I am in Denver right now for the Peak Oil conference. It’s the same Association for the Study of Peak Oiland Gas conference I  attended two years ago in Houston. That was the one that convinced me that the amount of oil the world uses is such that oil production won’t be able to keep up. And that means oil prices will keep rising.

This video The Crash Course By Chris Martenson explains the basics of Peak Oil very nicely and I recommend it. It’s all common sense. From the introduction:

Energy is the lifeblood of any economy. But when an economy is based on an exponential debt-based money system that is itself based on exponentially increasing energy supplies, the supply of that energy deserves our very highest attention.

Oil is a miracle, working tirelessly in the background to make our lives easy beyond historical measure. Oil represents over 50% of US total yearly energy use, while oil and natural gas together represent over 75%. How easily could we replace the role of oil in our style of consumer-led, growth based economy? Not very.

Peak Oil is simply a fact. Peak Oil is NOT synonymous with “running out of oil.” But the most urgent issue before us does not lie with identifying the precise moment of Peak Oil. What we need to be most concerned with is the day that world petroleum demand outstrips available supply. It is at that moment that the oil markets will change forever – and probably quite suddenly.

Saturday was a pre-conference day for people who wanted to discuss things on a community and personal level. I wanted to see if there was anything I could apply to my business.

Gail Tverberg talked to the group for 15 minutes. In her estimation, when we start on the downside of the oil supply curve it is equally possible that we could be in for a steady decline or that it could be a steep drop off.

That is why the Thirty Meter Telescope, and a serious increase in geothermal energy, are important for us on the Big Island and in Hawai‘i in general.

Food security was top of mind. In cold parts of the country preserving things will be an important activity. Co-op and community gardening, much like was done in Cuba after the Soviet Union collapsed, are also seen as solutions. I get the impression that Hawai‘i is quite a bit more advanced than the mainland in this area.

It is apparent to everyone that you must adapt to the place you are at. “Hoping” is not a plan.

Many of the folks complained that it is very difficult to make people aware of Peak Oil. Gail Tverberg pointed out that she felt that Hawai‘i is more aware than the mainland. This is my sense as well.

But we are far from being as aware as we need to be.