Orlov: Unlearn, Rewild

One of the least useful words in the English language is the word “wilderness.” I grew up wandering the woods, and, to me, where the road and the trail end and the animal (and human) paths begin is a point of fundamental transition: beyond this point lies something else—an older, perfectly ordinary, normal way of […]

Energy rationing ≠ a smart grid

Warren Causey, a well-known energy consultant, blogger and colleague of mine, regularly poses the following thought to the power industry. Although it’s a minority view today, I’d like to examine his idea to see where the discussion takes us. To paraphrase Causey, “Why are we looking to energy rationing through increased complexity and inconvenience for […]

36 Percent Of Fukushima Children Have Abnormal Growths From Radiation Exposure

Of more than 38,000 children tested from the Fukushima Prefecture in Japan, 36 percent have abnormal growths – cysts or nodules – on their thyroids a year after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, as reported by ENENews. The shocking numbers come from the thyroid examination section of the “Sixth Report of Fukushima Prefecture Health Management Survey,” published by Fukushima […]

Oil: Only part of the Arctic’s massive resources

When Royal Dutch Shell sinks five wells off Alaska — slated for next month — it will be the first drilling in U.S. Arctic waters in decades. Yet it will be just the latest in a slow-moving but steady push to tap the Arctic’s vast natural resources. Encouraged by high commodity prices and shrinking sea […]

India pays for Iranian oil in rupee

India has begun using its currency to purchase Iranian oil. The move is part of New Delhi’s effort to bolster exports to the Middle Eastern nation. After tightening U.S. sanctions made it difficult for New Delhi to pay Iran for oil in dollars, Tehran agreed to accept nearly half the payment in Indian rupees. The […]

Nigeria Has Great Potentials In Oil Resources

CONTRARY to fears that the country could run out of crude soon, Managing Director of Conoil Producing Limited, a frontline petroleum exploration company, Dr. Ebi Omatsola, says large volume could be lying in different parts of Nigeria. Omatsola, who spoke in Lagos, last week, at a technical session organised by the Nigerian Association of Petroleum […]

Australia Poised to Lead in Solar

Yingli Green Energy notes the solar energy potential of the country Over the past decade, Australia has shown modest support for alternative energy. In recent years, this support has been growing at a rapid pace, with the country now showing major interest in solar energy. Because of Australia’s exposure to solar radiation, it is one […]

Electric freight transport

Electric bicycles, scooters and cars are getting to be a normal sight in traffic. The developments happen very fast, and more and more people use some form of electric transport. One area that remains behind in that respect is electric freight transport. Experiments are carried out with freight trams in city centres here and there, […]

Peak oil debunked? The mechanisms of denial at work

  The publication of the report titled “Oil: the next revolution” by Leonardo Maugeri has gone viral and generated a wave of responses all centered around the theme “peak oil has been debunked”. We may be seeing a repeat of the denial campaign that, in the 1990s, consigned “The Limits to Growth” to the dustbin […]

Iraq signs gas contract with Pakistan Petroleum

Iraq signed an initial gas exploration contract with Pakistan Petroleum (PPL.KA) on Sunday as part of its push to attract more foreign investment to develop its energy sector following years of war and sanctions. The contract gives the Pakistani company the right to explore gas block 8 in Diyala and Wasit provinces in eastern Iraq, […]

Radiation On West Coast of North America Could End Up Being 10 Times HIGHER than in Japan

We’ve extensively documented the fact that ocean currents bring Japanese radiation to the West Coast of North America, and that – rather than adequate ocean dilution –  there could be “pockets” and “streams” of highly-concentrated radiation. Joke F Lübbecke of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory and 3 scientists from […]

U.S. Energy Security and the Next Energy Crisis

  The U.S. recently increased our naval military forces in the Persian Gulf.  This action was in response to increased Iranian military activities within the Strait of Hormuz area and renewed threats to shutdown all oil transport through the Strait.  If the Strait of Hormuz is shutdown 20% of world crude oil supply would be […]

How states are regulating fracking

Armed with new drilling techniques, companies are spreading out across the United States, cracking open shale rock in search of vast new stores of natural gas. It’s not an exaggeration to say that hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” has revolutionized the U.S. energy industry. Cheap natural gas has become America’s top source for electricity, displacing coal […]

Saudi Arabia, Iran Sent 62% of Oil Exports to Asia in 2011

Saudi Arabia and Iran shipped about 62 percent of their oil exports to buyers in the Asia-Pacific region last year, according to data in OPEC’s Annual Statistical Bulletin. Asian buyers received 4.5 million barrels a day of Saudi crude last year, rising from 4.3 million in 2010, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said in […]

Denying the imminence of Peak Oil is a Tragic Error

Olivier Rech, former officer at the International Energy Agency, takes down the Maugeri report, according to which peak oil is no more than a chimera. With new and exclusive data to back up his arguments. Peak Oil Reloaded – part 2/2 (lien vers la version française déjà publiée) Peak Oil Reloaded – part 1/2 What […]

Iran: Plan To Close Strait of Hormuz Finalized

First week of October earmarked for attack? Iran has confirmed that its plan to close the Strait of Hormuz has been finalized and is ready to be put into action as soon as confirmation is received from Supreme Leader Imam Sayyed Ali Khamenei, amidst reports that President Obama has earmarked the first week of October […]

US Ship Mistakenly Fires On Friendly Boat Off Dubai, As Russia Condemns Saudi Treatment Of Religious Protesters

Those trigger happy US sailors are causing some diplomatic headaches again for Hillary Clinton who this time has no Syrian anti-aircraft missiles to blame, by firing on a friendly ship, killing one and injuring three, off the coast of Dubai. Per the AP: “A U.S. Consulate official in Dubai says an American vessel has fired […]

Climate change and peak oil: two sides of the same coin?

