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Facing the future, with news bulletins full of daily doom and gloom, can be a dispiriting business.
In fact, sometimes it seems easier to turn off the news and do something simple. Something we can control all by ourselves – like going for a walk. Lloyd Morcom knows intuitively that people get sick of too much bad news. But he also feels he must change his life dramatically to survive the challenges of the years ahead, especially the challenges of the global financial crisis, climate change and peak oil.
In ‘The Peakist’ – the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s contribution to the 2009 Global Perspective ‘island’ series, we hear the story of Lloyd, an ex 70’s hippy and former oil man, and how his experiences and the mistakes he made in the past, are helping shape big changes in his life.
While John Donne said that no man is an island, Lloyd Morcom sometimes feels like one. An island in his own community and his own country.
At the height of the global financial crisis Lloyd, with some misgivings (he knows how people feel about bad news) decides to call a public meeting to outline his fears for the future. More importantly he hopes to convince his fellow locals in this small, conservative, rural community in South Gippsland, Victoria to follow his lead and start changing their lives.
The Peakist was produced by Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Nick Franklin. The show airs as part of the Global Perspective series on Islands.
Links:
Gulf anniversary renews debate on Arctic drilling
With gas prices on the rise and pressure to drill on American shores, this article takes a hard look at the complexities of drilling at home in places like Alaska.
We Must Imagine a Life Without Oil
A look at ideas for a post-oil economy.
Books:
 Internal Combustion: How Corporations and Governments Addicted the World to Oil and Derailed the Alternatives
by: Edwin Black 2006
A compelling read, based on research, with a plea for new solutions to the world's energy crisis.
 Life without Oil: Why We Must Shift to a New Energy Future
by: Steve Hallett, John Wright . 2011
What would happen to civilization when oil production reaches its peak? How would elements of what makes our world function like cars survive without its main energy source? This book tries to find alternatives to the inevitable.
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