Peak Oil, Peak Food, Peak Trouble

Feeling cheerful? This should help.

After the rise comes the decline. But why is this become an issue linked to political orientation? It is supposed that left-leaning types predict the gloomy picture, while those on the right imagine it's all a lot of...imagining, deriding the pessimistic doomsayers. Surely this is a topic where we should listen to scientists rather than politicians.

The problem with charts like these is that they give the illusion of certainty. It can make the future seem inevitable, and leave us feeling powerless. We can't save the world, but we can do a backyard blitz, so we'll do that instead.

The Club of Rome was founded in 1968, with direly predicting the depletion of global resources. Their depressing predictions are now dismissed by many since they haven't happened yet. Not yet. Meanwhile the world's population has doubled in my lifetime, and is set to double again by 2050. Opinions are greatly divided, but we are probably at or about "peak oil" right now; the point at which easily extracted reserves are depleted. Global food stocks are at a 30 year low, down from 200 million tonnes in the late 1990s to 110-115 million tonnes today (C.Times May '08).

Since you're reading this, I guess you're sitting in front of a computer. Much of that is made from plastic, which mostly comes from oil. It, and the other components were transported from around the globe to you using oil.

This morning, the Sorbelene-based moisturiser on your face was made from oil (packaged in plastic which came from...oil). Your cereal breakfast was grown in pastures fertilised by oil derivatives *, delivered to your supermarket, and brought home....using oil.

The extent of our civilisation's dependency on oil is so vast it's hard to comprehend. Even harder to comprehend is our blind-sight of the problem. I wonder if we are like the passengers on the Titanic, warm, comfortable, and sipping Martinis. Lulled by the collective complacency of fellow passengers, confident that it's all under control.

But if you're an optimist, and are sure there's oil to burn, I'm wondering how long we wait.

* Here is a discussion on oil & fertilizers.

Technorati tags: Science, Education, Community, Radio, Canberra, Australia

A new type of sustainable energy!

I cam across this article posted by the Fast Thinking magazine, which grabbed my attention:

http://www.fastthinking.com.au/site/page.cfm?u=18&c=975

I always wondered if it were possible to harness all the energy expended in the gym to power something - it turns out we can! Just think - a device that you can strap to your knee that creates electricity to generate all our devices... hikers could generate enough to power a small electric stove :P

Technorati tags: Science, Education, Community, Radio, Canberra, Australia

Suckered

A bit ironic really - the week after we covered this story on the Apophis asteroid, we did almost the entire show on false logic and critical thinking. We - I - got suckered.

A 13-year old boy was supposed to have corrected NASA's predictions of it hitting the Earth. Turns out the asteroid would be flying outside the orbit of the satellites, so there's no chance of one influencing the trajectory. Good try anyway.

A good example of how we should not be so credulous reading the news. And in hindsight, the signs were there: 13 year old schoolboy debunks NASA.

So listen carefully, one day we might plant an item on the program: Sudanese mother of three detects Higg's boson, just to see if you're paying attention.

Technorati tags: Science, Education, Community, Radio, Canberra, Australia

Check out the skeptic dictionary

This website is called the skeptics dictionary

http://www.skepdic.com/

The Skeptic's Dictionary: A Collection of Strange Beliefs, Amusing Deceptions, and Dangerous Delusions.

Toyota is in negotiations to begin producing hybrid camry in Australia

This news story from late last week

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23638252-12377,00.html

First knowledge of a round not a flat earth

In follow up to our on air conversation about the initial understanding of the earth as a sphere, I copied this from the link regarding obelisks and angles.

http://www.zum.de/whkmla/period/disc/flatearth.html

Actually, Eratosthenes of Cyrene, head of the Great Library of Alexandria had proven the earth to be round. Knowing that on a certain day, at noon, an obelisk in Luxor (s. Egypt) would cast no shadow, at exactly the same time he measured the shadow of an obelisk in Alexandria. He knew the height of the obelisk and the distance between Alexandria and Luxor; the rest is trigonometry. Claudius Ptolemy's geography is also based on the concept of the earth being round, and sun, moon and the stars circling around the earth.

So, Ptolemy produced a map of a globular Earth as early as AD 140

http://www.timelinescience.org/resource/students/flat/flat.htm

it was not until much later of course that magellan sailed around it

Sex invented in Australia?

Thanks to Kat F for pointing out this story, which Milly and I discussed on the show. The article by Richard Glover in the brisbane times is well worth a read if you appreciate a good chuckle. I'm a little doubtful of the real scientific value of the article however having read the original manuscript in the journal science. A good giggle though, Jeevan

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/articles/2008/04/25/1208743295223.html