World braced for new food crisis

The world is facing a new food crisis as the worst US drought in more than 50 years pushes agricultural commodity prices to record highs. Corn and soyabean prices surged to record highs on Thursday, surpassing the peaks of the 2007-08 crisis that sparked food riots in more than 30 countries. Wheat prices are not […]

Oil, politics and resource wars

At the 10th conference of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil & Gas in Vienna, Austria, Dr Robert Hirsch, Professor Michael T Klare, Dr Karin Kneissl, Dr Daniele Ganser, and Jeremy Gilbert discussed for Asia Times Online and Matterhorn Asset MGMT different important aspects of oil . Robert Hirsch: Chaos is going to […]

India – Afghanistan’s Major Post 2012 Energy Investor?

An “if” – a major “if,” in fact, is whether Afghanistan will achieve sufficient political stability following the withdrawal of foreign military forces in 2014 to begin economic development. If so, who then will reap the rewards of Afghanistan’s untapped mineralogical riches? A major player in the potential bidding to exploit them is India’s ONGC […]

How much oil growth do we need to support world GDP growth?

A few days ago, I showed the close relationship between growth in world oil consumption and growth in world GDP. In this post, I will extend that analysis by building a model that shows how much of an increase in world oil supply is need for a given increase in world GDP. This model indicates […]

Deja Food: Will Social Unrest Surge As Corn Prices Soar?

With Corn hitting its highs again, we are reminded that global food production has been hitting constraints as rising populations and changing diets hit against flattening productivity, water and fertility constraints, and the likely early effects of climate change. As was described in the recent all-encompassing theory of global-collapse, there is general agreement that one […]

Edging Toward Collapse: Masters of the Earth

In 1972 the authors of Limits to Growth predicted the global economy would collapse by 2030. They warned the continued growth of population and the economy would be unsustainable. Government and industry leaders did not listen and did not act. The infographic below, from OnlineMastersDegree.com is a visual reminder of the consequences. The total of […]

John Michael Greer: On The Far Side Of Denial

Any readers of The Archdruid Reportwho grew up, as I did, watching old black and white science fiction serials repackaged for the afternoon TV market may be forgiven for an overload of déjà vu just now. Somewhere near the end of any given serial, there’s inevitably a moment when the evil overlord says, “No! This […]

Should the US Become An Oil Exporter?

Last week I missed attending a fascinating panel on the growth of US oil production, hosted by  the New America Foundation in Washington, D.C. Fortunately, I was able to catch most of the live webcast, which is still available for replay. Much of the discussion focused on the potential of new “tight oil” production techniques, similar […]

(There ain’t no) green jobs

Jobs, or rather the lack of, have been a major issue during the last French elections. This is hardly surprising as mass unemployment has been a fact of life in France for a whole generation. Unemployment rates have begun to climb during the late seventies and have hovered between eight and ten percent since then. […]

Crude Awakening: Peak Oil & The End of Cheap Energy: Part 2 by John Richter

Peak oil is the maximum oil extracted on the planet. It marks half all the possible recoverable oil being recovered. What are the impacts on the economy and the world? “We want our oil, we want our gas, we’re gonna drive, and we’ll pay whatever it takes, and, if we have to, we’ll cut back […]

RAND studies synfuels’ role in meeting military needs

The US Department of Defense can meet its fuel supply needs more effectively by using petroleum products more efficiently and protecting major transit corridors than by embracing synthetic fuels, three new RAND Corp. studies concluded. Proponents contend that biofuels and other synthetics can provide US military services an alternative with fewer environmental impacts than crude […]

Evidence that Oil Limits are Leading to Limits to GDP Growth

The usual assumption that economists, financial planners, and actuaries make is that future real GDP growth can be expected to be fairly similar to the average past growth rate for some historical time period. This assumption can take a number of forms–how much a portfolio can be expected to yield in a future period, or […]

Three US Aircraft Carriers Now In The Middle East With Fourth En Route

A week ago we reported news that Middle East veteran aircraft carrier CVN-74 Stennis was ending its brief sabbatical prematurely, and far earlier than previously expected, and heading right back into the field, er sea, of action. As Kitsapsun reported, “Bremerton-based aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis is returning to the Middle East much sooner […]

Peak Oil: Keeping Reality In Mind (Pt 5)

The problem isn’t just political intransigence—it’s that neither political party has made an effort to convince the electorate of the need for change. Without that sort of public discussion, closed-door negotiations are bound to go nowhere. But while party polarization plays a large part in legislative stalemates, the problem goes deeper. Neither political party has […]

Maugeri on peak oil

Carpe Diem, Reuters, FTalphaville, and WhaleOil are among those calling attention to a new paper by Leonardo Maugeri, senior manager for the Italian oil company Eni, and Senior Fellow at Harvard University, which concluded: Contrary to what most people believe, oil supply capacity is growing worldwide at such an unprecedented level that it might outpace […]

Corruption and Mismanagement See Much of the US without Power

Amidst record-high temperatures and a very anti-climactic 4th of July, power outages have left millions without air-conditioning and even water in rural areas where households rely on electric pumps.  At least 52 people have died from heat and three million people are still without power. No it’s not Yemen, where power outages in the capital […]

The Peak Oil Crisis: Technology Races Depletion

Few would argue with the proposition that within the next 20 or 30 years our current sources of fossil fuels and other somewhat substitutable liquids will be only a fraction of the 90 or so million barrels a day (b/d) that we are current consuming. Long before then however, fossil fuels are likely to become […]

‘Peak oil’ a certainty, just as was ‘peak cod’

Paul Schneidereit’s July 10 column “Humans’ love affair with fossil fuels won’t end anytime soon” slammed soothsayers who supposedly predicted doom because we would run out of oil. One such soothsayer was King Hubbert, a geophysicist who worked for Shell Oil and the U.S. Geological Survey. In 1956, he predicted crude oil production in America […]

Was the petrol price rigged too?

