How Can We Feed Billions More People?

One out of every eight people in the world goes hungry. The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization, which calculated this figure, has also reported that 852 million of these 870 million hungry people live in developing countries. Worse, the world population will likely balloon from its present 7.1 billion to 9.6 billion by 2050. […]

Peak Oil: A Few Basics

We now have nearly an entire population in the United States and nearly an entire media establishment that believes that oil is abundant–not because of the objective facts, but because of the oil industry’s highly successful public-relations campaign, a campaign that is still underway. The reason it is still underway is that it is essential […]

Analyst skeptical whether natural gas supplies will be ample for winter

Natural gas futures prices for 2015 have declined, but the drop might not be consistent with the supply, according to investment firm Sterne Agee. Writing in advance of the Energy Information Administration’s natural gas weekly update Thursday, analyst Tim Rezvan said the amount of gas in storage now is already low. And assuming the amount […]

Oil Prices Rise on Plane Crash in Ukraine

Oil prices jumped on news that a Malaysia Airlines 3786 passenger plane went down in eastern Ukraine, as traders worried the crash could become a potential flash point that presented another threat to global crude supplies. Israel’s decision to send ground troops into the Gaza Strip also lent support to prices, which in recent weeks […]

Saudi Crude Exports Fell to Lowest Since 2011

Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, shipped the least crude in almost three years in May as domestic refineries processed record amounts and power plants also increased consumption, official data showed. The nation exported 6.99 million barrels a day in May, down from 7.45 million barrels a month earlier, according to data Saudi Arabia […]

Iraqi Kurdistan Starts Oil Pumping from Kirkuk

Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region has begun to pump oil from Kirkuk fields previously controlled by Iraq’s central government into the pipeline system that runs in its own territory, a senior Iraqi oil official said on Thursday. Kirkuk lies on the disputed boundary between the northern Kurdish region and the rest of Iraq and is at […]

Almost a century ago, experts predicted the decline of natural gas production

  The Gas Age In 1920, a correspondent for The Gas Age, summarized national gas production data like this: “The peak of the production of natural gas in this country was doubtless reached in 1917.” Pennsylvania and the Marcellus Shale may be synonymous these days, but the Keystone State is no stranger to oil and natural […]

If This Keeps Up, They Will Have To Start Putting Armed Guards On Food Trucks

The basic necessities in life just keep getting more expensive.  On Tuesday, Hershey announced that the price of all of their chocolate bars is going to go up by about 8 percent.  That is particularly distressing to me, because I am known to love chocolate.  But if it was just chocolate that was becoming significantly […]

Clean Natural Gas Powers Our Economy

With domestic natural gas production “at an all-time high” – driven by the Marcellus Shale – this clean-burning, homegrown fuel is creating broad-based benefits for us all. In fact, Dr. Daniel Yergin – a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and leading expert on global energy trends – said this week that without hydraulic fracturing, the United States […]

John Michael Greer: Smile For The Aliens

Last week’s post, with its uncompromising portrayal of what descent into a dark age looks like, fielded the usual quota of voices insisting that it’s different this time. It’s a familiar chorus, and I confess to a certain wry amusement in watching so many changes get rung on what, after all, is ultimately a non […]

America should heal itself (and use lots of steel in the process)

US president Barack Obama is spending much of this week pushing his multi-year plan to spend $300 billion on infrastructure and to keep current funding from expiring next month — issues dear to the hearts of the nation’s steel executives. The week started off with the White House release of a new report on “the […]

The Big One – Russia’s Bazhenov Shale

As U.S. and EU policymakers have imposed targeted sanctions on Russian individuals and firms in response to the crisis in Ukraine, Western companies have sought to insulate their own projects from the political imbroglio and continue developing the country’s vast oil and gas resources. Exxon Mobil and Shell have joint ventures with Rosneft and Gazprom […]

The Peak Oil Crisis: Better Than Fire

In addition to following the twists and turn of the world’s energy situation, I have been tracking the reporting on developments concerning several “exotic” and therefore controversial energy sources whose proponents say would be far more cost-effective than current alternatives to fossil fuels such as wind, solar and nuclear. The reason for this interest is […]

Earth Policy Institute: Providing A Plan to Save Civilization

When assessing the adequacy of basic resources such as land or water over time, population is the universal denominator: as population expands, per capita availability shrinks.  The world population took until the start of the 19th century to reach 1 billion people. As population growth has picked up momentum, we have passed new milestones much more […]

Chinese Oil Rig Near Vietnam to Be Moved

A Chinese energy company announced Wednesday that a giant oil rig that was deployed in disputed waters off the coast of Vietnam two months ago had completed its exploration work and would be moved. The China National Petroleum Corporation, a state-owned company, said the billion-dollar rig, known as HD 981, would be relocated to an […]

