Japan’s Prime Minister declares Fukushima nuclear site “stable”, marking the worst stretching of the truth by a head of state since “Mission Accomplished”

The crippled nuclear reactors at Japan’s Fukushima power plant have finally been stabilised, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has announced. An earthquake and tsunami in March knocked out vital cooling systems, triggering radiation leaks and forcing the evacuation of thousands of people. Mr Noda’s declaration of a “cold shutdown” condition marked the stabilisation of the plant. […]

A Peak Oil Holiday Wish List

I realize that this is surely too much to ask of Santa this holiday season, but there’s never any harm in asking. Sometimes, when you least expect it, good things do happen….. As we approach 2012, dealing as we are with a struggling economy; highly-partisan politics which get almost nothing done (in no small part […]

Top 10 peak oil books of 2011

Lots of books came out on energy, climate and the economy this year. Here are the best ones that integrate all three areas. Welcome to our second annual list of the top ten peak oil books. Most of them are explicitly about peak oil, while others deal with energy depletion as a significant factor in […]

Why safe nuclear will rely on rare earth minerals

As SmartPlanet has reported, one way to make nuclear power safer would be to replace uranium fuel with a different element, thorium. For a quick review: Compared to uranium, thorium produces little dangerous, weapons-grade waste. And thorium’s waste survives for only a few hundred years, not the 10s of thousands or even millions of years […]

China’s Rare Earth Monopoly

Rare earth minerals may be the most important, let least understood factor in America’s transition to a low-carbon, clean-tech future. They’re essential to virtually every source of renewable energy and consumer technology we use today. But China dominates worldwide rare earth supplies and production, and their monopoly could corner the world economy. energyNOW! chief correspondent […]

Oil’s getting harder and harder to come by

Are oil companies are finding it increasingly difficult to find new oil? It can certainly seem that way. Most of the older, easier-to-drill oil fields appear to be running near full capacity, while newer supplies often prove costly and difficult to drill — think of deepwater extraction off the Gulf of Mexico or shale production […]

‘Alternative’ fuel key to survival in Central Asia

Soaring fuel prices; electricity rationing; early snow – it’s enough to send people scurrying for alternative ways to heat their homes and cook their meals. In some parts of Central Asia, however, “alternative” doesn’t necessarily mean clean burning or eco-friendly. In Uzbekistan, cheap is the operative word, and that means things can get downright, well, […]

UK: Green measures will not lead to ‘astronomical’ energy bills: analysis

Household energy bills will rise by £190 by the end of the decade, according to an analysis published on Thursday by the government’s official climate change advisers. But fears of “astronomical” rises as a result of building a clean energy system for the UK have been rejected by the report, which says charges on future […]

South Sudan: Will Oil Lead It Out Of Poverty?

South Sudan, the world’s newest nation, is still trying to find its feet, and private companies, international aid experts and diplomats have gathered in Washington this week to see if they can help. The 5-month-old country is one of the most underdeveloped places in the world, and it still has many lingering disputes with its […]

OPEC says, ‘Don’t Count on Us’ for More Oil Supply

The results of OPEC’s latest meeting to set oil production quotas were announced this morning. Instead of production targets for individual countries, a group production ceiling of 30 million barrels a day was set. This amount is a bit less than OPEC produced in November 2011 (actual 30.367 mbd), according to its reckoning, and less […]

The questionable economics of shale gas

Shale gas is being sold to the American public as a miracle, arriving just in time to save us from peak oil. It’s an abundant new fuel supply that will be a “game-changer,” we’re told. We’ll soon be a major exporter of gas to the rest of the world. The economics of fossil fuels have […]

Rob Hopkins: Announcing the publication of two new Energy Descent Action Plans

Like buses, you wait for ages for Energy Descent Action Plans to come along, and then two come along at once. This month sees the publication of two new EDAPs, from Llambed in mid-Wales, and Dunbar in East Lothian, Scotland. For a crash course in EDAPs and a taste of those published thus far, see […]

Dr. Kenneth Deffeyes on Peak Oil

Dr. Deffeyes is an author and Princeton University professor emeritus. He joined the Shell research lab when M. King Hubbert had recently issued his controversial predictions that U.S. oil production would peak during the ’70s. After reworking Hubbert’s numbers, Dr. Deffeyes sought other employment. He is the author of “Hubbert’s Peak: The Impending World Oil […]

The Coming Global Water Crisis

Our planet is running out of usable, potable water. This could be a greater disaster than Peak Oil Learn more about future trends at http://www.futuremoneytrends.com

A new ARMZ race

The people who brought about Chernobyl are pressing to become the world’s leading source for nuclear power equipment, materials, and services. Russia’s quasi-state nuclear power authority, Rosatom, has ambitions of becoming the world’s one-stop shop for nuclear plants, uranium fuel and spent fuel services. Currently accounting for 20% of the world’s nuclear power stations and […]

In Brazil, Oil Boom Brings Environmental Worries

In Brazil, the discovery of huge oil deposits has prompted a patriotic outpouring as Brazilians celebrate the country’s rise as an oil power. Currently the world’s ninth largest oil producer, Brazil believes it may become one of the top four or five oil producers in a few years. But a recent spill 200 miles off […]

India must ramp up energy consumption for 9 p.c. growth: Manmohan

India needs to rapidly increase energy consumption to achieve the ambitious target of 9 per cent economic growth in the 12th Five-Year Plan (2012-17), Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday said. “We have set for ourselves an ambitious target of 9 per cent annual growth in GDP in the 12th Five-Year Plan. This high rate […]

Is Cold Fusion Even Possible?

