Kunstler: Fedpocalypse Now?

“Here’s another fine mess you’ve gotten me into….” — Oliver Hardy If ever such a thing was, the stage is set this Monday and Tuesday for a rush to the exits in financial markets as the world prepares for the US central bank to take one baby step out of the corner it’s in. Everybody […]

KunstlerCast: Chatting with Chuck Marohn of StrongTowns.org

The Christmas Breakfast 2015, Hubbard Hall, Cambridge, New York Charles Marohn is the Founder and President of Strong Towns, a non-profit advocacy organization focused on the financial predicament local governments find themselves in as a result of America’s suburban experiment. Chuck has a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Minnesota’s Institute of […]

Poop: The Other Natural Gas

Every day, a facility on the outskirts of Grand Junction, Colorado takes in 8 million gallons of what people have flushed down their toilets and washed down their sinks. The water coming out the other end of the Persigo Wastewater Treatment Plant is cleaner than the Colorado River it flows into. The organic solids strained […]

First plasma for Wendelstein 7-X fusion device

On 10 December 2015 the first helium plasma was produced in the Wendelstein 7-X fusion device at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) in Greifswald, Germany. Following nine years of construction work, more than a million assembly hours, and one year of integrated testing, experimental operation has now commenced according to plan. Wendelstein […]

This is what happens when oil-rich nations can’t pay their bills

In the summer of 2014, the price of oil tanked, dropping from over $110 per barrel of Brent Crude to where it sits now near $48 per barrel. Cheap oil is good for the consumer, but it has caused more than a few headaches in oil producing states. Some countries, such as Norway, have used […]

A World Without Growth

Could the world order survive without growing? It’s hard to imagine now, but humanity made do with little or no economic growth for thousands of years. In Byzantium and Egypt, income per capita at the end of the first millennium was lower than at the dawn of the Christian Era. Much of Europe experienced no […]

Chaos in Libya: It’s the oil, stupid

There is seems no end to the bad news coming out of Libya. UN-led negotiations to unite the divided country — it has two parliaments, two governments, two militia coalitions that have been competing for control of a rapidly failing state since summer 2014 — are stalling. Fighting continues apace in Benghazi, the city that […]

Saudis to set strategy for era of cheap oil

Saudi Arabia’s government is expected to announce spending cuts and a drive to raise revenue from new sources as it lays out a strategy to cope with an era of cheap oil, people familiar with Saudi policy-making said. Markets in the world’s top oil exporter are jittery because low crude prices have pushed state finances […]

Nearly 200 Nations Adopt 1st Global Climate Change Pact

Nearly 200 nations adopted the first global pact to fight climate change on Saturday, calling on the world to collectively cut and then eliminate greenhouse gas pollution but imposing no sanctions on countries that don’t. The “Paris agreement” aims to keep global temperatures from rising another degree Celsius (1.8 Fahrenheit) between now and 2100, a […]

The End Of The Bubble Finance Era

We are nearing a crucial inflection point in the worldwide bubble finance cycle that has been underway for more than two decades. To wit, the world’s central banks have finally run out of dry powder. They will be unable to stop the credit implosion which must inexorably follow the false boom. We will get to […]

IEA Warns of Worsening Oil Glut

PKVerleger LLC president Phil Verleger discusses the changing economics of oil with Betty Liu on “Bloomberg Markets.”

The Peak Oil Preacher

With an oil price that stands at about USD 50 per barrel, it may be easy to dismiss Peak Oil as a myth. But author and Peak Oil expert Johan Landgren argues that we have to prepare now for an era in which cheap oil will be a part of history. If not, the transition […]

World’s Muslim Population Doubles

Sunni Muslim supporters of Lebanon’s ex- prime minister Saad al-Hariri wave flags during what they call “a day of anger” in Tripoli, northern Lebanon January 25, 2011 By 2030 the global population is set to reach over 8 billion and 26.4% of that population will be Muslim. A report by the Pew Forum on Religion […]

Gas price might go below $2

Gasoline is close to breaking below a key psychological barrier as ­drivers enjoy some of the cheapest pump prices since the recession. The nationwide average price of a gallon of regular Saturday was $2.02, down 58 cents from this time last year, according to auto club AAA. Experts say it could drop below $2 a […]

Ignore ‘Breakeven’ Oil Production Levels Published By The Media

The market has been distracted by supposed “breakeven” levels of oil production published by various sources of the media. It was touted at $60 a barrel in October. Focus your attention instead on the current price action, which is very bearish and could bring Brent crude down to test $36 a barrel in the near […]

