The power of the permaculture

Why permaculture design? Peak oil, loss of diversity, species extinction, conspiracy, oil spills, food insecurity … the problems that we face seem to increase both in size and complexity every day. However, we can simplify all of these global issues and emphasize three primary concerns. In order of increasing priority, the three biggest issues are: […]

WikiLeaks cables: Saudi Arabia cannot pump enough oil to keep a lid on prices

The US fears that Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest crude oil exporter, may not have enough reserves to prevent oil prices escalating, confidential cables from its embassy in Riyadh show. The cables, released by WikiLeaks, urge Washington to take seriously a warning from a senior Saudi government oil executive that the kingdom’s crude oil reserves […]

Italian oil tanker falls to pirates

An Italian oil tanker has been hijacked by pirates in the Indian Ocean, news reports here quoted the Italian coast guard as saying Tuesday. According to the Italian Marine Corps, the captain tried to evade capture by speeding up, suddenly changing gear and firing powerful water jets on the priates’ skiff. At least five pirates […]

South Sudan preserves past to forge a proud future

Yellowing papers, nibbled by termites and dumped on piles waist high, crowd the sweltering-hot giant tent: the raw documents that make up the history of the world?s newest nation to be. As south Sudan prepares for full independence, due on July 9 after last month’s referendum that saw almost 99 percent of the mostly African […]

As world population heads toward a peak, Malthusian worries reemerge

Food and people. Thomas Malthus posed them as two forces rarely in balance. Plentiful food encourages population growth. A booming population devours more food than can be produced. Famine and other ugliness follow. Population crashes. Students who learn of Malthus’s grim prediction usually take away two lessons. The first is the sharp contrast between arithmetic […]

Kunstler: The Mummy’s Tomb

..President Mubarak has about as much chance of sticking around his presidential palace another fortnight as a bluebottle fly has of conducting the next Easter mass at the Vatican. –Last week’s CFN blog Oh well, poor call there. It seems that the College of Cardinals actually located an eager bluebottle fly named Franci Vafanculo in […]

Rising Food Prices May Not Signal New Crisis

As food prices rose for the seventh month in a row in January, contributing to recent popular unrest in the Middle East and a spike in commodities purchases by developing countries last week, some analysts are quick to make comparisons to the dry years of 2007-2008. But others warn against panic and oversimplified predictions of […]

Transition Footwear

I bought a new pair of shoes lately.  All my friends gleefully applauded my purchase, and my husband was very pleased too. You see, about three weeks ago, while on the construction site for the new community garden we’re building in my neighborhood, I sprained my ankle pretty badly.  Limping awkwardly, I discovered very quickly […]

Don’t count on natural gas to solve US energy problems

We often hear statements suggesting that by ramping up shale gas production, the US can raise total natural gas production and solve many of its energy problems. While there is the possibility that shale gas will allow US natural gas supplies to increase for a few years, it is doubtful this advantage will last for […]

Egyptian natural gas supplies to Israel cut off after explosion

Natural gas supplies to Israel have been cut off after an explosion in an Egyptian gas line in the Sinai Peninsula. It is unclear whether Saturday’s explosion was caused by a gas leak or by sabotage. The head of Egypt’s natural gas company said the explosion was caused by a gas leak; Egyptian state television said […]

Kurt Cobb: Is the modern anti-tax movement a product of increasing complexity?

The anti-tax movement in the United States has evolved from a fringe component of American politics 40 years ago into one that is central today. And certainly, the country has had a long history of tax protests, right? Actually, wrong. While the Boston Tea Party is often cited as the inspiration for today’s so-called Tea […]

Joe Rogan – The American War Machine

A very cool combination of some of my rants connected with some great video editing by a youtube user named “TheParadigmShift” Joe Rogan – Subversive stand up comedian/game show host whore/Mixed Martial Arts fanatic/psychedelic adventurer.

Oil Tankers in the wake of the Egyptian Crisis

Gail Tverberg’s analysis of some of the underlying causes of the current Egyptian crisis is cogent, but one of the other consequences caught my attention today. For, as was noted in Forbes While most equity-related assets got battered, a select group of stocks, oil shippers, were corking champagne bottles. Apart from Overseas Shipholding, Frontline Ltd. […]

Peak Oil Bedtime Stories

Venusville, Unicornland, and The Civilization That Fell To Earth. Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsAUSs…

Why Oil Matters More Than Rubber

I was thinking about Paul Krugman’s Cross of Rubber column, and in particular the associated blog post Commodities: This Time is Different.  My take on Krugman is that he’s an extremely brilliant guy who’s been thinking about economics for a good long time.  His enormous knowledge and insight are invaluable, and I pay close attention […]

Is 2010 Really The Warmest Year Ever?

