Peak Oil

I was assigned a media research project on peak oil, titled "oil vulnerability and mitigation strategies". I began researching in the second week of January during my time here at the WA Greens office of Senator Scott Ludlam.

For those of you who have no clue as to what peak oil is, here’s a brief summary:
‘Peak oil’ is the term used to describe the point in time at which the worldwide production of crude oil extraction will be maximised. But while it is inevitable that production will peak at some point, it is uncertain when that point will be reached. Similarly to climate change, the possibility of peak oil poses an uncomfortable challenge to citizens and governments for now and the future. Hence, there is a great need to act now and create awareness to the general public.

My objectives assigned to this project were as follows:

To be informed about national and international research, campaigning and media on all aspects of the peak oil debate.

I was to focus on reviewing national and international media on oil peak and oil prices and their impact. In addition, report on and provided examples of how the debate is being messaged or sold to the public; review campaigns, scenarios and material.

When I began this project I new absolutely nothing about the debate on peak oil…and now, after researching for a month on the issue, I feel like an expert on this. I was working with another fellow intern who was also assigned to the issue; however his objectives were to look into the policy side of it with a deeper analysis into the vulnerable sectors to peak oil, initiatives and a potential national mitigation strategy. This was really helpful for both of us corresponding on this issue together as we notified each other on our research and good articles or journals to look at.

From my research I found that there needs to be more awareness and mitigation in Australia. Internationally, there are a few campaigns performed by Greenpeace and ASPO international in different countries, in particular the US, UK and Scotland. There are extensive amounts of news articles on Peak oil and high oil prices, however not a lot has been done politically about it.

Here are links to the ASPO international website and the ASPO Australia website for further information on peak oil.
www.peakoil.net
www.aspo-australia.org.au

I will be presenting my project next week on Tuesday the 15th of February, to the staff at the office and presenting a written report of the research and findings that I undertook.

Moreover, this research project was a good experience to improve my skills in researching the international and national media in both print and non-print media organisations.