Warwick Business School, MSc Business Analytics and Consulting – October 2010.
This study analyses the influence of UK Energy Security and Peak Oil as drivers
impacting on Warwickshire County Council (WCC) activities. The questions addressed by the study are what UK Energy Security and Peak Oil are all about, why they matter, how they impact on WCC, and what the authority’s next steps should be.
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Our results show that WCC Services are affected by these threats through increased costs, changes in demand, impacts on staff, and possibly shortages. Some areas are more severely affected than others and the nature of the impact varies, but all of the areas analysed are exposed to these risks in some way.
Existe versión en castellano (El fin del petróleo), publicada en colección de bolsillo por Público en 2010.
Índice la edición española:
Primera parte:
Encendiendo el fuego
El último petróleo fácil
El futuro es brillante
Energía es poder
Demasiado calor
En camino a ninguna parte:
Dad a la gente lo que quiere
El gran petróleo se inquieta
Y ahora, algo completamente distinto
Menos es más
Hacia el cielo:
Seguridad energética
La mano invisible
Manteniéndose en sus trece
¿Cómo llegamos hasta allí?
Petroleum is now so deeply entrenched in our economy, our politics, and our personal expectations that even modest efforts to phase it out are fought tooth and nail by the most powerful forces in the world: companies and governments that depend on oil revenues; the developing nations that see oil as the only means to industrial success; and a Western middle class that refuses to modify its energy-dependent lifestyle. But within thirty years, by even conservative estimates, we will have burned our way through most of the oil that is easily accessible. And well before then, the side effects of an oil-based society — economic volatility, geopolitical conflict, and the climate-changing impact of hydrocarbon pollution — will render fossil fuels an all but unacceptable solution. How will we break our addiction to oil? And what will we use in its place to maintain a global economy and political system that are entirely reliant on cheap, readily available energy?
Brilliantly reported from around the globe, The End of Oil brings the world situation into fresh and dramatic focus for business and general readers alike. Roberts talks to both oil optimists and oil pessimists, delves deep into the economics and politics of oil, considers the promises and pitfalls of alternatives, and shows that, although the world energy system has begun its epoch-defining transition, disruption and violent dislocation are almost assured if we do not take a more proactive stance. With the topicality and readability of Fast Food Nation and the scope and trenchant analysis of Guns, Germs, and Steel, this is a vitally important book for the new century.
In an era when incomprehensibly complex issues like Peak Oil and climate change dominate headlines, practical solutions at a local level can seem somehow inadequate. But they aren’t! Lyle Estill introduces us to «hometown security» with this chronicle of a community-powered response to resource depletion in a fickle global economy. This is the story of how one small southern US town, not willing to rely on the government and wary of large corporations, discovered it is possible for a community to feed itself, fuel itself, heal itself, and govern itself
Lyle Estill is “Vice President of Stuff ” at Piedmont Biofuels, and has won numerous awards for his work in the biodiesel business. He is the author of Biodiesel Power and lives in Moncure, North Carolina.