Both NOAA and NASA this month announced that 2010 was tied for the warmest year. The UK Climate Research Unit at East Anglia University proclaimed 2010 the second warmest year since 1850. But after the incredibly cold and snowy winters in 2008/09 and 2009/10 and so far in 2010/11, those claims are falling on increasingly […]

Starvation: The last thing our hungry world needs is more food

Government chief scientist Sir John Beddington calls it ‘the perfect storm’. Soaring world population, coupled with climate change, is set to create a world food crisis and leave billions starving. ‘We are at a unique moment in history,’ he said recently, while launching a report from his Government think-tank, Foresight. The Foresight project, Global Food […]

Egypt ruling party leaders resign

The leadership of Egypt’s ruling party stepped down Saturday as the military figures spearheading the transition tried to placate protesters without giving them the one resignation they demand, President Hosni Mubarak’s. The United States gave key backing to the regime’s gradual changes, warning of the dangers if Mubarak goes too quickly. But protesters in the […]

Uganda has the oil curse

For close to five years now, Uganda’s oil industry has attracted heated debate, especially on the lack of transparency in the industry. In a two-part commentary, Isaac Imaka analyses Uganda’s young oil industry by tracing the discovery of the mineral, the major developments in the industry; its impact on the social, economic and political life […]

Iran claims more refining capacity

Iran’s oil minister said Saturday the country has boosted its refining capacity by 2 million liters of fuel per day, claiming it was a sign of growing self-sufficiency in the face of international sanctions. Though Iran is the second-largest oil producer in OPEC, its lack of sizable refining capacity makes it dependent on imports of […]

The World’s Most Fuel Efficient Car

This likely blows previous fuel efficiency records out of the water: VW to roll out 313mpg car in Germany and UK Last week at the Qatar Motor Show saw the world debut of Volkswagen’s XL1, a diesel-electric hybrid two-seater that can do 313mpg (0.9 l/100 km) and an announcement that the vehicle will enter limited […]

Technological Innovation for Human Development

The time of reckoning is coming when we must face the consequences of technological innovation geared to maximization of short-term profits regardless of social and ecological impacts. There is increasingly increasing objective evidence that we are systematically destroying the human habitat. Some (usually the most vulnerable) people are already experiencing the consequences. Technological innovation is […]

In Paper We Trust

Over the past year I have been engaged in negotiations with my former employer concerning the amount of my pension. I thought I had an iron clad case. I possessed company documentation from several years back. It clearly specified at the time of the conversion of the plan from a traditional defined benefit plan to […]

Population’s Effect on the Future of Energy

During his delivery of the State of the Union, President Obama had a Sputnik moment. It would seem that government spending coupled with technology and a fear of falling behind put an American on the moon… Obama proposes to do the same thing with clean energy. This new monetary thrust at alternative sources of energy […]

Richard Heinberg on Peak Oil

A short clip from our interview with Richard Heinberg, author of “The Party’s Over: Oil, War and the Fate of Industrial Societies” (2003), “Powerdown: Options and Actions for a Post-Carbon World” (2004), and “Peak Everything: Waking Up to the Century of Declines” (2007).

Cue the doomsayers

When I was a student at York University in the early 1970s, there was one must-read book on first-year course lists: The Population Bomb, by Paul Ehrlich. It was full of prognostications about devastating overpopulation that would cause the world to run out of land and resources. The book became a best-seller at a time […]

Robert Hirsch on Peak Oil

Jim Puplava (FSN) interviews Robert Hirsch about his book “The Impending World Energy Mess.” Recorded Jan 29, 2011.

Egypt: Preview of America in 2015

NIA was the first to predict the recent explosion in agricultural commodity prices in our October 30th, 2009, article entitled, “U.S. Inflation to Appear Next in Food and Agriculture”, which said we have a “perfect storm for an explosion in agriculture prices”. A couple of months later in ‘NIA’s Top 10 Predictions for 2010’ we […]

The Story of the Egyptian Revolution

A friend of mine in academia forwarded this e-mail to me from an Egyptian student whose good sense he vouches for. The student tells a story very different from what most of you are seeing on television or reading in your papers. The Story of the Egyptian Revolution One week ago, Egypt was a stable […]

Days of Rage, Oil Prices, and the Suez Canal

Bloomberg warns today that an act of sabotage or a decision by a new regime – possibly headed up by the Muslim Brotherhood – to close the canal and its oil pipeline to punish supporters of Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak could send oil prices through the stratosphere. Egyptian troops currently guard the canal and its […]

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