The Club of Rome all over again

The note by Nafeez Ahmed on the “Nasa-funded paper” (a term that went viral) on societal collapse was followed by a heated debate. In a previous post of mine, I noted how we were seeing again the debate that took place after the publication of the first “The Limits to Growth” study in 1972. Indeed, […]

Age of Gas Seen as Sideshow to U.S. Producers Prizing Oil

The “golden age of gas” that the International Energy Agency foresees as a result of the U.S. energy boom is hardly the future being embraced by industry executives. At least based on comments from company officials presenting at the Independent Petroleum Association of America’s conference in New York yesterday. For them, oil is still the […]

One in Five Global Shale Basins May Succeed

Only one in five global shale regions may succeed in producing significant amounts of oil and gas as countries from China to Argentina seek to emulate the U.S. boom, said energy consultants Wood Mackenzie Ltd. Argentina is leading the pack, with plans to drill about 200 shale wells this year, more than three times the […]

Orlov: Business as usual

Thinking about collapse is very useful because it allows you to prepare for it. And preparing for collapse is very useful too—from the pragmatic perspective of risk management. Consider the possibilities. If you prepare for collapse and it doesn’t happen, then you look a tiny bit foolish. If you don’t prepare for collapse and collapse […]

The Soil, Land, Water, Climate, Honey Bees, Oil, Food Nexus: Peak Soil

There is a tendency for humans to perceive ill occurrences as unconnected events, rather as the Biblical plagues of Egypt: water into blood, frogs, lice, wild animals or flies, deceased livestock, boils, storms of fire, locusts, darkness and death of the firstborn. Scientists now believe that these events really happened, but they were in fact […]

Who’s looking beyond growth?

Is there a way off the economic escalator? Does economic growth have a place in the future of high-income countries? This hotly debated question covers many different debates, each with arguments to be taken seriously on both sides. There’s a long history to the beyond-growth perspective (Mill and Keynes wrote about it, for starters) but […]

Welcome To Terminus

“Life improves slowly and goes wrong fast, and only catastrophe is clearly visible.” – Edward Teller I was a late arrival to the Walking Dead television program. I don’t watch much of the mindless drivel passing for entertainment on the 600 worthless channels available 24/7 on cable TV. I assumed it was another superficial zombie […]

Could a giant sunburst unplug the Earth?

When the sun got ornery in 1859, American telegraph operators saw sparks fly. A huge solar flare belched a cloud of charged particles into Earth’s path. But other than frying telegraph lines, the electromagnetic collision caused little stir in the world. Nobody back then had yet switched on a decent light bulb, much less charged […]

What Would Happen to Western Oil Companies if Russia Retaliated?

Hypothetically, if tensions were to continue to escalate between Russia and the West over Ukraine, and Russia retaliated against Western oil companies, what would be the effect? Would Western companies with Russian exposure such as ExxonMobil  (NYSE: XOM  ) , Royal Dutch Shell  (NYSE: RDS-B  ) , and BP plc  (NYSE: BP  )  plummet? Meaningful retaliation is unlikely I believe […]

US Oil Imports Seen Falling to Zero by 2037

Net oil imports to the U.S. could fall to zero by 2037 because of robust production in areas including North Dakota’s Bakken field and Texas’s Eagle Ford formation, according to a government projection released today. The Energy Information Administration, the branch of the Energy Department that collects and analyzes energy data, said the once-chimerical goal […]

Trend Analyst: “Yes, There Will Be Riots In Major Cities”

If you’ve watched a documentary about America’s economic situation in recent years there is a strong chance it was produced by Daniel Ameduri of Future Money Trends. He’s covered topics that include everything from the massive college debt bubble and the future of real estate,  to water wars and what it will look like on the […]

And The Next Big Thing Is… Degrowth?

This is not doom-and-gloom for society–it is only doom-and-gloom for the current unsustainable arrangement (Plan A). The Grand Narrative of the past few centuries goes something like this: from religious authority to secular authority, from agriculture to industrial, from rural to urban, from local to global, from periphery to center, from decentralized to centralized, from low-density […]

US Navy ‘game-changer’: converting seawater into fuel

The US Navy believes it has finally worked out the solution to a problem that has intrigued scientists for decades: how to take seawater and use it as fuel. The development of a liquid hydrocarbon fuel is being hailed as “a game-changer” because it would signficantly shorten the supply chain, a weak link that makes […]

What Does ‘Winning’ the Clean Energy Race Even Mean?

The Pew Charitable Trusts is out with its annual report comparing investment in clean energy among the twenty richest countries in the world. Once again China is held up as a threat to U.S. competitiveness. The report concludes that China “solidifies leadership in the global clean energy race” by capturing 29 percent of investment among G-20 countries […]

Energy and the Financial System: What Everyone Needs to Know

Peak oil theorists have long been regarded by mainstream economists as the boys and girls who cried wolf. But just because the outlooks of mainstream economists failed to see the wolf does not mean it was not there. Rather, according to Roger Boyd’s Energy and the Financial System: What Every Economist, Financial Analyst, and Investor […]

Just How Good Are The EIA’s Predictions?

