AFTER PEAK OIL, PEAK GLOBALISATION

The most critical though least debated action required today is changing the business model. Our economic system has long been driven by efficiency without ever considering sufficiency. Greed, not need, has been the muse of the ranks of business. And the gap between the world’s richest and the poorest has never been so large, writes […]

Heinberg: GDP is dead: Will the world be happier without it?

Memo to politicians: Stop promising to grow GDP and start targeting social benefits you can actually deliver—or prepare to face angry mobs. Nothing grows forever on a finite planet, not even the US economy. It’s not surprising that everyone from President Obama to Michele Bachmann is assuring the electorate that he or she can deliver […]

Social unrest & population growth

From the First Industrial Revolution in England to the present, Malthusian (Rev. Thomas Malthus 1766-1834) arguments as a pretext for grossly unequal income distribution, rise in poverty amid economic growth, and to deflect focus from a socially unjust political economy to the issue of there are ‘too many people, too few resources’ in the world. […]

Peak Oil Perceptions: If Gas Prices Soar, Who’s Most Pessimistic?

Just three months ago, the average gas price crossed 4$ a gallon. Now, oil prices have plummeted to their lowest level this year in response to the Standard & Poor’s U.S. debt rating downgrade. We’ll continue to be whipsawed by changes in oil prices, reflected in the price per gallon we pay for gasoline. That’s […]

Peak Oil & Public Health: Political Common Ground?

Peak petroleum—the point at which the maximum rate of global oil extraction is reached, after which the rate of production begins to decline—is a hot topic in scientific and energy circles. When will it occur? What will the impact be? While geologists and economists debate the specifics, American University School of Communication professor Matthew Nisbet […]

Loaves and fishes, Transition and survivalism

As stock markets around the world gyrate and froth at the mouth, the ranks are sure to grow of concerned citizens who aren’t waiting around for the government or the rich to fix things, but have instead taken matters into their own hands. Pessimists who foresee a quick and nasty collapse of society coming soon […]

Kunstler: Change You Don’t Have to Believe In

A waterfall of woe broke over all the realms of money last week – including especially the realm where we determine just what money is supposed to mean – and a lot of folks barely made it to a rooftop, or a floating log, or some scrap of high ground, where they sit wet and […]

Fall of the Soviet Union: Implications for Today

Back in the 1960s and 1970s, the country that was the “big growth story” was the Soviet Union. Its oil consumption grew by leaps and bounds. Its space program grew; its military program grew; and it became much more industrialized. But then something happened to stop the amazing growth story. The Soviet Union became the Former […]

White Gold, Black Gold and China’s Energy Crisis

China has an ongoing energy crisis. Severe electricity power shortage spreads throughout most of China since spring time 2011. The power shortage occurred long before the summer peak power consumption season. Meanwhile, city residents complain about high food prices while desperate farmers had to destroy their harvest corps because no one is coming to their […]

Can Seawater Solve Our Water Woes?

Most of the earth is covered by water, yet more than a third of the global population experiences periodic shortages of the kind used for drinking and agriculture. So why not convert seawater into tap water? Desalinization of ocean water has been a dream and goal of scientist for decades, but the project takes on […]

Mike Ruppert: Summer Of Fear

SUMMER OF FEAR

WSJ: US has the world’s largest oil shale and coal reserves

U.S has the world’s largest oil shale and coal reserves Albanian__Minerals President and CEO Sahit__Muja said “The U.S, energy inidependence is absolutely possible if we invest in innovative technology”. “Investing in clean energy oil shale, natural gas, coal would create an estimated 20 million new jobs in U.S”. The USA, the land of the opportunity […]

Arctic ‘tipping point’ may not be reached

Scientists say current concerns over a tipping point in the disappearance of Arctic sea ice may be misplaced. Danish researchers analysed ancient pieces of driftwood in north Greenland which they say is an accurate way to measure the extent of ancient ice loss. Writing in the journal Science, the team found evidence that ice levels […]

Japan Rice Futures Surge 40%, Trigger Circuit Breaker On Concerns Fukushima Radiation Will Destroy Crops

70 years after rice futures trading was halted on the Tokyo Grain Exchange, it was finally reopened today… only to be halted immediately. The reason: concerns that Fukushima radiation would destroy rice crops and collapse supply sent the contract price soaring from the reference price of Y13,500 to a ridiculous Y18,500 at which point it […]

When Falling Oil Prices are Bad News

Economic Heartache Normally, consumers consider falling oil and gasoline prices to be good news. They have to pay less to fill up their tanks. And if the reason for that is that oil supplies are increasing at a rate faster than demand is increasing, it can indeed be a good situation for consumers, and good […]

High-impact discovery in the North Sea

(*) “High-impact well” =  a total of more than 250 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe), or 100 million boe net to Statoil. Statoil ASA (OSE: STL, NYSE: STO) and partners Petoro AS, Det norske oljeselskap ASA and Lundin Norway AS have made a high-impact oil discovery on the Aldous Major South prospect (PL 265) […]

