jm of Augusta, ME Iver:

Amen to that!report abuse

Iver Lofving of Skowhegan, ME I was happy to see Mark Hersgaard's piece about peak oil in today's sentinel. We have a group that meets the first Sunday of each month at 10:45 am to talk about peak oil and what we can do about it. It is a huge problem. Fortunately there are people like Rosemary Winslow and Mike Roy in the area who are doing something to prepare us for what's coming. The bus station is getting a makeover, which is good, because a lot more of us may be riding them. I am most worried about the price of heating oil next winter, which could be over $4 a gallon. We have a number of engineers in the group who have great ideas for things we can do to ameliorate the situation.

We'll have to change the way we use energy. The party's over as Richard Heinberg says. We have to get into efficiency, conservation and renewables as soon as possible if we have any chance to preserve a decent life here in Maine.

Remember, it's always later than you think. Now is a good time to do something about the energy situation. We managed to half our consumption of fossil fuels in the past 5 years in my household. We didn't spend much to do it, and the payback has been huge. We installed solar hot water, insulated and got smaller cars. It saves us money, saves the planet and is a lot of fun to do.

Peak oil means we'll be spending more time in our communities and less in our cars, so it's time to reinhabit the towns we live in. The main street project, farmer's market and the downtown stores all help with this goal. Making our towns livable is a great thing to do, and it will pay off when we are not driving as much.

Local agriculture is a great way to rebuild those connections that will be needed when our food can't be trucked as far. Get to know your local farmers.

The remedy for peak oil is to do what we should have been doing all along. Shop locally, walk, bike, garden and live simply. It's time to relearn community.report abuse

jm of Augusta, ME mikes:

Your comments on radioactive waste don't begin to fully explore the problem, but rather read like an industry press release.

The QUANTITY of nuclear waste doesn't say anything about the relative DANGER posed by the waste.

Yes, the radioactivity of nuclear waste diminishes with time, but you ignore the CENTURIES it takes to reduce it to a point where it is not dangerous.

Safe methods may have been TECHNICALLY proven (the folks in Nevada would disagree), but the FACT is that there is still NO approved permanent repository in existence in the US. All we've seen SO FAR are PROMISES. Let's wait until a permanent waste repository actually EXISTS before we start building MORE reactors.report abuse

Cecil Gray of Bingham, ME The government needs to remove the life blood of this country from private profitteers. It at least needs to stop the phoney carpetbagging disease of market SPECULATION.report abuse