This talk was given on July 4th at an event organised by Winchester Action on Climate Change (WinACC). The views in the talk are my own; they should not be interpreted as the official view of WinACC. Download the Powerpoint presentation (1.1 MB). The slides from this presentation are reproduced below. Global Peak oil can […]

Nine Strategies to Stop Short of Nine Billion

Although most analysts assume that the world’s population will rise from today’s seven billion to nine billion by 2050, it is quite possible that humanity will never reach this population size. My chapter in this year’s State of the World 2012: Moving Toward Sustainable Prosperity, “Nine Population Strategies to Stop Short of 9 Billion,” outlines […]

How Much Natural Gas Do We Have Left?

President Obama proclaimed that the US has 100 years of natural gas (UNG) supply. Do we really have 100 years of natural gas (NG) supply? Why did Chris Nelder claim that we have only 11 years or less NG supply left? The Potential Gas Committee, the EIA and the USGS gave different estimates of US […]

Peak Oil: One More Dose Of Crude Oil Reality

One of the key deficiencies of “unconventional” fuels is their low energy return on investment relative to conventional fuels. Many analysts have ignored this factor because investment decisions are made on the basis of the financial, not energy, return on investment. But a growing literature suggests that the two are intimately related…. The financial return […]

James Howard Kunstler: It’s Too Late for Solutions

Author and social critic James Howard Kunstler has been one of the earliest, most direct, and most articulate voices to warn of the consequences — economic and otherwise — of modern society’s profligate wasting of the resources that underlie its growth. In his new book Too Much Magic, Jim attacks the wishful thinking dominant today […]

Operations begin at oil pipeline bypassing strait of hormuz

The United Arab Emirates on Sunday inaugurated a much-anticipated overland oil pipeline that bypasses the Strait of Hormuz, giving the OPEC member insurance against Iranian threats to block the strategic waterway. The 380-kilometer (236-mile) Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline snakes across western desert dunes and over the craggy Hajar mountains to the city of Fujairah […]

In Canada’s Tar Sands, a Dante’s Hell Threatens People Nearby and Across the Globe

In Canada’s western province of Alberta, Melina Laboucan-Massimo’s community—the Lubicon Lake Nation—has endured a withering toxic tar sands oil assault, an Armageddon against nature few Americans are fully aware of. Here in the once pristine sub-Arctic, tar sands mining operations level vast swaths of boreal forests near native lands, as pipelines burst and spew corrosive chemical-laced tar sands […]

Miners Weather The Slow Burn Of Coal’s Demis

At some point today, you will probably flip on a light switch. That simple action connects you to the oldest and most plentiful source of American electricity: coal. Since the early 1880s — when Edison and Tesla pioneered the distribution of electrical power into our homes — most of that power has come from the […]

Tech Talk – Saudi Arabia and what lies ahead

Saudi Aramco has stated that it designs the well layouts and extraction patterns from its oil fields so that they effectively decline at a rate of 2% per year.* If one divides 100 by 2 it yields 50. If one subtracts 50 from 2012, one gets the year 1962. Even to those with poor math […]

“Trade-Off”: A Study In Global Systemic Collapse

  And now some bedtime reading for everyone who consistently has a nagging feeling that at any second the world is one short flap of a butterfly’s wings away from complete systemic disintegration: according to David Korowicz of FEASTA, and his most recent paper: ‘Trade-Off: Financial System Supply-Chain Cross-Contagion: a study in global systemic collapse.” […]

Saudi Security Forces Hurt by Gunmen in Oil-Rich Province

Four Saudi security personnel were injured in an attack by masked gunmen while on patrol in Awwamiya in the oil-rich Eastern Province, the Saudi Press Agency reported, citing an Interior Ministry spokesman. Gunmen also fired at the police station in the village and threw a Molotov cocktail while riding motorcycles, the Riyadh- based news service […]

Iran Oil Minister: Tehran will soon make oil embargo ineffective

Iran’s Oil Minister says his office has drawn up plans to make newly tightened sanctions against the Islamic Republic ineffective. Rostam Qasemi says his ministry is at the forefront of an economic battle with the West. His remarks carried by ministry website shana.ir on Saturday did not elaborate on the plans. Qasemi’s comments come two […]

The Treasures of the Arctic

2012/07/10 BERLIN (Own report) – Foreign policy experts in the German capital are demanding that Berlin obtain access to the deposits of Arctic natural resources through close cooperation with Greenland and Canada. According to these experts, “rich mineral deposits” for example, rare earth and other important resources, can be found in the High North. At […]

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