US says 15 more air strikes launched against Islamic State

The United States and its coalition partners launched two air strikes against Islamic State targets in Syria and 13 strikes against targets in Iraq on Sunday and Monday, according to the U.S. military. In Syria, fighter planes and drones destroyed multiple oil dumps near Dayr az Zawr and struck “a large tactical unit” near Kobani, […]

Why The Price Of Oil Is More Likely To Fall To 20 Rather Than Rise To 80

This is just the beginning of the oil crisis.  Over the past couple of weeks, the price of U.S. oil has rallied back above 50 dollars a barrel.  In fact, as I write this, it is sitting at $52.93.  But this rally will not last.  In fact, analysts at the big banks are warning that […]

The Great War Of The American Empire

Looking at a map of current American military engagements overseas, one cannot help but notice their wide geographical spread and their seemingly interminable nature. Battles have raged in Europe (Yugoslavia and Ukraine), in Africa, in the Middle East, and in central Asia. The American Empire has launched this country into a series of battles that […]

William Catton’s warning

William Catton Jr., author of the seminal volume about our human destiny, Overshoot: The Ecological Basis of Revolutionary Change, died last month at age 88. Catton believed that industrial civilization had sown the seeds of its own demise and that humanity’s seeming dominance of the biosphere is only a prelude to decline. His work foreshadowed […]

Follow the Energy to Find the Money

Peat, an early yet minor fossil fuel (image by Umabatata) While the phrase “follow the money” is common parlance in progressive circles these days, a more relevant line of investigation for these peak oil times of ours might be, I think, “follow the energy.” For as it is, the suggestion of “following the money” generally […]

How Much Water You Use May Surprise You

Do you know how much water you use? I’m not talking about the amount on your monthly water bill. I’m talking about how much water do you really use as a result of the products you eat, wear or  use every day. I didn’t either before reading a new book titled “Your Water Footprint: The […]

Discoveries of new oil and gas reserves drop to 20-year low

  Discoveries of new oil and gas reserves dropped to their lowest level in at least two decades last year, pointing to tighter world supplies as energy demand increases in the future. Preliminary figures suggest the volume of oil and gas found last year, excluding shale and other reserves onshore in North America, was the […]

Oil, Rare Earths and More: How Long Will They Last?

By sheer limitations of the human brain, it can be hard for us to look past the time span of our own lives—short as they are. I don’t mean to be a downer, but it’s true. Imagine what technology will look like 100 years from now. What about 500? Imagine what transportation will look like […]

Twelve ways the world could end

  What are the chances of all human life being destroyed by a supervolcano? Or taken over by robots? A new report from Oxford university assesses the risks of apocalypse Since the dawn of civilisation people have speculated about apocalyptic bangs and whimpers that could wipe us out. Now a team from Oxford university’s Future […]

The crash in the price of oil may change the oil market – a look at the IEA’s “Oil Medium-Term Market Report 2015”

On Tuesday 10 February at 13:00 GMT the IEA released its “Oil Medium-Term Market Report 2015”. The day before the release I was contacted by Jens Ergon at Sveriges Television (“Sweden’s Television, SVT) who wanted to get my opinion on the report. I had a number of hours to read through the 140 pages of […]

Post Carbon Society And Transition

The Industrial Society or the Carbon Society The present social system that we are living is called Industrial Society. It began with the Industrial Revolution (1760 -1830) in the West and was followed by social revolution in various countries – Holland, France, England and the USA, ending the age old feudal society and ushering in […]

Libya Warns of Complete Oil Shutdown as Attacks Escalate

  Clashes in Benghazi Smoke rises from the port of the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi during clashes between forces loyal to the internationally recognised government and militias, on Feb. 14, 2015. Photographer: Abdullah Doma/AFP via Getty Images Recommended This Chart Shows Why the Number of Oil Rigs May Not Matter Anymore Libya’s state-run oil […]

Peak Oil and Scotland

As it is a finite resource, by definition, we will run out of Oil at some point. Around the year 2000, Scotland (and the UK Continental Shelf as a whole) reached “peak oil” (Oil and Gas UK 2014).  So what is “peak oil”, and what are the implications of it? Peak oil is the point […]

Devaluing Currency to Help Exporters

The European Central Bank’s (ECB) decision to shortly print over 1 trillion euros has reignited concerns over currency wars. The euro has dropped almost 20 percent over the last six months after endless hints from the ECB. We are in a currency war, and have been since 2008. Our current global monetary system is deeply […]

Fourth Turning: The Shadow Of Crisis Has Not Passed

 In Part One of this article I explained the model of generational theory as conveyed by Strauss and Howe in The Fourth Turning. In Part Two I provided an overwhelming avalanche of evidence this Crisis has only yet begun, with debt, civic decay and global disorder propelling the world towards the next more violent phase […]

