Gail Tverberg, keynote speaker at the recent Hawai‘i Island Energy Forum, posted an interesting article yesterday about her impressions of Peak Oil as it relates to Hawai‘i.
“Hawaii seems to come up often in the thinking of people aware of peak oil,” she wrote at theoildrum.com, which is a blog with the subtitle: “Discussions About Energy And Our Future.”
She continues:
On one hand, it seems like an ideal place to relocate after peak oil – no need to worry about heating a house; clothing is mostly for protection from the sun; and crops can be grown year around. On the other hand, it produces no fossil fuel itself, and it is at the end of the supply line for both food and fuel. Hawaii’s biggest industry, tourism, is already declining, and with rising fuel costs, can only decline further.
Many of you know that I was recently in Hawaii. After visiting, I thought I might post a few of my thoughts about the situation. Read the article here.
As of last night there were already more than 120 comments, many from Hawai‘i residents.
After the conference, I was very fortunate to spend three days taking Gail, her husband Ben and son Steve sightseeing. They enjoyed visiting Hamakua Springs Country Farms, Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden at Onomea, the summit of Mauna Kea as well as the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.
Peak Oil and its implications are always top of mind with me. Gail and I slipped in and out of the subject seamlessly, and I gained a lot of valuable insight as we toured around the east side of the Big Island.
I gave the introductory comments at the Hawai‘i Island Energy Forum earlier this month:
The world is changing in ways we have not seen and can only imagine. Oil jumped back to $134 today. The future price of oil had always been cheaper than the present price. But a few weeks ago, future oil price was no longer cheaper than the present. That is unnerving. We must challenge all of our fundamental assumptions. Prepare for the worse and hope for the best. The status quo is not safe any more. Actually the status quo is a very risky bet.
One hundred fifty years ago, 700 whaling ships were calling at Hawai’i ports. If we had a forum then, perhaps some would be calling for increased production of harpoons. But the 800-pound gorilla in that room would have been that oil had just been discovered in Pennsylvania and the world was about to change.
Fast forward to today. The world is changing again. This time the 800-pound gorilla in this room is the fact that we have come to rely on oil for our lifestyle. But the supply of that oil cannot keep up with demand.
The world is changing in ways we don’t even want to imagine. But with great adversity comes great opportunity. This is a scary time. But it is also an exciting time. Betting on our people and their ability to innovate is a safe bet. Betting on making more harpoons is a very risky bet.
Not, no can. CAN!! We can do this. And that is what this forum is all about.