuff before, no doubt I will do so again.
So J, don’t be too hard on KHTI. You might not agree with them, but at least they’re sticking their heads above the parapet for the likes of you and I to consider their motives and critique their research. The jury is well and truly open on this stuff.
Interesting comments.
The peak oil theory definitely does not ccme out of any capitalist conspiracy. Indeed, the opposite is the case as it has met such wide resistance from global businessses unitl relecently. It’s only now, when issues of fuel and food security have come more and more firmly into the forefront, that it’s difficult to ignore it. The fact that various global business organisations take it seriously is a testiment to their wish to maintain their markets and of course we must view their intentions with a great deal of scepticism. However, it doesn’t invalidate anything about the theory. Furthermore, even if we are wrong by 20 or 30 years in predicting peak oil, no-one disputes that we have already used virtually all the easily available oil. The rest can only be reached through much more expensive and environmentally hasardous operations, Oil will certainly become increasingly expensive worldwide and oil scarcity risks becoming an even greater factor in global conflict in the future. So, whatever the details, it makes sense to explore the alternatives.
I don’t think there is any doubt that climate change is also an urgent threat. The science is also pointing very firmly in one direction only in terms of human influences on factors affecting the climate, so why not do what we can to reduce the risks? Only a handful of scientists suggest humans might have little or no impact on climate change but they have had much more publicity than is warranted by the strength (or rather lack of strength) of their argument. Here is the real conspiracy, maybe encouraged by a wish to bury our heads in the sand when trouble looms. The model of greenhouse gasses building up to cause major climate problems has certainly been strongly validated and we shouldn’t waste valuable time and energy denying this. With carbon remaining in the atmosphere for 200 years, this is no time to get diverted from considering the consequences if we don’t act now.
As for the various government schemes to help us to deal with this …… far too little and almost too late…..