Iran’s oil minister: Replace foreign oil companies

Iran’s new oil minister says he wants the Revolutionary Guard’s economic conglomerate to replace foreign gas and oil companies, the official IRNA news agency reported. The minister, Rostam Qasemi, had been the chief of the economic conglomerate until his appointment last week to the government post. The economic conglomerate, Khatam-ol-Anbiya, is the Revolutionary Guard’s most […]

U.S. Shale Gas Industry Reserves Are Over Stated at Least 100 Percent

The deep waters of the world’s oceans and seas are a frequent topic in discussions of the source of future production of oil. Having talked about the development of the offshore Gulf of Mexico oil and gas fields last time, in this post, I’m going to venture further away from the coast, and look at […]

Shaky U.S. economy won’t benefit from natural gas expansion

As the federal government prepares to gut key programs to protect water and other natural resources through this week’s debt agreement, the Department of Energy (DOE) has announced plans to invest $12.4 million on programs to support shale gas development. Yet new analysis released by the national consumer advocacy group Food & Water Watch casts […]

Israelis protest against high cost of living

Hundreds of thousands pour into streets of Tel Aviv and other major cities to push the government for reforms. Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators poured into the streets of Tel Aviv and other major Israeli cities to protest against the increasing cost of living, in a big show of force by a movement that is […]

Tech Talk – The Deep Waters of the Gulf and Salt Domes

The deep waters of the world’s oceans and seas are a frequent topic in discussions of the source of future production of oil. Having talked about the development of the offshore Gulf of Mexico oil and gas fields last time, in this post, I’m going to venture further away from the coast, and look at […]

GrowthBusters: A Groundbreaking Documentary for 2011

Do concerns about water shortages, peak oil, species extinction, and deforestation keep you up at night? Do you experience dread thinking about overpopulation and unchecked consumption? Have you or your family ever wondered if there is a better gauge of happiness and success than the accumulation of more stuff and a rising GDP? If the […]

Peak oil was thirty years ago

Taking a break from my war with Murdochracy, my most recent column in the Australian Financial Review (over the fold) was about Peak Oil. Partly for tactical reasons, but mainly because I believe it’s basically correct in this case, I’m wearing my hardest neoclassical hat. One of the more intriguing sidelights to debates over climate […]

Will Natural Gas Become US’s Primary Energy Source by 2030?

Could domestic natural gas become the “game-changer” energy source for the United State in the 21st century? It’s possible. Even Billionaire Oilman T. Boone Pickens, who knows a thing or two about the energy business, is bullish on natural gas. Maybe you should be too, as an investor or a consumer. A “perfect storm” of […]

Peak Oil: Supply and Demand

null Oil Production v. Oil Discovery null Oil Demand Changes by Region, 2003-2007 Oil Demand Changes by Region, 2003-2007 null Oil Supply Changes by Region, 2003-2007 Oil Supply Changes by Region null Consumer Spending on Oil As Percentage of GDP Consumer Spending on Oil As Percentage of GDP null Do Speculators Drive Peak Oil? Oil […]

Comparing Nuclear Events at Fukushima, Chernobyl, Three Mile Island

Radiation leaks from Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s earthquake-stricken reactors in northeastern Japan represent the worst nuclear power accident since the meltdown at Chernobyl, Ukraine, almost 25 years ago, scientists say. Helicopters poured 30 metric tons of water today on pools used to cool spent fuel rods. No change in radiation was reported after four runs […]

Peak Oil Perceptions: How Americans View the Risks of Major Spikes in Gas Prices

A strong majority of Americans say it is likely that oil prices will triple in the coming five years and that such a tripling would be harmful both to the economy and to public health. Conservatives and those dismissive of climate change are among the most concerned by the threat of a major spike in […]

Past peak oil – life after cheap fossil fuels

The only rational response to the end of the cheap oil is to redesign all aspects of our lives Perhaps the greatest vulnerability of the current world system is that of availability and distribution of critical resources as oil, food, and water. The very logic of accumulation under the current economic system necessitates that the […]

U.S. Shale Gas: Less Abundance, Higher Cost

Shale gas has become an important and permanent feature of U.S. energy supply. Daily production has increased from less than 1 billion cubic feet of gas per day (bcfd) in 2003, when the first modern horizontal drilling and fracture stimulation was used, to almost 20 bcfd by mid-2011. There are, however, two major concerns at […]

44 Years of Slow Collapse

“You can go to the countryside, get yourself a farm, learn how to milk cows, sew your own clothes, put up canned goods at harvest, and midwife your own babies, but it won’t save you from the spread of the deserts, bubbling clathrates, or zombie hordes fleeing starving cities.“ Watching the Tea Party make hostages […]

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