The Energy Beyond Oil (EBO) Project

The Free Range Energy Beyond Oil (EBO) Project is a research project on energy and resource depletion (and/or "Peak Everything") and the changes that this may create within our modern technologically-oriented lifestyle. EBO was our first research project on depletion, begun in 2001, and has since influenced the development of all other Free Range projects.

Note: If you are looking for details of Paul Mobbs's
2005 book entitled, Energy Beyond Oil,
please click here

Wind pump image Energy Beyond Oil is the Free Range Network's longest running project. Started in 2001, it sought to address the growing gap between the activities if the mainstream environmental movement and the available body of evidence on a developing crisis in the human ecological system. It began, under the title "if wind turbines are the answer what was the question?", by looking at the gap between the rhetoric of the political and business world, and the positions of the large environmental campaign groups, on energy supply and the promotion of renewable energy (in that sense it pre-empted the present conflict within the environment movement on the issue of wind power)

From that point, as the research and dialogue continued to evolve and include a greater body of information, it branched out into (in chronological order) five distinct themes:

Energy Beyond Oil: The Energy Beyond Oil Initiative was the first strand in the Project – the research phase began on 2001 and our first public workshops were held in the latter half of 2002. The basic purpose of the initiative was to quantify how much energy the UK, and the world, consumes, and then evaluate what this actually means; that's a very difficult process because often the "meaning" that is attached to data is dependent upon who is looking at it.
Energy and Climate: The debate about energy policy is today a dialogue about soot (that is, carbon), not about the best way to supply our energy needs in the future within the boundaries of the biosphere. The Energy and Climate Initiative examined the way in which the debate on energy and climate change fails to address the underlying driver for carbon emissions – economic growth – whilst at the same time it offers no real solutions to the problems of human society because it ignores the parallel resource issues that are driving the present ecological crisis.
Jam Tomorrow: 'Jam Tomorrow' is a new Free Range research initiative on shale gas/coalbed methane, gas "fracking", and the future of Britain's energy economy. As plans for the development of shale gas and coalbed methane in the UK are advanced (along with underground gasification, they're collectively called "unconventional gas"), the debate on our energy future is seemingly reduced to a single factor; carbon. In fact the complexities of how we source our energy today, and how – and how much – we will be able to produce in the future are far more complex than the issue of carbon emissions.
Less is a Four Letter Word: Whilst presenting some material on the links between the growth in consumption and resource depletion a member of the audience commented that, if we wanted politicians to act, we would have to drop the negative references to economic growth; in effect, within the present political debate, "less" was an offensive four letter word! Inspired, we develop a whole strand of work on precisely that point, and the Less is a Four Letter Word Initiative was launched.
Energy and Food: There is only one critical human energy resource – food. The Energy and Food Initiative was developed, in part to mark the fortieth anniversary of Paul R. Ehrlich's book The Population Bomb, to highlight the important of food and the ways in which energy consumption and food supply have become inextricably linked in the modern world.
Peak Everything: The Peak Everything Initiative is the latest, and final strand in the Energy Beyond Oil Project. It's purpose is to summarise the whole body of our research into a single presentation/discussion – and highlight the reason why wholesale lifestyle changes are required rather than simply modifying existing patterns of consuming behaviour (we focus on this theme specifically in the new Project that is to succeed EBO – The Ecological Lifestyle Project).

Project Resources

The information and presentations related to the EBO Project are updated every three years – for this reason the EBO presentations are off-line at the moment (as part of the general revision/updating of the whole FRAW web site) whilst we update the information/statistics they contain with the latest data (although the PDFs of the presentation slides are still on-line for people to access).

At present, the following resources produced as part of the Energy Beyond Oil Project are still available on the site:

The 'Energy' (E-Series) Sheets: These are the information handouts that complement the Energy Beyond Oil Project's events, and cover issues related to energy, consumption, resources and pollution.
The 'Simplicity/Less' (S-Series) Sheets: These are the information handouts that complement the Energy Beyond Oil and Ecological Lifestyles Project's events, examining various issues associated with our consumption of materials and the means to reduce consumption in general.
The Beyond Climate Presentation: Workshop information page for the Beyond Climate Presentation – the new presentation will be available in late 2011.
The Energy Beyond Oil Presentation: Information on the Energy Beyond Oil Presentation – the new presentation will be available in the Autumn of 2011.
The Less is a Four Letter Word Presentation: Information on the Less is a Four Letter Word presentation – the new presentation will be available in the Summer of 2011.
The Energy and Food Presentation: Here you can find information on Energy and Food presentation – the new presentation will be available in the Summer/Autumn of 2011.