Has the world’s first cold fusion plant finally been built? Andrea Rossi, an Italian physicist claims that he has built the world’s first working cold fusion plant. He demonstrated his Energy Catalyzer or E-Cat machine at the University of Bologna in Italy on October 28. The machine, which fuses nickel and hydrogen to give off […]

Oil, Climate, Agriculture and Learning to Love Limits

“New technology is almost as alluring as sex. Once humans have experienced any invention that eases physical effort, they will not give it up. That is the behavioral characteristic that may destroy us as a species. Curiously, only in sports do we agree to eschew technological advances, making rules, for example, to limit the power […]

Oil’s cheerleaders missing the point

The head of Saudi Aramco, Khalid Al-Falih, delivered a stinging rebuke to proponents of Peak Oil — arguing that there will be a renaissance for petroleum as new realities reshape the energy world. Among these, he said, is “an increasing abundance of oil and gas supplies”, serving to counter concerns about oil output and energy […]

Guy McPherson Discusses His Awakening And Preparation For Collapse

TED-style talk at the 2011 International Conference on Sustainability, Transition and Culture Change in Bellaire, Michigan on its fourth day, Sunday, 13 November. This video clip describes my personal journey, and the program allowed no time for questions.

Facing Peak Oil and Peak Gas: In Search of the Least Evil

The U.S. oil geologist Marion King Hubbert predicted, already in 1956, that the global production of oil will reach its all-time high roughly when we have used one half of the world’s oil reserves. This is because geologists tend to find the biggest fields first, and because oil wells become tired during the production phase. […]

Iraq leads increased medium-term OPEC production capacity

The International Energy Agency, revising upward earlier estimates, said it expects production capacity of members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to reach 38.1 million b/d by 2016. “Crude oil expansion plans in the medium term are moving apace, with capacity now forecast to increase by 2.33 million b/d to 38.1 million b/d by […]

Three bombs hit southern Iraq oil pipeline

Three bombs hit an oil pipeline that transports crude from Iraq’s southern oilfields to storage tanks around the oil hub of Basra on Tuesday, an oil police source said. “The explosions happened in succession and caused an enormous fire,” said the source who was at the blast scene. “We cannot go near the explosion site […]

Iran to Close Strait of Hormuz in War Game Exercise

A member of the Iranian parliament’s National Security Committee said on Monday that the military was set to practice its ability to close the Gulf to shipping at the narrow Strait of Hormuz, the most important oil transit channel in the world, but there was no official confirmation. The legislator, Parviz Sarvari, told the student […]

Oil prices, 0% growth and the environment

In this video Chris Martenson – economic analyst at chrismartenson.com and author of The Crash Course – and Alasdair Macleod of the GoldMoney Foundation talk about the implications of rising oil prices for economic growth. They wonder what effect it would have on pension portfolios when the predicted returns of 7-8% cannot be realised anymore […]

Mapping Australia’s energy future

Despite benefits from a new “golden age of gas”, the world must immediately slow carbon emissions or it will not be able to keep global warming to a two-degree increase, a Brisbane audience was told today. International Energy Agency chief economist Fatih Birol gave his only public speech in Australia as part of the Energy […]

Argentina poised for shale oil and gas boom

Argentina could be nearing a shale oil and gas boom similar to the one that transformed the US energy landscape as former state monopoly YPF eyes another 1bn barrel discovery adjacent to a Patagonian field whose reserves were more than six times bigger than thought. YPF has almost finished drilling a 502 sq km area […]

Cyber attacks could wreck world oil supply

Hackers are bombarding the world’s computer controlled energy sector, conducting industrial espionage and threatening potential global havoc through oil supply disruption. Oil company executives warned that attacks are becoming more frequent and more carefully planned. “If anybody gets into the area where you can control opening and closing of valves, or release valves, you can […]

Suncor, Gulfsands declare force majeure in Syria

Suncor Energy Inc. and Gulfsands Petroleum PLC each declared force majeure and are suspending their respective operations with Syria’s state-owned General Petroleum Corp. (GPC) to comply with sanctions imposed by the European Union. “These actions are taken as a result of sanctions on Syria announced by the European Union on Dec. 2,” Suncor said, adding, […]

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