Folks here know that I like to post charts created from oil production data. But there has been a dearth of data lately. But not to worry, the data should start coming fast and furious later this week.  However in the meantime I decided post a little about what the EIA expects in the future. […]

Iran Can’t Withdraw Much Oil Revenue Under Interim Nuclear Deal

  Iran has been unable to withdraw much of the unfrozen oil revenue it was to receive under a November interim nuclear deal, a possible complication for efforts to end the decadelong standoff over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. The problems were outlined in interviews with nearly a dozen Western and Iranian officials and diplomats, bankers and […]

Apres Moi le Deluge

“The American way of life,” George H.W. Bush infamously declared in 1992, “is not-negotiable.”  This presents a problem if the American way of life is also unsustainable. The context for these remarks was the first Earth Summit in Rio, which unsuccessfully set out to curb carbon emissions.  Bush’s platform was based on his assertion that […]

Peak Oil: Ignoring Other Considerations

Gail Tverberg shares some of the most insightful observations about the connection between economic growth and energy. In an article posted at her website several weeks, she raised issues which are too often shunted aside in the primary debate of  “not enough” versus “all we need” fossil fuel supplies in the years to come. They’re […]

Scientists link rise in seismic activity in Oklahoma to increased oil and gas exploration

Between 1975 and 2008, Oklahoma recorded an average of no more than six earthquakes per year, yet now it is the second most seismically active of the contiguous United States, beaten only by California. Scientists have linked this surge in seismic activity to a parallel increase in oil and gas exploration, including fracking. In 2009, […]

Vast oil trove trapped in Monterey Shale formation

San Joaquin Valley’s Monterey Shale formation may hold 15 billion barrels of oil, but no one has found an affordable way to extract it. A bustling city is sprouting on five acres here, carved out of a vast almond grove. Tanker trucks and heavy equipment come and go, a row of office trailers runs the […]

Chevron has no plans to end fracking agreement with Ukraine

Last year, Chevron Corp. signed an agreement to bring the fracking revolution to Ukraine, hunting for natural gas trapped in shale rocks near the Polish border. Now the government that signed the agreement is gone, toppled by a popular uprising. And Russia’s abrupt annexation of Crimea has cast doubt on Ukraine’s future. But Chevron isn’t pulling […]

Thom Hartmann Interviews Guy McPherson, On The Brink Of Extinction

Thom Hartmann´s Conversation with great Minds, April 4th, 2014

Why Humans Are Not Fated To Destroy The World

One often hears that we are in the midst of exponential population growth, and that the Earth cannot support many more people. Unless we take immediate measures to control population growth, the story goes, we are on a crash course for ecological and humanitarian disaster. But what is really going on with global population trends? […]

Analysts Predict Gazprom’s 80% Gas Price Hike In Ukraine Will Backfire

Russia’s top natural gas producer, Gazprom, will eventually lose more than it gains from raising the gas price for Ukraine by 80 percent, analysts said Friday, predicting Kiev would cut purchases and fail to pay in full. Gazprom on Thursday announced a price rise for Ukraine to $485 per 1,000 cubic meters, the second increase in three days. The $485 price is the highest of any Gazprom customer and compares with about […]

The Race for What’s Left: The Global Scramble for the World’s Last Resources

By Michael Klare, the natural resources expert who told us that the disappearance of easy to access and extract “cheap oil” will lead to the development of unconventional energy resources like tar sands, oil shale, deepwater drilling, mountaintop removal, artic oil exploration and that these developments will come at growing environmental and human costs.  In […]

The Insanity Of U.S. Energy Independence & Cracks Beginning To Appear In The Natural Gas Industry

The notion of future U.S. Energy Independence will seriously disappoint the market and American public.  This strategy of energy independence put forth by the energy industry and U.S. Govt may buy some time for our anemic economy and the U.S. Dollar, but will back-fire in a big way when overall oil and gas production declines […]

Ukraine raises fears of gas price war with Russia

Ukraine has warned that it may be on the verge of its third natural gas price stand-off with Gazprom in eight years, raising the possibility that Russian supplies to European markets could once again be disrupted.Addressing his cabinet on Saturday afternoon amid lingering fears that Russia could launch further military incursions after last month’s annexation […]

Fuel Shortages Dog Africa’s Biggest Oil Producer

The man in the large SUV forces his way to the front of the line at the gas station, ignoring the blaring horns and threats of fisticuffs from drivers who have slept in their cars and waited for more than 12 hours for the scarce fuel. Raw anger and frayed tempers give way to resignation […]

Obama, the Sauds, and Bottomless Hypocrisy

US President Barack Obama’s recent visit to Saudi Arabia confirms what many even causal political observers have begun to suspect regarding recent US political history, that Washington’s values aren’t just nonpartisan, driven entirely by special interests permeating both sides of the political aisle, but are altogether non-existent. To understand why requires an understanding of both […]

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