Ammanford – Friday 20^th April

The Power of Community – How Cuba Survived Peak Oil is a documentary from the US-based peak energy group The Community Solution.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the escalation of American sanctions, Cuba effectively faced its own "Peak Energy" situation as oil, farm machinery and fertiliser imports were cut-off in the early 1990s. Ultimately, the most essential energy resource is food, and the documentary examines how Cuba was able to change its agricultural systems from an intensive to an ecological/organic system in order to feed themselves.

In miniature, the problems Cuba faced in the 1990s reflect the problems the world as a whole will face as first oil production, and then natural gas production (which is essential for fertliser manufacture) peak over the next one to two decades. How Cuba dealt with the oil crisis is therefore an object lesson for us all.

Energy Beyond Oil is based upon Paul Mobbs' book of the same name. It is a comprehensive guide to the issue of energy in the UK, and how our systems of energy consumption may have to change as a result of Peak Energy.

Britain has already experienced its own version of Peak Energy: in 1999 North Sea crude oil output peaked and is now collapsing; North Sea natural gas production peaked in 2003/4, and it is now beginning to enter a steep decline. The UK's current problems with energy supply, and energy policy, are therefore being driven not by choice, or economics, but by the effect that this collapse of domestic production is having on our economy.

The workshop provides a review of where we are today, in terms of our consumption of energy in the UK, and how this might have to change in the future. As well as providing an analysis of how the UK influences climate change, it also looks at the problems that substituting for the loss of conventional energy resources – with nuclear power, or renewable energy sources – would create. Ultimately there is only one option that works within the thermodynamic constraints on our future energy choices: we have to cut energy consumption in the UK by 60% to 70% in the next 50 to 70 years!

Presenter: Paul Mobbs

Contact:   01295 261864 (no mobile), or email mobbsey@gn.apc.org (best option)