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I am an engineer and environmentalist. I am currently studying a PhD in Hydrogeology, investigating the feasibility of storing freshwater underground in salty aquifers. I am also the convenor for the Young Professionals Working Group within the Australian Association for the Study of Peak Oil & Gas (ASPO-Australia).
Since I was about 6 or 7 years old I have had a passion for environmental issues such as global warming, but only relatively recently - since about half way through my undergraduate degrees at university - have I become really passionate about Limits to Growth. As I see it, this is not so much an environmental / political issue, more a logical / mathematical one. You simply cannot have unending exponential growth in consumption of resources if the resources are finite.
I believe the first major manifestation of this logical principle will be the phenomenon known as Peak Oil. I have done extensive numerical studies to verify the claims made by proponents of the Peak Oil theory, and conclude that the case against Peak Oil (and Limits to Growth, for that matter) is logically indefensible.
As we approach the peak in global oil production, supply and demand are already tightening and worldwide prices are trending upwards. As a result the world's poorest people are already experiencing dire economic hardship. Over-consumption in the rich world creates a high demand, high price situation that deprives the world's poorer people of necessities (such as back-up generator fuel for hospitals). Therefore for people in the rich world, Peak Oil is an issue of morality before it is an issue at all related to "the environment".
The next manifestation of Limits to Growth may come in the form of Climate Change, as we reach (and breach) the planet's limits for absorbing carbon dioxide. This risk may or may not be mitigated by us first reaching the limits of extracting fossil fuels (eg Peak Oil) and no longer being physically able to increase our emissions.
In any case, the confluence of Limits to Growth issues puts the present world at the beginning of, not so much a "new" era, but more a return to the "old" (pre-industrialisation) era of zero growth.
As I find my way down life's path, one of my greatest interests is contemplating how we are all going to co-exist - materially and spiritually - in a world in which our expectations of unending material growth begin to fail.
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| Gebruiker doet mee vanaf: April 12, 2007 |
| Laatst Ingelogd: April 13, 2007
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