The Geography of Hope

Actually, it's my understanding that light sweet crude's more phytoplankton "bones" than anything else, but then Soundgarden never claimed to be a credible source or anything.

Anyway, in keeping with the recent theme here at Geography Of Hope HQ - i.e. too busy catching up on background reading to post anything original - I figured I'd steal another link from Metafilter, this time to A History of Oil, a one-hour monologue by British comedian Rob Newman, a stunning piece of oratory I've been recommending to one and all since I first saw it.

Rob Newman in disguise? No, but according to Rob Newman, one of the first oil warriors.

Yes, folks, this one's truly a dandy! (It features a pantomime of "gaylord tennis" and everything!)  And beyond the gaylord-tennis thing, it's actually an extremely cogent, insightful and brilliantly presented overview of the turbulent age ushered in by the rise of oil as the world's primary power source. You might be thinking an hour of invective from an eco-activist British stand-up replete with all-but-footnoted historical references would be less than edge-of-your-seat entertainment, but I assure you part of Rob Newman's genius is how propulsive and fun he makes this material. I couldn't recommend this more highly.

Watch this and An Inconvenient Truth back to back, and you know pretty much all you need to know about the impending crisis created by the coincidence of Peak Oil and climate change Which, not coincidentally, was the theme of this year's Ankelohe Conversations, not to mention the prime motivator for this here book thing I'm working on.