Beyond Oil
I thought the book was pretty interesting, the math was a little over my head (and I took AP Calculus!) and the conclusion was obvious (duh we are out of oil) However, I liked the different chapters on different types of fuel and I feel that it has given me a good background on fossil fuels, and I liked all the pictures and graphs. I dont have anything specific to say about it except that because I was a little confused I dont know if the data was manipulated...
Plenary
The woman was very boring and I think she was trying to cover a lot in a short period of time. Nothing too interesting about it, its no surprise that most of the world's energy resources aren't located in the areas with the most need, or the areas that would be most beneficial for american interests.
On another note:
Today I was walking around campus and someone was handing out pamphlets entitled "eating sustainably: fight global warming with your fork.." so of course I picked one up. The information is very biased because it was produced by "compassion over killing" an animal rights/pro vegetarian group. The group argues that raising animals for food is one of the leading causes of pollution and resource depletion today and that what we eat has more of an impact on the environment than what we drive. This is interesting cosidering that in the past we discussed the energy usage difference between plant eaters and meat eaters and one of my carbon footprint calculators asked me how often I ate meat. Therefore, there is obviously some truth behind the argument of this group, however I'm not sure I believe that what we eat has a greater effect than what we drive. I'll bring the pamphlet in on Wednesday.
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Yes, Hubbert's curve was the main point of assigning the book for reading, but the other chapters are good overviews of other fossil fuels. The analysis of the curve can get complex, but the data tell a story (your "duh") regardless of higher math. The only hint of manipulation is the choice of plotting P/Q vs Q. It assumes that there is a finite amount of oil (duh) and that the production figures contain information about several factors. Like a given stock market variable is more complex than it might appear, influenced by e.g., people's current feelings about greed, fear, etc.
So, Production depends on people's optimism or pessimism about the supply of oil, the prospect of higher production costs, etc.
About the location of resources, more people could move to South Dakota. As long as I don't have to. :)
A group in my other section is focusing on veg vs non-veg (my preferred term for meat eaters). Will be interesting to see their results. Most groups have other agendas (not necessarily bad) and latch onto the current attention to sustainability to promote their cause.
Keep up the curiosity and skepticism ... you might become a science major yet.
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