Richard just got back late Friday night from the physically cold but socially active Vermont, where Professor Suzanne Levine and others at the University of Vermont in Burlington kept him very busy. He breakfasted with representatives of Vermont’s ten Peak Oil groups, which, while operating at all different levels, are still forming a fairly unique and exciting state-wide Peak Oil association.

Sandwiched between speaking with both graduate and environmental students’ groups, Richard presented two lectures, one at lunchtime and the other the evening UVM’s President’s lecture, which was well attended by both college and surrounding community members. Vermont is busy!

At another luncheon talk a week earlier, Richard Heinberg spoke for Sonoma State University’s February 23rd Biology Colloquium in sunny California. The lecture hall was full of science students and discussions of energy, population pressure, carrying capacity, and algae oil. This last is a form of biodiesel made by pressing oil from algae. Although great new strides might be just around the corner, Richard pointed out that the US Department of Energy has been researching for algae oil for 20 years and has yet to make it a profitable source of energy.

The night before Richard’s science-oriented talk at Sonoma State, Walnut Creek’s Mount Diablo Peace and Justice Center hosted a debate between Richard and his co-presenter Dr. Jose Alberro, about how significant the effects of Peak Oil really will be, and whether the “Market� will “Fix It.� (For speaker biographies, see http://www.postcarbon.org/node/1794) The event was written up in the Energy Bulletin, succinctly detailing the pro’s and con’s covered by Richard and Dr. Alberro, so if you weren’t able to make it live, you can go to the February 26 Staff Article at (http://www.energybulletin.net/13177.html)

Richard related later that he believes that the time for debate is largely past, and that the priority now is action, whether local or international.

BULLETIN! The manuscript for Richard’s new book, The Global Oil Depletion Protocol, is finished, in its box, and going to the New Society publishers this week! Stay posted for publication dates….