Comments on: Peak oil in Ireland

By: conal Breslin

conal Breslin — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 21:47:44 +0000

Sorry the web site to view the new hydroponic system is omegagarden.com

By: conal Breslin

conal Breslin — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 13:38:29 +0000

jim your reply to stu was well put. I think instead turning our backs on the weak the young, the old and those that do not possess the tools to survive we need to educate to prepare them for peak oil. Food will be our biggest problem and each village will have to produce their own supply. One way to help produce food might be to develop large community gardens that are funded by each household. If each village installs 15 large wind mills as a energy source to pump heat, water and produce light to large buildings much of our food requirement can be met this way. There are new hydroponics systems available now that can produce three thousand head of lettuce in a space of 1500 sq feet and can produce in less than a third of the time compare to inground growing. It can be viewed at mega gardens. Villages would soon over produce and trade for other products that it will need or indeed we might trade electic power into the grid that can can be exchanged for electricity true value in the form of goods and services were all people process a credit card to receive electric credits or debit. This is what we must do educate from a early age produing energy local, wind river and ocean and share it from the bottom up instead of from the top down.

By: Jim Bliss

Jim Bliss — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 14:07:34 +0000

You may well be right, Stu. But that doesn’t mean I don’t despise your attitude. Most of the people you arrogantly dismiss as “losers” had no choice but to be born and raised in an unsustainable society. Blaming any animal for successfully adapting to its home environment is beyond idiotic. If you’re looking forward to a world where compassion and empathy are looked down upon as weaknesses, then frankly you’re welcome to it. Just remember, there’ll always be someone out there whose even more cruel, ruthless, well-armed and unpleasant than you.

What’s more, unlike you they may even be more than semi-literate.

By: Stu

Stu — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 13:37:24 +0000

The water is only a problem in Australia because the population has outgrown the supply/storage infrastructure. But peak oil could fix that. You see, when we decend into chaos, first to go will be the old, frail, sick, etc. Anybody that cant survive without artificial means like medicines or special diets etc……..they all die. Next go all the people who are just plain useless and can’t really do anything except their office job…….which they won’t have anymore. When you get down to it, the survivers will be the people that are 1. fit and healthy, with a good constitution. 2 mentally and physically tough. 3. have a range of knowledge and skills in real things, fishing, hunting, growing food, making things by hand etc. 4. belong to a family or group of people the same. Lets face it, if I’m in a group of people that are all of the above, and some loser comes along that can’t offer anything and is just going to be a burden on us, then he’s better off as fertilizer for the garden bed then a useless dead weight consuming our food and water.

Population will reduce in every area to the carrying capacity of that area……and it will be the most fit in the new environment that will survive. In the end……all the losers and weaklings and people that think that world owes them and they are entitled to this and entitled to that are going to perish……and good ridence.

Bring on the Peak…….no………I mean…….bring on the decline……….make that the cliff.

By: Jim Bliss

Jim Bliss — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 02:16:39 +0000

There’s a handful of places, John, that possess the basic raw materials (in the broadest sense) to weather peak oil without descent into total chaos. Of the English-speaking places — because speaking the local lingo during such a crisis will be advantageous — I’d suggest New Zealand is top of the list. If Australia can sort out the fresh water issue, though, then it’s in a decent enough position (I’d be looking into largescale solar-desalination if I was an Aussie policy-maker).

The fact that Ireland’s disproportionate oil consumption can be attributed to electricity generation is actually a good thing, seeing as how we have an abundance of ocean and wind potential to replace it with.

Sadly we’re not converting that potential into actual at anywhere close to the necessary rate.

By: john b

john b — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 02:03:20 +0000

“We are the third highest per capita oil consumers in Europe, thanks largely to our heavy use of oil to generate electricity ”

Thanks for explaining that one – the Times report completely failed to actually explain how Ireland managed to be more oil-intensive than the rest of Europe despite having more or less the same lifestyle.

I’m mildly pleased to find myself in a country that’s food-self-sufficient and energy-self-sufficient – although given that most of the energy here isn’t in the form of oil, the eejits in charge still need shot for failing to invest in electric suburban and high-speed-rail…