Global 7 Billion: Half a Solution from Ted Turner

In 1950 world population was 2.5 billion. This week it passed 7 billion, an ominous occasion marked by various events across the globe, including a special CNN editorialpenned by none other than f0rmer boss Ted Turner. Turner has a right to opine on population growth and global poverty implication, seeing as he donated $1bn to set up […]

Hubbert’s Third Prophecy

In light of recent events such as the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street I thought it would be pertinent to review Hubbert’s Third Prophecy about the cultural crisis he expected.   He wrote about it in the attached article entitled “Exponential Growth as a Transient Phenomenon in Human History”. In case you are not familiar with Hubbert’s first […]

ASPO 2011: The Bright Future of Too-Big-To-Not-Fail Finance

The Bright Future of Too-Big-To-Not-Fail Finance

Day 3 live blogging from ASPO

09.34 Lindsay Curren Audience member says peak oil communications have to be ground up. At the same time government has to acknowledge things because they are the ones making resource decisions. 09.34 Erik Curren Q. What are you trying to accomplish by getting politicians on board if you don’t have the rest of the country […]

IEA draft outlook sees $212 oil in 2035

The jump in oil prices in the past year is adding to concern about the economy, according to a draft of the International Energy Agency’s 2011 World Energy Outlook, which also raised its view of long-run prices. The draft dated July 2011, obtained by Reuters ahead of the publication’s launch next week, assumes nominal oil […]

Rapidan Group sees oil price up by $175/bbl if Iran attacked

Oil prices could spike by as much as $175/bbl according to a new analysis of the impact on oil markets of an Israeli attack on Iran and subsequent closure of the Strait of Hormuz. “Concern is rising among officials in Washington and Jerusalem that Israeli leaders increasingly favor unilateral military action to slow Iran’s pursuit […]

Five myths about the world’s population

1The world is overpopulated. Sure, 7 billion is a big number. But most serious demographers, economists and population specialists rarely use the term “overpopulation” — because there is no clear demographic definition. For instance, is Haiti, with an annual population growth rate of 1.3 percent, overpopulated? If it is, then was the United States overpopulated […]

China to phase out energy-inefficient light bulbs

China announced Friday it will phase out incandescent light bulbs within five years in an attempt to make the world’s most polluting nation more energy efficient. China will ban imports and sales of 100-watt and higher incandescent bulbs from Oct. 1, 2012, the country’s main planning agency said. It will extend the ban to 60-watt […]

Roubini Predicts Eurozone Collapse; World Markets To Follow

Noted American economist Nouriel Roubini says the eurozone is in the midst of crumbling, and with the rest of the world’s future at stake with a potential collapse, they might want to listen up — Roubini has been right before. Speaking privately at a get-together this week at his apartment, those in attendance have since […]

Dmitry Orlov on Fast Collapse & Alex Goldmark on Crowdfunding

In Reinventing Collapse, Dmitry Orlov compared the US to where his native Soviet Union was in the mid-1980s–near the edge of imperial collapse. He used to expect five stages of gradual collapse; he explains why the Euro crisis now leads him to believe that industrial civilization will fall apart very rapidly. Do you want to […]

Obama Tells Allies U.S. Will Attack Iran By Fall 2012

Barack Obama has told America’s allies that the United States will attack Iran before fall 2012 unless Tehran halts its nuclear program, a time frame that suggests Obama is willing to use war as a re-election campaign tool to rally the population around his leadership. A subscriber-only report by DebkaFile, the Israeli intelligence outfit which […]

North American Oil Development Is Reducing Demand for Foreign Oil

The September 15 report from the National Petroleum Council expressed surprise at how much has changed just since their “Hard Truths” report of 2007 that domestic energy development was falling behind escalating demand. The “Hard Truths” report stated that although “the world is not running out of energy resources … there are accumulating risks to continuing […]

UAE – World likely to face severe oil crunch by 2015

There could be a severe global oil crunch by 2015 due to drastic changes in the oil market fundamentals, a World Bank consultant told the 17th Annual Energy Conference of the Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies and Research (ECSSR). Addressing the ECSSR conference in the UAE capital, Dr Mamdouh Salameh, Consultant on Oil and Energy […]

Pat Gerber & Ben West discuss Peak Oil, Tars Sands at Occupy Vancouver

Pat Gerber & Ben West discuss Peak Oil, Tars Sands, & Environmental Issues at Occupy Vancouver

New Dept. of Energy Priority-Setting Analysis Seriously Flawed

The US Department of Energy (DOE) recently issued a report called Report on the first Quadrennial Technology Review (QTR), which has as its purpose helping the DOE choose among conflicting priorities. The new report sets priories based on a distorted view of the future. One issue is that it is trying to set priorities based on an […]

Federal probe into hydraulic fracturing and its effects on drinking water to begin

