China’s Growing Problem Of Too Many Single Men

In the Nov/Dec 2010 Issue of Foreign Affairs Magazine, there is a fantastic article entitled “The Demographic Future” by Nicholas Eberstadt, where he introduces what the world of 2030 will look like from a demographic standpoint. As he explains: “It is already possible to draw a reasonably reliable profile of the world’s population in 2030. […]

Global Oil Supply Flat in April

The OPEC and the IEA are both out with their April numbers for total liquid fuel production.  OPEC shows it slightly up, but the IEA shows it slightly down, so I guess it’s flat to within the margin of error.  The above shows the graph of the last couple of years (not zero-scaled to better […]

China suspends exports of fuel

China is suspending exports of diesel fuel to help counter shortages likely to worsen during the peak summer months. The National Development and Reform Commission, the country’s planning agency, on Friday urged oil companies to help “maintain social stability and promote economic development” by increasing refinery output and stepping up new projects to ensure stable […]

Toxic contamination of the Gulf environment

Many locals argue that living in close proximity to – and eating seafood from – the Gulf is risky and disagree with federal agencies’ claims that the Gulf is now safe. In response to their oil disaster last summer that released at least 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, BP admitted […]

Global resource consumption to triple by 2050: UN

Global consumption of natural resources could almost triple to 140 billion tons a year by 2050 unless nations take drastic steps, the United Nations warned Thursday. A UN environment panel said the world cannot sustain the tearaway rate of use of minerals, ores and fossil and plant fuels. It called on governments to “decouple” economic […]

Resource demand threatens future

The world is set to consume three times more natural resources than current rates by the middle of the century, according to a United Nations report. It predicts that humanity will annually use about 140 billion tonnes of fossil fuels, minerals and ores by 2050. The authors call for resource consumption to be “decoupled” from […]

The future of fusion

What new initiatives have you been focusing on since assuming the leadership of PPPL? PPPL scientists regularly generate intriguing new ideas. We have made great progress toward a major enhancement of our main experimental facility — the National Spherical Torus Experiment, or NSTX. We have funding for an upgrade that will yield an order-of-magnitude improvement […]

Fukushima Reactor 1 Fuel Rods Fully Exposed, Reactor 4 In Danger Of Collapsing

Remember Fukushima? The exploded nuclear power plant that everyone was talking about two months ago and now the media has imposed a complete blackout on, because out of print/page views, means out of radioactive spewage, right? Wrong. According to the latest update from a now government funded TEPCO, “fuel rods are fully exposed in the […]

NATO hits Gaddafi compound

NATO bombed Muammar Gaddafi’s compound on Thursday, hours after the Libyan leader ended doubt about his fate by making his first television appearance since another air strike killed his son nearly two weeks ago. The leader of the rebels seeking to end Gaddafi’s 41-year rule visited London to drum up aid for his movement. The […]

The Fukushima Nuclear Disaster In Perspective

This press conference organized by Globla Research was held in the context of Helen Caldicott’s public lecture to Montreal on March 18, 2011. First I want to present this report, produced by the New York Academy of Sciences, a report on Chernobyl.  It can be downloaded.(2)  They translated 5,000 articles from Russian for the first time […]

How Peak Oil Solves The Climate Change Problem

Peak oilists warn that fossil fuel depletion will cause an economic collapse. Climatologists say carbon emissions will cause an environmental crisis. To a certain extent, only one of these doomsday scenarios can happen. If fossil fuel reserves are limited to the low end of the projection (see chart), then the world will automatically enter the […]

Heinberg: Will Natural Gas Fuel America in the 21st Century?

Post Carbon Institute undertook this report in order to examine three widespread assumptions about the role that natural gas can and should play in our energy future: Assumption #1: That, thanks to new techniques for hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling of shale, we have sufficient natural gas resources to supply the needs of our country […]

Sunni Monarchies Close Ranks

Reports that the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is considering some form of membership for two non-Gulf states – Jordan and Morocco – confirm that the conservative Sunni monarchies of the Middle East are closing ranks against Iran, Shiite-led Iraq and the democratic wave sweeping the region. GCC secretary general Abdullatif al-Zayani made the announcement Tuesday […]

Why nuclear power will never supply the world’s energy needs

he 440 commercial nuclear reactors in use worldwide are currently helping to minimize our consumption of fossil fuels, but how much bigger can nuclear power get? In an analysis to be published in a future issue of the Proceedings of the IEEE, Derek Abbott, Professor of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Adelaide […]

IEA cuts oil demand growth forecast

The International Energy Agency cut its global oil demand growth forecasts for this year due to persistent high prices and lower growth projections for developed economies. In its monthly oil report on Thursday, the Paris-based agency warned that high oil prices could dent the fragile economic recovery. “Persistently high prices at this stage of the […]

