Pure water as global strategic resource

A priority task for all countries is to preserve pure water which is becoming one of the main strategic resources on the planet. This is what Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said at the International Forum “Pure Water-2010” in Moscow. Over two and a half billion people lack drinking water today, he stressed. This figure may […]

More On The (Peak Oil) Message, Part II

Continuing with the theme of messaging, I think it’s important to add some considerations to the mix. This is both for those of us who have chosen to do what we can to share what we know about the challenge of Peak Oil, and those trying to understand the complex issues that arise from declining […]

WWF: All living beings on Earth become extinct

According to the report of WWF Living Planet, prepared for the opening of the UN conference on the conservation of wildlife diversity, which began on October 18 in Japan, the population of all living beings on the planet is sharply reducing, as humanity consumes 50% more resources than is resumed. But how accurate is this […]

Surprise! I’m your new President-for-Life: The post-peak military coup & beyond

Our military appears to be taking the risks of imminent peak oil shocks seriously. Our ‘civilian’ government, deep in the thrall of corporate short-term profiteers, appears incapable of processing such risks. When the shocks come like a kick to our collective American gut, I suspect that only one of these entities may survive. Guess which […]

Kuwait to add significantly to oil reserves

Kuwait expects to add a significant amount to its oil reserves by March 2011, some of it from the world’s second largest oilfield, Burgan, the chairman of the state explorer Kuwait Oil Co (KOC) said. “More than big quantities will, God willing, enter the oil reserves by the end of the fiscal year (March 2011),” […]

China Halts Rare Mineral Exports To US And Europe, Prices Set To Surge

The latest escalation in the binary version of modern warfare (i.e., that fought with a Bloomberg instead a stealth fighter), comes from China, which the NYT reports has just halted shipment of rare minerals to the US: “China, which has been blocking shipments of crucial minerals to Japan for the last month, has now quietly […]

Food Security – a must for everyone

Every second one person dies in the world of starvation. The terrible statistics were published by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. According to the FAO experts, the starving population numbers about one billion people. And tens of millions of people suffer from systematic malnutrition. Two-thirds of the famine-stricken population live […]

Saudi Arabia says easy oil is not over

Saudi Arabia’s oil minister said on Monday the age of easy oil was not over as the kingdom still holds at least 88 billion barrels of oil in its largest oilfield. “I am sorry to disappoint people, easy oil is not over,” Ali Al-Naimi told reporters in Riyadh on the occasion of OPEC’s 50th anniversary. […]

U.S. power supply inadequate for economic recovery

U.S. utilities withstood one of the hottest summers in a decade without major blackouts, but the country might not have all the generation it needs if the U.S. economy rebounds quickly. U.S. electric use jumped 4.2 percent in the first half of 2010 from a year earlier, as the economy began to improve. The Energy […]

The Loss of Trust and the Great Unraveling To Come

The political class and Standard-Issue Punditry (SIP) don’t “get it”: Americans have completely lost faith in their Financial Elites and government, for abundantly obvious reasons.Anyone who believes the foreclosure crisis can be contained is deluded, because the real issue in play is the citizens’ trust in their government’s ability to govern the nation’s Financial Elites […]

The Revolution Has Begun – “The Shift Hits the Fan”

The Bottleneck. The Great Disruption. Peak Everything. The Great Turning. Whatever you call it, it’s the big enchilada. In the words of filmmaker Tom Shadyac, “The shift is hitting the fan.” We’re experiencing the dawn of a revolutionary transformation. This awkward ‘tween state marks the end of pre-history – the sunset of an ecologically illiterate […]

Vaclav Smil’s “Energy Myths and Realities” – A review

Vaclav Smil, professor of Environment and Environmental Geography at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, has written a new book called “Energy Myths and Realities.” In the book, he looks at a number of things he considers myths: 1. The future belongs to electric cars 2. Nuclear electricity will be too cheap too meter 3. […]

Kunstler: The Surrealist Vista

Some profound seismic infarction deep in civilization’s very soul – brought on, no doubt, by the sludgy buildup of vast swindles and frauds – now propels deadly tsunamis toward the land masses where money dwells. And when they break over the shorelines of banking and capital, little may be left standing. The latest rogue wave […]

U.S. Military Plan: Get Off Oil By 2040

In September, the Center for New American Security (CNAS) issued a 36-page study entitled Fueling the Future Force: Preparing the Department of Defense for a Post-Petroleum Era (PDF). Now if the title weren’t suggestive enough, the target date of 2040 — 30 years from now — should set off klaxons from Maine to Guam. Prepared […]

Transportation, Food, and Electricity Systems Not Well Prepared for Peak Oil

Earlier this month, I was able to attend the final day of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil & Gas (ASPO) USA conference, and it reminded me how far behind we are in preparing for a future in which oil is less readily available than it is now. Sharon Astyk, who’s an ASPO […]