The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday released the outlines of its long-awaited probe into whether hydraulic fracturing — the unconventional drilling technique that’s led to a boom in domestic natural gas production — is contaminating drinking-water supplies. Investigators will try to determine the impact of large-scale water withdrawals, aboveground spills of drilling fluids, and the […]

Experts See Big Changes in World Energy Market

As world population grows so does the demand for energy, driving fierce competition for diminishing resources. Many energy experts believe world oil production will soon peak and no alternative energy has been developed that can fill the demand. But at a forum held this week in Houston, energy experts examined trends that could radically transform […]

Auto Sales – The Next Bubble

Peak oil is the point in time when the maximum rate of global petroleum extraction is reached, after which the rate of production enters terminal decline. This concept is based on the observed production rates of individual oil wells, projected reserves and the combined production rate of a field of related oil wells. The aggregate […]

ASPO-USA Conference Report: Thursday Morning Notes

Here’s my brief summary: ASPO-USA has gone from a pure technical study of Peak Oil to emphasizing the economic impact and moving towards policy recommendations. Chris Skrebowski had the best presentation and he’s expecting a tightening supply situation (falling spare capacity) up to the 2014-2015 Peak. No change from last year. He also brought a […]

Turncoat spies leaked Israel’s planned attack on Iran

Israel’s prime minister has ordered an investigation into alleged leaks of plans to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, it has been reported. According to the Kuwaiti newspaper al-Jarida, the main suspects are the former heads of the Mossad and the Shin Bet, respectively Israel’s foreign and domestic intelligence agencies. Netanyahu is said to believe that the […]

Breaking a Long Silence on Population Control

Major American environmental groups have dodged the subject of population control for decades, wary of getting caught up in the bruising politics of reproductive health. Yet, virtually alone, the Center for Biological Diversity is breaking the taboo by directly tying population growth to environmental problems through efforts like giving away condoms in colorful packages depicting endangered animals. […]

A Casual Walk Down EROEI Lane

EROEI — or energy return on energy investment — is an interesting concept. A simple equation for calculating EROEI is provided by Wikipedia: EROEI = Usable Acquired Energy / Energy Expended But beware of the false simplicity of equations and charts. The denominator for the equation above: “Energy Expended,” can be devilishly difficult to quantify […]

Saudi Peak Oil Could Affect World in 2012

While most experts say it is hard to know what is really going on with Saudi oil supplies, ”What we do know is that, for whatever reason, Saudi Arabia produced 600,000 fewer barrels each day in 2010 than it did in 2005, and with growing Saudi consumption of their own oil, the drop in exports from Saudi […]

Rebecca Gerendasy: David Korten: Capitalism, Democracy, and Food

In this video interview, David Korten, noted author, and co-founder of Yes! magazine shares his views on the importance of building local, community-based economies, in which sustainable agriculture has a key role to play. Korten explains that our existing industrial agriculture system receives essential public subsidies (and tax support) that offset the real costs of energy, and food production. […]

IEA’s influence will weaken as Asia rises, says former chief Tanaka

Nobuo Tanaka seems to enjoy speaking more freely now that he’s no longer head of the International Energy Agency. In that role, reporters would parse his every word for clues about possible movements in oil prices and supply. On October 31, during Singapore’s International Energy Week, Tanaka proclaimed on a range of issues in a way […]

The peak oil crisis: cold fusion redux

There is a fascinating drama taking place over in Bologna, Italy involving an engineer by the name of Andrea Rossi and a physicist, Sergio Focardi, who say they have developed an entirely new source of cheap, clean, energy. This energy is said to be produced by fusing nickel and hydrogen inside a low-cost, table-top-sized reactor. […]

Is Global Warming Over? Experts Disagree

IT’S one of the hottest feuds in science – climate chance zealots insist that we’re still destroying the planet but now another scientist has warned the cast-iron evidence just isn’t there. FOR a minute there it seemed the global warming debate had finally been resolved. FOR a minute there it seemed the global warming debate […]

Military thinktank urges US to cut oil use

An influential military thinktank is urging America to cut its oil use by 30% over the next decade, as a national security imperative.   In its report, the Military Advisory Board said the US should aim to drastically reduce its energy imports over the next decade – or else risk exposing the economy to devastating oil price shocks.   […]

Peak oil perspective

It was by teaching a course on energy in 2004 that I first became aware of the enormous challenges facing our society this century. In preparing for the course, I was initially convinced that I would identify a sensible and obvious path forward involving energy from solar, wind, nuclear, geothermal, tides, waves, ocean currents, etc. […]

US Oil Consumption

It’s been a while since we’ve checked in on US oil consumption.  The above graph shows the EIA’s data since 2000 – both the weekly and the monthly series.  The monthly series is believed to be more accurate, but the weekly series is more up to date – going through the week before last, versus […]

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