Over a billion tonnes of food wasted every year

Around a third of the food produced in the world every year — around 1.3 billion tons — gets lost or wasted, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation said on Wednesday. “Given the limited availability of natural resources it is more effective to reduce food losses than increase food production in order to feed a […]

Noam Chomsky: “The U.S. and Its Allies Will Do Anything to Prevent Democracy in the Arab World”

Speaking at the 25th anniversary celebration of the national media watch group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, world-renowned political dissident and linguist Noam Chomsky analyzes the U.S. response to the popular uprisings sweeping the Middle East and North Africa. “Across the [Middle East], an overwhelming majority of the population regards the United States as the […]

Gasoline Gangsters Episode 19: Living Without Money

Heidemarie Schwermer believes that modern society is going to collapse and she lives her life without the use of money. This episode is about a recent documentary film showcasing her fourteen year journey of “Living Without Money.” I believe her lifestyle choice is directly related to the coming peak oil and financial crash our society […]

What does ‘peak oil’ mean?

Professor Heinberg explains what peak oil means.  The theory of peak oil started with M. King Hubbert, who said that global oil production would decline. Predictions for when global oil reserves will run out vary but there is general consensus on oil depletion.

Fleeing Vesuvius: The psychological roots of resource over-consumption

Humans have an innate need for status and for novelty in their lives. Unfortunately, the modern world has adopted very energy- and resource-intensive ways of meeting those needs. Other ways are going to have to be found as part of the move to a more sustainable world. Most people associate the word “sustainability” with changes to […]

Dave Pollard: Transition and the Collapse Scenario

For the last year or so I’ve been involved with our local Transition Initiative, and have communicated with many members of Transition initiatives around the world. Several of my articles on Transition-related topics have been published by web sites (like Energy Bulletin) that focus on how we can cope with emerging energy, ecological and economic […]

Waste to Energy Project Not So Green

A waste-to-energy (WtE) project in the heart of the Indian capital and run by a powerful industrial family is testing the enforceability of the country’s environmental and zoning laws. The WtE project, being promoted by Jindal Ecopolis—owned by the Jindal family that is close to the ruling Congress party—will, when fully operational, burn 4,000 tonnes […]

Shale Gas Wars: A Tale of Two Studies

“A lie gets halfway around the world before truth has a chance to get is pants on”. It seems Winston Churchill’s dictum could be applied to some “comprehensive” studies into the global shale gas phenomenon too. Since April, the findings of a shale gas study by Robert Howarth’s team at Cornell University, widely debunked for […]

Bahrain oil company fires hundreds over protests

Bahrain’s oil company has fired almost 300 employees in recent weeks for taking part in anti-government protests and general strikes, according to the Gulf kingdom’s energy minister. Abdulhussain bin Ali Mirza, who also serves as the chief executive of the state-owned Bahrain Petroleum Company (BAPCO), said that 293 employees have been dismissed since the king […]

Europe increases natural gas consumption

Not so long ago Gazprom held another meeting on natural gas supplies. Aleksey Miller, the head of Gazprom, said that the gas export had increased by 20% in April 2011 as compared to April 2010. It is May but the gas supplies to Europe are at the same level as in winter. According to Miller, […]

Have humans created a new geological age?

Human civilisation developed in a cosy cradle.Over the last 11,700 years – an epoch that geologists call the Holocene – climate has remained remarkably stable.This allowed humans to plan ahead, inventing agriculture, cities, communication networks and new forms of energy.Some geologists now believe that human activity has so irrevocably altered our planet that we have […]

A recession is coming, but not just yet

There will be many dress rehearsals in commodity markets before the next global recession. An example is last week’s dramatic and broad-based sell off that took oil prices for over a $10/barrel tumble. And there is no doubt that despite the scarcity of the resource, the price of oil will crash the next time the […]

Nuclear collapse looms? Fukushima No. 4 reactor ‘leaning’

A small group of evacuees have briefly been allowed inside the exclusion zone around Japan’s damaged Fukushima nuclear plant. For the first time, the government gave permission for short visits so people could gather belongings and check on their properties. Meanwhile, a recent map of contamination released by Japan shows high levels of radiation well […]

Flaring: The Ultimate Gas Guzzler

If you wanted to help curb global warming by slashing emissions of 400 million tons of CO2 annually, you could: take 77 million automobiles off the road, or eliminate the wasteful practice of venting and “flaring” (burning) of billions of cubic meters of unused natural gas from production wells. Much as I’d like to choose […]

Anton Smedshaug’s Definitive Guide To The Oil-Driven Food Crisis

One of the best presentations at last week’s peak oil conference in Chicago was given by Norwegian agronomist Anton Smedshaug. Smedshaug showed how the Malthusian food crisis of the nineteenth century was averted by increased crop yields and a transportation revolution. As fuel prices increase, however, food supply will be limited to what’s local. Moreover, […]

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