TED Talks

So in order to start gaining a broader understanding of issues that may revolve around oil, I started watching some talks on the website TED.

I began by watching a talk by Rob Hopkins, who is the leader of a transition movement. It promotes community-led responses to battle climate change. He discusses the idea of scale; how smaller communities of people can make a bigger difference than people on their own or cities of people.

He also goes on to discuss the idea of alternative money. Areas such as Brixton and Lewes have already started adopting this idea by providing money that can only be used in that area.

He claims urban food production is also a stepping stone to becoming far less dependant on oil and other fossil fuels.

http://www.transitionnetwork.org/



Here is a video from their website about what the transition towns are doing and how they are making a difference. I became very interested about reading about these kind of towns. It felt like a really positive solution that was actually starting to make a difference.

It also appeared not to stereotypically 'green' and I think this is important if you are trying to introduce people to a new way of thinking about energy.



This second talk is by a man called Richard Sears who discusses the idea of peak oil and how to cope in a future world without oil.

His summary of our oil problem is that innovation and technology will over take our oil use even before the oil ever runs out.