Vital Trivia

Whilst I was personally unable to attend The Association For the Study of Peak Oil & Gas (ASPO) IV International Workshop on Oil and Gas Depletion 19-20 May 2005, Lisbon, Portugal, the workshop material and coverage of the event is now available online.

First and foremost the workshop (although I believe the term workshop is a little misleading, conference would be more suitable) material. The abstracts, Power Point slides and papers are now all available here:
http://www.cge.uevora.pt/aspo2005/abstracts.php

This is an excellent collection, thoroughly covering the subject.

Speaker biographies are available here:
http://www.cge.uevora.pt/aspo2005/biographies.php

As detailed as the material available is, reading papers and presentations after the event doesn’t tell you very much about the attitudes of the speakers or indeed the audience. ‘Eyewitness’ accounts from individuals who were there are vital to get a feeling for what the event was like, the mood the people, who was in the audience etc. Fortunately some excellent accounts have been published online:

Extensive notes from ASPO Lisbon 2005 are provided by Dick Lawrence with help from Charles Hall, from Mark Cranston and from Dan Crawford. Thanks guys!

Following on so quickly from the Edinburgh Peak Oil Conference these high profile events and the mainstream media coverage they attract are doing a fantastic job of raising awareness of the issue. I don’t believe there is a need to educate senior politicians and their advisors - they know. However their political hands are tied until there is public awareness, demand for action and importantly a willingness to make lifestyle changes. This public awareness is building rapidly - lets hope it won’t be too late for meaningful action.

Some photos from Lisbon are available here:
http://www.peakoil.net/iwood2005/Photos/Lisbon.html

This post was written by Chris Vernon