Giant Oil Field Spells Promise for Statoil

Johan Sverdrup Field Could Be Profitable Even at Low Oil Prices One of Norway’s biggest-ever oil projects edged closer to production Friday, a field of rare size and potential that officials said could be profitable even if crude prices fall further. The Johan Sverdrup field in the North Sea will start pumping oil by 2019 […]

Two Libyan Oil Fields Attacked

Two Libyan oil fields were attacked on Friday, Libyan oil officials said, in a fresh wave of violence targeting the North African country’s vital energy sector. The Libyan oil officials said guards repelled gunmen who assaulted the Bahi oil field operated by Waha Oil Co., a joint venture between the state-owned National Oil Co. and […]

U.S. Droughts Will Be the Worst in 1,000 Years

Several independent studies in recent years have predicted that the American Southwest and central Great Plains will experience extensive droughts in the second half of this century, and that advancing climate change will exacerbate those droughts. But a new analysis released today says the drying will be even more extreme than previously predicted—the worst in […]

Russian oil production to drop by 70000 barrels a day in 2015

Given the impact of sanctions, low prices and the absence of any large projects expected to come online, oil production in Russia will drop in 2015 by 70,000 barrels a day, according to a report from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. At the same time, production at Bashneft’s Arctic fields in the Nenets […]

Whose oil in Brazil?

THE slogan under which Petrobras, Brazil’s national oil company, was founded in 1953 was o petróleo é nosso (“the oil is ours”). Ours, not the foreigners’, was the implication. That, too, is the sentiment behind the oil policy of the Workers’ Party (PT) governments that have ruled Brazil since 2003. But as Brazilians contemplate the […]

Brazil faces water disaster; scientists warned it was coming

Brazil’s largest city is facing a water shortage this year unlike it has seen in decades — a potential disaster scientists have warned about as far back as the 1980s. The metropolitan area of Sao Paulo, the world’s 12th-largest metro population at more than 20 million, is served by two main natural water systems — […]

The World Has Reached Peak Chicken, Peak Rice, And Peak Milk

We still haven’t reached peak oil. But peak milk happened in 2004, peak soybeans in 2009, and peak chicken in 2006. Rice peaked in 1988. A new study published in Ecology and Society explains that 21 key resources that humans rely on—mostly food—have already passed their peak rate of production. “Peak,” in this case, doesn’t […]

Global Oil Production And Consumption In Balance

The EIA (US Energy Information Agency) reported global oil Production/Consumption. The data shows a rise in Consumption and a decline in Production. This should be no surprise to anyone. Even though prior month’s revisions show November 2014 as having peak Production (earlier reported as October 2014), within the range of revision, Supply/Demand is very much […]

A New Book on Oil, Finance, and Economic History

In 1863, with the first American oil boom “at full tilt”, Andrew Carnegie had an epiphany: the world would soon run out of oil. He and a partner “decided to dig an enormous hole, capable of holding 100,000 barrels of oil”, where they would stockpile crude “until the worldwide oil shortage had struck”. When that happened, […]

Japan Plans to Restart Some Nuclear Plants in 2015

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, International Energy Agency, METI Previously one of the world’s largest producers of nuclear-generated electricity, Japan has relied heavily on fossil fuels following the meltdown at Fukushima Dai-ichi and subsequent shutdown of the country’s nuclear fleet. In 2013, when almost all of Japan’s nuclear fleet was shut down, more than 86% […]

Peak Nothing. Goldman Sachs Advisor Says “Too Much Physical Oil”

Goldman Sachs executive Gary Cohn says we could see so much oil, there would be no way to physically store it all, resulting in falling prices, at least in certain locational areas. Further destabilization across the globe could, logically, follow. Cohn told Bloomberg News: “I think the oil market is trying to figure out an […]

Western Nations Shut Embassies in Yemen

The U.S. and other Western nations closed their embassies here, as demonstrations swelled on the Yemeni capital’s streets on Wednesday amid mounting political tensions and fears of violence. Thousands demonstrated both for and against the Houthi rebels who dissolved Yemen’s parliament and took over the government on Friday after their militants overran the capital in […]

Total Canadian oil production up 8 percent

The full-year 2014 crude oil production average for Canadian basins increased year-on-year, but there may be strains from low oil prices, federal data show. The National Energy Board released full-year production figures for 2014, showing a cumulative average of 3.8 million barrels per day, an 8 percent increase from full-year 2013. Total crude oil production […]

“Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life” at Expo Milan: The Place to be in 2015

If you are interested in or involved with the food, health, environment, or energy sectors; if you care about your success but also the future of the world, there is only one place to be next year: the city of Milan, Italy. From May 1st to October 31st, Milan will host the Expo 2015, the […]

Oil Revenue: Is it Really Lost if You Never Earned it?

There have been lots of recent headlines about how much money the governments of oil exporting nations will lose as a result of declining oil prices. But these countries will really just earn less money than they would from selling their product at a higher price. The price of oil has never been static and […]

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