Motorists may have been paying too much for their petrol because banks and other traders are likely to have tried to manipulate oil prices in the same way they rigged interest rates, an official report has warned. Concerns are growing about the reliability of oil prices, after a report for the G20 found the market […]

China plan to expand eastern oil reserve storage delayed by 2 years

China’s state-run Sinochem Corp has started expanding a facility that will become the country’s largest oil reserve storage site after a two-year delay due to environmental and safety concerns, local officials and industry executives said. The extension of the facility is part of the second phase of China’s plan to build capacity to store strategic […]

Kazakhstan hopes uranium, oil and gas will fuel its future

The featureless plains of Kazakhstan belie what riches lie buried beneath them. The country has an abundance of natural gas and oil that if developed could more than double the country’s crude output in the next decade to 4 million barrels per day, according to the International Energy Agency. That would make it one of […]

US West Coast to receive dangerous levels of Fukushima radiation

It’s been over a year since natural disaster ravaged a nuclear plant in Fukushima and interrupted the lives of millions of Japanese. Scientists now fear though that contaminated water is on course to America, and it could be more toxic than thought. Researchers have released the findings of an intense study into the aftermath of […]

Rich Nations Losing Control of Oil Market

Starting next year, for the first time on record the wealthy nations of Europe, North America and Japan will account for less than one-half the world’s oil usage, projects the latest Oil Market Report from the International Energy Agency. That’s partially a reflection of the growing efficiency of wealthy nations, and partially a reflection of […]

The Bicycle Revolution in Paris, Five Years Later

In July 2007, many Parisians laughed at their mayor, Bertrand Delanoë, when he announced the creation of a public bicycle sharing system aimed at reducing traffic in the French capital. The system was called Vélib’, a combination of “vélo”, which means bicycle in colloquial French, and “liberté”, or freedom. During its first few months of […]

What will we do when all the oil is gone?

If the oil runs out, will you be ready? Rin Simpson investigates the issues surrounding peak oil, sustainable development and why we need to do things differently in order to have any hope of a comfortable future One day, the oil will run out. It’s only logical. It’s a finite resource, so unless we can […]

Tight Oil could not Render OPEC Irrelevant

Steve Levine has a blog post discussing the idea that the “unfolding new age of fossil fuel abundance” will have profound effects on various things, including OPEC: With prices dropping and competing supplies flowing from numerous new producers, OPEC will lose much relative influence, and may simply cease to be a pivotal economic player. “OPEC […]

Poor Corn Crop Will Have Major Impact on Ethanol Market

Potential Impacts of Poor Corn Crop on Ethanol MarketBy: Robert Rapier I have long felt that one of the biggest threats to the U.S. ethanol industry is a major drought/crop failure in the heart of corn country. This year we may be experiencing such an event. Recent reports indicate that what had been expected to be a […]

Ecovillage Forges a Path to Sustainable Living

Ecovillage at Ithaca (EVI), located in the beautiful Finger Lakes region of upstate New York, is an intentional community of 160 people striving for greater sustainability, a better quality of life, and perhaps even a new model for urban planners the world over. Enjoying breathtaking surroundings, residents wander around the village on pedestrian-only streets, swim […]

World Energy Consumption Facts, Figures, and Shockers

In the first installment of this series, I reviewed U.S. and global oil reserves according to the 2012 BP Statistical Review of World Energy. The second installment covered oil production. Today, I want to examine the changes in consumption of coal, oil, and natural gas since 1965 in the three major consuming regions of the […]

Peak Oil Fraud by Webster Tarpley

Webster Griffin Tarpley is an American historian, author, journalist, lecturer, and critic of US foreign and domestic policy.

« Previous Page — Next Page »

LATEST NEWS HEADLINES

• Why the IEA is Wrong About Peak Oil Demand
• Did we inadvertently speed global warming?  
• Venezuela’s Oil Monopoly Eases
• Why Germany is Choosing Natural Gas Over Nuclear Power
• U.S. coal-fired electricity generation decreased in 2022 and 2023

• America Cracks Down on Methane Emissions from Oil and Gas Facilities
• Meet America’s Newest Oil Trader Extraordinaire: Joe Biden
• Is It Time To Refill America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve?
• Oil prices set to end year 10% lower as demand concerns snap winning streak
• What’s Driving America’s New Oil and Gas Boom?
• China’s peak oil demand bombshell eviscerates Danielle Smith’s energy strategy