This post is from May, so that would be a potential source of your confusion.

The next general meeting, plus a film, will be October 13th. Dan has secured the Abbeyfield space for the meeting and likely more meetings in the future.

The other event on the agenda is the 350 event at Echo on the 24th. There will be more info likely after the next meeting.

If you click on “Blog” on the top bar it will always bring you to the latest entry, and you can see the date of the post in the small light-brown box right above the comments of each post.

Hope that helps!

The Celender also mentions a meeting in basement of Abbey field Care Home on same date at Dan Shubert’s meeting place.

SUNDAY HERALD COLUMN – May 24, 2009 [HH0920]

PROPHET OF PETROLEUM

by Silver Donald Cameron

When Jeff Rubin said that oil was going to $50 a barrel, other
economists thought he was on drugs. But it did. They scoffed again
when he said it would go beyond $100. It went to $147 before dropping
to $50. Don’t be suckered, says Rubin. As the recession ends, oil
will go far higher — $200, $400, who knows?

For 20 years, Rubin was Chief Economist at CIBC World Markets. His
newly-published book Why Your World Is About To Get a Whole Lot
Smaller (Random House,$29.95) rests on a simple argument. Our entire
globalized economy depends on cheap oil, but we have already burned
most of the easily-obtained free-flowing oil. That’s why we’re now
spending vast amounts to wring the difficult oil from the deep sea
and the tar sands, because that’s all that’s left.

So the world’s steadily-rising demand for oil ultimately can’t be
satisfied. According to conventional economics, when a thing is
scarce, its price goes up. Higher prices stimulate more production,
which drives the price down again. But not this time. With the easy
oil already used, we’ll be hard-pressed even to maintain today’s
production for very long. More and more dollars will chase less and
less oil, and the price will soar.

When the oil price jumps, the economy slumps. One of Rubin’s
startling assertions is that four of the last five world recessions
were caused by upward spikes in oil prices — two after the OPEC oil
shocks of the 1970s, one after Iraq invaded Kuwait and torched its
oil wells, and another one right now. This recession, Rubin contends,
is a result not of malodorous mortgages in Middle America, but of $147 oil.

There’s a pattern, says Rubin. The oil price rises, and the economy
stalls. The demand for oil then drops sharply, and the oil price
falls. Consumers and producers alike heave a sigh of relief and get
back to work until the next spike. But notice this: the prices always
ratchet upward. In 2000, when Rubin predicted $50 oil, a $30 price
was considered high. Just eight years later, we regard $50 oil as cheap.

Without cheap oil, the globalized economy withers. As fuel costs
become prohibitive, companies stop importing raw materials and
shipping products halfway around the world. High transport costs,
says Rubin, work exactly the same as a tariff, penalizing
imports. Firms realize that they can compete more effectively if
their factory is close to the consumer.

The bad news is, no more Chinese-made bargains at Wal-Mart, no more
cheap food from California and Chile. The good news is, a lot more
jobs in factories close to home, and a bright new dawn for local agriculture.

Coping with climate change will also erode globalization. Rubin
predicts that the US will soon impose mandatory carbon controls on
its own industries — and will insist that its trading partners cut
their own emissions too, or face a carbon tariff for their products
at the border.

Indeed, a carbon-control bill now in Congress includes a provision to
impose tariffs on imports from countries with lax climate-change
rules. The main target is China, but Stephen Harper’s Canada is not
exempt. Expect hard questions about the tar sands, for instance. Bob
Page, an Alberta energy executive, chairs the national roundtable on
environment and the economy, a true fox in the henhouse. He condemns
the Congressional initiative as “protectionism.” I’d call it “leadership.”

The inevitable adjustments will be painful for a small province that
generates power from coal and heats its homes with oil, but we may
like the eventual results. Think of walkable neighbourhoods,
efficient public transit, revitalized small towns and villages, close
relationships between local businesses and customers. Cleaner air,
safer food, healthier forests. How bad is that? Europeans, Rubin
notes, already live like that. In 1950 we lived that way too, and we
thought our lives were pretty good.

Is Rubin correct? Well, this summer, Marjorie and I are going to
insulate and tighten the house, build a woodshed and install a solar
hot water heater. Last winter’s oil prices were an unexpected gift.
They gave us a chance to prepare for the next spike — and we’re not
going to waste it.

– 30 –

Silver Donald Cameron
24 Armshore Drive, Halifax, NS B3N 1M5
(902)446-5577 fax (902)446-6099
http://www.silverdonaldcameron.ca

“In theory there’s no difference between theory and practice. In
practice there is.”
– Yogi Berra

I know you’ve been wanting to come. And I know you know the door is wide open!

I think there is a real undercurrent happening right now… people are recognizing that the past 50 years have done a lot of unnecessary damage to our society, our economy, and our environment…. and people are feeling a need to change and put things right.

I am currently working on a short 30-35 page paper with a colleague from the New Economics Foundation in the UK that hopefully may be of some use here locally. It should be ready at the end of June. I would love to have people critique it here locally, if they are interested and willing.

After consultation around the draft, we will be releasing in, likely in October. This will be a joint release of the Canadian Centre for Community Renewal, the Rebuilding Society Network in Wales, the New Economics Foundation and the BC-Alberta Social Economy Research Alliance.

Anyways, we are hoping it might provoke thinking about the practical challenges we have to face in localities and regions around food, fuel, finance, fashion and fun. The last one is not unimportant as we enter into the most challenging century the human species has ever faced.

I am looking forward to connecting with fellow citizens to help navigate the incredible SEE Change we need to make (Social, Ecological, Economic) All the best. Hope to see you on the 27th.