OPEC cannot kill shale oil

The minute oil prices go up shale oil production will go up again to its previous levels, says independent oil expert Dr. Mamdouh Salameh. OPEC can only slowdown its production, but shale oil’s real shortcoming is its wells depletion rate, he adds. Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members including Saudi Arabia are no longer able to […]

Fukushima: “100% of The Total Spent Fuel Was Released to the Atmosphere from Unit 4”

We reported in 2011 that the International Atomic Energy Commission knew within weeks that Fukushima had melted down … but failed and refused to tell the public. The same year, we reported in 2011 that the U.S. knew within days of the Fukushima accident that Fukushima had melted down … but failed to tell the […]

In Asia, King Coal Hard to Dethrone

Philippines’ dependency on the fossil fuel illustrates a challenge in Paris climate talks MANILA—The Philippines is set to open 23 coal-fired power plants over the next five years to meet rising electricity demand, illustrating the challenge climate-talk negotiators face in crafting a deal that reduces carbon emissions. Competition from natural gas and environmental regulations have […]

$100 never again

The crash in oil (CLF16.NYM) has rocked commodities markets as crude prices hover near the lowest level in seven years. Fadel Gheit, managing director and senior analyst at Oppenheimer, told Yahoo Finance’s Alexis Christoforous in the video above that $100-per-barrel oil is a thing of the past—$60 to $70 per barrel is the new normal. […]

A new fusion collaboration for MIT

Members of MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC) community are cheering the start of a long-anticipated physics experiment at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Greifswald, Germany. Two teams of PSFC researchers are collaborating on the Wendelstein 7-X device, the world’s largest fusion experiment designed in the stellarator line of magnetic confinement […]

Zombies Appear In US Oilfields

Drained by a 17-month crude rout, some U.S. shale oil companies are merely hanging on for life as oil prices lurch further away from levels that allow them to profitably drill new wells and bring in enough cash to keep them in business. The slump has created dozens of oil and gas “zombies,” a term […]

After the Collapse: The Beast Within

An exploration of the cultural effects of a hypothetical global post-collapse environment. After the Collapse: The Pestilence (Part 1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5er_… After the Collapse: Silence and Darkness (Part 2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVp-g… After the Collapse: The Beast Within (Part 3) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tldq-…

Peak Oil: are we seeing the real one?

Art Berman reports on his blog the latest data from IEA. These data speak volumes about what has been happening in the oil markets during the past two years or so. The whole thing seems to have gone out of control, with everyone pumping as much as possible, worrying only about harming competitors and without […]

Using solar power to drill for…oil?

Sitting on the southern edge of the Arabian peninsula, Oman is rich in fossil fuels — particularly natural gas, some 11.73 trillion cubic feet of it. It might, then, come as a surprise to see greenhouses popping up in the country’s deserts. GlassPoint Solar is a company looking to harness Oman’s abundant renewable energy – […]

Fukushima radiation is reaching North America

New research has found that radiation from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan has reached more sites in the waters off the coast of North America. The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution has found the highest level of contamination at a monitoring site about 1,600 miles west of San Francisco, with the sample returned as being […]

More than money at risk for Saudis

Saudi Arabia’s rulers have long maintained stability with the help of welfare spending and subsidies. But as the oil dependent country’s crude revenues sink, the world is watching for political troubles. Social unrest in Saudi Arabia is unlikely to ratchet up significantly in the next few years, analysts tell CNBC. But if crude prices remain […]

Guess What Happened The Last Time The Price Of Oil Plunged Below 38 Dollars A Barrel?

On Monday, the price of U.S. oil dropped below 38 dollars a barrel for the first time in six years.  The last time the price of oil was this low, the global financial system was melting down and the U.S. economy was experiencing the worst recession that it had seen since the Great Depression of […]

China’s Shift to a Consumption, Services Economy

The Demand Institute President Louise Keely discusses the Chinese economy. She speaks on “Bloomberg ‹GO›.”

New Study Finds Oil and Gas Methane Emissions in the Barnett Shale Twice Official Estimates

A new scientific study published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, coordinated by EDF, reports findings from the most comprehensive examination of regional methane emissions completed to date. Focused on Texas’ Barnett Shale – one of the nation’s major oil-and-gas-producing regions – the study uses a new, more accurate way to […]

Drums Along the Seine

“When we are told the hoop is broken, this is the meaning. It is not difficult to understand.” Some years ago on this site we described the ordeals we undertook in search of extrascientific cures for the seemingly intractable imbalance of climate. And although that is what we would always ask our spirit guides to […]

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