The Military Perspective of Peak Oil Risks

The recent leak of a German military report on peak oil has generated much interest among peak oil analysts. The study was written by the Future Analysis department of the Bundeswehr Transformation Center, and is entitled “Peak Oil: Implications of Resource Scarcity on Security”. While some analysts view the German study as significant, others have […]

Canada-US pipeline on hold amid oil’s recent woes

The steel is staged, and crews are waiting to lay the last and most expensive leg of TransCanada Corp.’s multibillion-dollar pipeline network that would carry Canadian oil to refineries along the Gulf Coast. Yet final U.S. government approval for the massive project, once assumed to be on a fast track, is now delayed indefinitely, with […]

Kurt Cobb :Talkin’ Triage

“Don’t waste your breath” needs to become a mantra in the peak oil and sustainability communities. The season for arguing with peak oil and climate change deniers has long since passed. Our time is too precious and the need to act too urgent. The time has come for talkin’ triage. Triage, of course, refers to […]

Russia and Middle East control 63% of world oil and gas reserves and 39% of world oil and gas production

Russia and Middle East energy businesses are embarking on new partnerships that will see joint investment projects in each other’s core energy activities. Badr Jafar, Executive Director of the Crescent Group of Companies, explains the active role being played by Crescent in this pioneering initiative. Despite being the world’s two resource giants, with a combined […]

Strikes force shutdown of All French Refineries

All 12 refineries are now on strike in France or being shut down gradually by the companies for safety reasons. Total SA started shutting down its six refineries early this week and other refineries are following suit. Esso SAF’s refinery at Port Jerome also is now on strike and its Fos unit is paralyzed due […]

China taps US again for energy after 5 year hiatus

CNOOC is back tapping the US for the country’s energy needs after a five-year hiatus, and again the latest deal has generated a lot of heated discussions in the US. Remember the audacious $18.5 billion all-cash bid to acquire Unocal Oil in 2005? The deal ultimately fell through in the face of intense opposition from […]

WPC’s participants call for ‘visible, transparent’ global governance

The participants in the third World Policy Conference (WPC) called, on Saturday in Marrakech, for a “visible and transparent” global governance in order to find pragmatic and practical solutions to the issues challenging today’s world. Speaking at the first plenary session on “Population, environment and health”, the participants underlined the interaction between demographic trends, climate […]

Population Pressure on Natural Resources; By 2030 We Will Need Two Earths To Survive

According to the estimates by United States Census Bureau, the population of the world is 6.875 billion. The world’s population has significantly increased in the last 50 years, mainly due to medical advancements and substantial increases in agricultural productivity. According to the World Development Indicator published by the World Bank on October 2, 2010, the […]

OPEC Members Seek $100 Oil to Counter Dollar Weakness

The 13 percent decline in the Dollar Index since June has led some OPEC members to call for oil to rise to $100 a barrel. The U.S. currency’s weakness means the “real price” of oil is about $20 less than current levels, Venezuelan Energy and Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said after yesterday’s meeting of the […]

A Peak Oil Lament

In conjunction with the recent ASPO annual conference in Washington, two articles (here and here) were offered on the subject of getting the Peak Oil message out, and what some of the strategies might be, given that, as the article by Molly Davis suggested: “… almost all of the messaging experts say the movement’s narrative […]

Convenience is a Word in the Dictionary

We as a population have become addicted to convenience, even if it takes an engineering degree to figure out all the functions of the item we have acquired. Many products have had a swift demise when the public decided they weren’t convenient enough. When we start the long decline of the oil age, what happens […]

Video: Response To Peak Oil

This documentary is about what a select group of individuals are doing in response to peak oil. It includes a definition of what peak oil is.

Low Income families face “Fuel Poverty”

GST revenue from soaring energy prices should form rebates – AGL * By Annabel Hepworth * From: The Australian * October 15, 2010 8:51AM * 8 comments * Increase Text Size * Decrease Text Size * Print * Email * Share o Add to Digg o Add to del.icio.us o Add to Facebook o Add […]

OPEC signals it will keep output targets unchanged

Comments from OPEC oil ministers indicate the organization will leave output targets unchanged as it tries to reassure energy-dependent nations just starting to emerge from recession. Rather than change quotas, the 12-nation production group will likely call on members to stop producing over their assigned limits. Most OPEC nations overproduce, meaning that the group puts […]

New Zealand Parliament peak oil report: The next oil shock?

Introduction The US Department of Energy (DoE) calls oil “the lifeblood of modern civilisation”. Around 86 million barrels (13.7 billion litres) are consumed each day. Oil supplies 37 percent of the world’s energy demand, including 40 percent of New Zealand’s energy demand. It powers nearly all of the world’s transportation, without which production and trade […]

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