In February 2005, the UFPPC book discussion series Digging Deeper undertook a study circle to study a number of recent books that examine the problem of global peak oil - the moment when world oil production peaks and begins to decline. -- This circle has generated substantial interest and will be extended beyond February to include Mar. 7, 14, and 21. It's not too late to participate....
WHAT: DIGGING DEEPER III: The UFPPC Study Circle on Peak Oil
WHO: Ted Nation, a longtime activist in the field of energy, and Mark Jensen, an associate professor at Pacific Lutheran University, will help facilitate discussions
WHEN: Monday evenings in February and March (Feb. 7, 14, 21, & 28 & Mar. 7, 14, & 21)
WHERE: Mandolin Café, 3923 S. 12th St., Tacoma
There is no charge for participation. For more information, or to obtain one of the books to be discussed, contact Ted Nation at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 253-983-8997, or Mark Jensen at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 253-756-7519.
In February and March 2005, the UFPPC book discussion series Digging Deeper will form a study circle to examine the problem of global peak oil - the moment when world oil production peaks and begins to decline. You are invited to participate.
As Michael Klare wrote recently in The Nation (Nov. 8, 2004): The concept of peak oil derives from the pioneering research of M. King Hubbert, a prominent geophysicist who worked for many years at Shell Oil in Houston. In the early 1950s Hubbert determined that the oil output of any given field or reservoir typically follows a parabolic (bell) curve: at first, production rises very rapidly as the largest and most accessible stores of oil are developed; eventually, the rate of increase begins to decline . . . eventually, daily field output achieves its maximum attainable, or peak, level, and then begins an irreversible decline, moving ever closer to zero as all remaining supplies are exhausted. The concept of global peak oil follows logically when the entire earth is thought of as an oilfield. (For a guide to the many online discussions of peak oil, see news.scotsman.com/scitech.cfm?id=222982004.)
Fears of the permanent depletion of oil reserves have always existed in the petroleum industry. For many years discoveries have arrived in time to supplement global production (extraction, really) capacity. But many believe that this cannot continue much longer, and that we may now be on the cusp of the peak oil curve. As Nicolas Sarkis wrote in Le Monde diplomatique in July 2004, The debates that arose at the international conference organized last May in Berlin by the Association for the Study of Peak Oil (ASPO) are not very reassuring. Whatever the points of view of the two schools of so-called optimists and pessimists, discoveries are becoming more and more rare and less and less significant: only one giant field (Kashagan, in Kazakhstan) has been found in the last thirty years, and new discoveries are not keeping up with the oil extracted each year. As one geologist put it very nicely, oil exploration has come to be like a hunting party in which technological progress allows the hunter to shoot with more and more skill, but game is becoming smaller and more and more hard to find.
What are the facts? What will peak oil mean for the nation and the world? What is its connection to global climate change? What does peak oil mean for war and peace? UFPPC invites you to explore these issues in February.
The UFPPC Study Circle on Peak Oil will examine five books:
· Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America's Growing Dependency on Imported Petroleum, by Michael T. Klare (Metropolitan Books, 2004)
· Boiling Point: How Politicians, Big Oil and Coal, Journalists and Activists Are Fueling the Climate Crisis - and What We Can Do to Avert Disaster, by Ross Gelbspan (Basic Books, 2004)
· The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight: Waking Up to Personal and Global Transformation, by Thom Hartmann (Three Rivers Press, 1999)
· The Party's Over: Oil, War and the Fate of Industrial Societies, by Richard Heinberg (New Society, 2003)
· Winning the Oil Endgame: Innovation for Profit, Jobs, and Security, by Amory Lovins (Rocky Mountain Institute, 2005) ― available as free download at www.oilendgame.org
UFPPC has purchased a number of copies of each (except for Lovinss) for those interested but unable to procure the texts. Participants are asked to read at least one of the books in the course of the month. Monday evening meetings will consist of brief reports from participants on their reading, followed by a discussion of the points of difference and convergence that emerge.
More information, or to obtain one of the books to be discussed, contact Mark Jensen at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 253-756-7519, or Ted Nation at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 253-983-8997.
See UFPPCs web site ―- www.ufppc.org -― for more articles on peak oil
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MEETING SCHEDULE -- The UFPPC Study Circle on Peak Oil will meet on Mondays in February and March (Feb. 7, 14, 21, & 28 and Mar. 7, 14, & 21) at 7:00-8:30 p.m. at the Mandolin Café, 3923 S. 12th St., Tacoma. There is no charge for participation.
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