Researchers Address Economic Dangers of ‘Peak Oil’ in USA

Researchers from the ICTA-UAB and the University of Maryland (UMD) demonstrate in a new study which sectors could put the entire U.S. economy at risk when global oil production peaks (‘Peak Oil”). This multi-disciplinary team recommends immediate action by government, private and commercial sectors to reduce the vulnerability of these sectors. References Christian Kerschner, Christina […]

Peak Oil: Another Challenge

Climate change [hoax or fact?], The Supreme Court’s parade of idiotic rulings better-suited to the 16th century, and the ongoing duel between Democrats and the Moron Faction which now dominates Republican Party policy-making [a term used loosely], tend to clog the airwaves as we all try to muddle our way through the major challenges of […]

North Dakota is poised for more growth in oil production

Crude supplies expected to rise 5 to 6 percent per month, but limits on flaring loom in 2015. fect July 1, well operators are allowed to flare, or burn at the wellhead, no more than 23 percent of the natural gas, Helms said. The limit takes effect in October, and enforcement will begin in 2015, […]

The Caribbean: A Clean Energy Revolution on the Front Lines of Climate Change

Lefties Food Stall, a pint-sized eatery serving Barbados’ signature flying-fish sandwiches, recently became the first snack shack on the Caribbean island to be fitted with a solar panel. The nearby public shower facility sports a panel as well. So does the bus shelter across the street, the local police station, and scores of gaily coloured […]

Watch How Solar Power Is Transforming Rural India

BARSANA, UTTAR PRADESH, INDIA — Sun-bleached brick and concrete houses dot the landscape. Cows and buffaloes compete with rickshaws, people and the occasional SUV on the only road into town. And when the sun goes down, life comes to a screeching halt. In other words, this rural village in India’s northern plains is an unlikely […]

Egypt Seals $10bn BP Natural Gas Deal

Egypt has finalised a $10bn deal with BP that could significantly boost the country’s natural gas production. The gas project had stalled for three years in the face of political, social and economic turmoil in the Arab world’s most populous country but Egypt’s prime minister has announced completion of the deal according to Egyptian media […]

What Does a Post-Growth Economy Look Like?

No respectable person in American politics dares to question the virtue of economic growth even though it is increasingly clear that life on Earth will collapse if current patterns of extraction and consumption continue.  So what is the responsible path forward? It was exciting that the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C. decided to […]

Pivot to the East? Demystifying the Russia-China Natural Gas Deal

It had been more than a decade in the making, but on May 21, Russia and China finally agreed to a landmark 30-year, $400 billion natural gas deal that some say cements Russia’s latent “pivot to the East.” Signed during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most recent trip to China, the agreement effectively gives Moscow and […]

Peak Oil – The Man & Mind Behind The Theory

“Our ignorance is not so vast as our own failure to use what we know…” -M. King Hubbert It’s not a question of if, but of when the earth’s hydrocarbon resources will be depleted. They are nonrenewable, finite, and one day Peak Oil Theory will be vindicated- but that day will be far into the future […]

BRICS Announce $100 Billion Reserve To Bypass Fed, Developed World Central Banks

As we suggested last night, the anti-dollar alliance among the BRICS has successfully created a so-called “mini-IMF” since the BRICS are clearly furious with the IMF as it stands currently: this is what the world’s developing nations just said on this topic “We remain disappointed and seriously concerned with the current non-implementation of the 2010 […]

Steps towards Fossil Fuel Redundancy

Every journey begins with a first step. It suggests that if you can take one, you can take a few more. And maybe even many, many more. Those of us with a belief system tuned to a bit of science know that the global community has to get rid of most carbon fuel use, maybe […]

If You Cut One, Plant Two

Olga Mugisa, 11-years-old, takes to the microphone in front of her peers, the Ugandan flag proudly draped behind her and green plants framing the stage. She has an important message to share with her fellow students: “If you cut one, plant two.” “I tell all of you here you to plant trees at school, at […]

Focusing on Food Miles is a Mistake

In The Energy Basis of Food Security I note how tightly linked food prices are to energy prices, pointing out that the primary reason for this link is that food production is incredibly energy intensive. A series of recent posts have explored the energy intensity of different modes of food transport within food systems, and these have […]

Natural Gas Discoveries Fueling Gaza Crisis?

Yesterday [Tuesday July 8th], Israeli defence minister and former Israeli Defence Force (IDF) chief of staff Moshe Ya’alon announced that Operation Protective Edge marks the beginning of a protracted assault on Hamas. The operation “won’t end in just a few days,” he said, adding that “we are preparing to expand the operation by all means […]

The end is nigh for high sulfur European gasoil, despite pockets of demand

It has not been a great year for high sulfur gasoil consumption in Europe, by any stretch of the imagination. First, the winter was warm across the Continent. Unlike in the US which encountered freezing temperatures in January-February, temperatures were mostly pleasant on this side of the pond. This dampened demand for heating and in […]

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