Oil, Technology, Inevitability

So apparently we hit $138/barrel on oil futures on Friday. Reading a CBC Post on the subject I think there are a couple interesting quotes:

Matt Simmons, chairman of an energy financing company in Houston, believes oil prices are still too low. He told CBC News there are "very strong signs" that the global supply of crude oil has leveled out and is probably now in a gentle decline.

Simmons said he finds it interesting that so many people blame speculators and a weak U.S. dollar for rising prices. "These same lame excuses have been going on for the last nine years, since [the price of oil] has gone up 13-fold," he said

I commented earlier that I'm looking forward to $10/litre (The CBC article shows petrol in Montréal at $1.40). A number of commenters brought up economic accessibility - which is a real concern. So, dear lazyweb: I remember seeing once that there were orgs doing carbon offsets by going into low-income areas and doing volunteer work on houses to fix up insulation, replace aging furnaces and major appliances. I haven't been able to find a reference to it again, though.

Given that $10/litre seems inevitable (Heya Brits! Any of you still driving cars at ~£1.15 according to the Daily Mail), what do we do to prepare for it? We got Angie's bike up and running yesterday, and she went to her day's visits that way. I'm finally cleared to ride a bike, but am not yet up to tackling Rengstorff. I'm practicing by biking around the campus at work and getting used to the changes in my body.

The biggest disappointment in going back to Vancouver is just the apathy about smog and fuel consumption there. We saw a total of 2 Prius' (Prii?) on the road across the entire 12 days versus a half-dozen Hummers. I remember in the early 90's being downtown and everyone being shocked when there was a bit of brown haze in the air around the Sears Tower (Sorry, I can never remember WTH it's called now). Now the city is not only permanently like that, but people just expect it to get worse without any real feeling that they could do anything about it.

I find myself starting to think again about hacking and what differences I can make. It's unexpected but logical that efficiency results in greater consumption: You can afford to do more, and have time to do more. Is the trick, then, to develop something efficient that takes up time? (Should I work on a text adventure?) Or perhaps the answer is to get away from computers for entertainment.

Jim Morrison (Phython) and I have been talking about taking up bagpipes as a fun pre-work activity in the field by the office. But now he's moved to the San Francisco office. Anyone else at in Mountain View interested? =)