Turns Out That Oil Prices Don’t Matter

Oil is not just the fuel that runs our cars. It’s also the fuel that runs our economies. Petroleum is a feedstock for plastics and petrochemicals. It provides heat and electricity. And of course, it provides the primary means by which we move all of the goods we produce, and the workers who produce them, […]

Peak Oil; Climate Change; & System Justification Pt 8

Of course it’s threatening to think that our lifestyles, systems of governing, and capitalist processes themselves may all face drastic changes in the not-too-distant future because of the facts and reality of Peak Oil and climate change! I’m certainly not the poster-child for Peak Oil advocacy and lifestyles. I have a very nice, capitalist, well-to-do […]

Where Hubbert Went Really Wrong On Peak Oil

If you happen to be interested in the topic of “peak oil”, you almost certainly know the name M. King Hubbert. While you may know that Hubbert is widely credited with accurately predicting the peak of U.S. oil production, you may not know the full context of his predictions — which are legendary in peak oil […]

The Elephant In The Low-Growth Room

The global economy is stuck in low gear, signaling more years of subpar yields and risk-on/risk-off market skirmishes. So we offer some ideas on how equity investors can get their portfolios battle ready. The potential GDP growth of the developed world has halved over the past 20 years, from just below 2% per year to […]

Peak oil by any other name is still peak oil

One of the most compelling charts I have ever seen is the “Growing Gap” chart that used to appear in every ASPO Newsletter. This is the one from the last ASPO Newsletter, written by Colin Campbell and published in April 2009. Since then, more than seven years have passed, and peak oil has disappeared from […]

The Illusion And Truth Of Courage

The other day, I received an email from someone who has been invited to speak at a conference about the state of the ocean. To set the tone, it’s a political conference about “protecting our resources and fisheries for those who economically depend on the ocean for a sustainable future”. Note the separation-steeped language: resources, […]

Clinton Versus Trump: The Biggest Difference In Energy Policy

Hillary Clinton emphasizes the importance of increasing the share of renewable energy at the expense of fossil fuels and she acknowledges that climate change is a real issue; whereas, Donald Trump insists that he is “not a believer on climate change”, claiming that the extreme weather patterns that scientists attribute to man-made actions are simply […]

China’s Continuing Renewable Energy Revolution – Can It Save the World?

China has made strategic choices favouring renewables over fossil fuels that are still not widely understood or appreciated, writes John A. Mathews, Professor of Management, Macquarie University, Australia. In this article he gives an overview of the latest trends in Chinese eletric power generation, which shows that the system is still “greening” faster than it is […]

Naomi Klein & the Let­down of the Leap Manifesto: Energy Depletion Dismissal is Just as Bad as Climate Change Denial

Over the years I’ve had the pleasure of chatting with Naomi Klein on a few different occasions; there was that first Prairie Festival at the Land Institute in Kansas that we both happened to attend in 2010, that second Prairie Festival which she spoke at in 2011, and the opening night talk she gave at […]

The New Geopolitics of Declining Oil Demand

Jason Bordoff (@JasonBordoff), a former energy adviser to President Obama, is a professor of professional practice in international and public affairs and founding director of the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University. For decades, the prospect of peak oil—that supply was running out—loomed as a doomsday scenario over the global economy, until the shale […]

Global Oil Demand Slowing Faster Than Predicted, Glut To Last Well Into 2017

One day after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) released a report stating that global demand for oil will be lower than expected in 2017, the International Energy Agency‘s Oil Market Report for September states essentially the same thing: that global demand is slowing at a faster pace than predicted. The IEA predicts […]

Global Oil Glut Set to Worsen as Nigeria, Libya Fields Restart

Exxon said to be on brink of resumption of top Nigeria grade Libya lifts export restriction on ports halted for months Amid the most enduring global oil glut in decades, two OPEC crude producers whose supplies have been crushed by domestic conflicts are preparing to add hundreds of thousands of barrels to world markets within […]

“Peak Oil” – the Real Cause of the Growing Social Inequality in the US

In a recent article on the Huffington Post, Stan Sorscher reports the graph above and asks the question of what could have happened in the early 1970s that changed everything. Impressive, but what caused this “something” that happened in the early 1970s? According to Sorscher, X marks the spot. In this case, “X” is our […]

IEA Sees 8% Drop in World Energy Investment

Global energy investment in 2015 amounted to $1.8 trillion, down 8% (in real terms) from 2014, according to a survey published September 14 by the International Energy Agency. The drop mainly came from the upstream oil and gas segment, it said. “After three years during which the US was the largest destination for investment in […]

Retrofuturists and Technocornucopians

“Just outside the back door of the brewery, retrofuturists are fashioning leather and cowhorn beer mugs to use after the collapse.” At Burning Man #30 the nuevoriche had to watch their wallets. Also their food, water, camping gear and Teslas. Many lamented that once upon a time the Man had always been a safe place […]

America and the world

How should America use its influence in a world where being a superpower doesn’t get you what it once did? As instability and human tragedy in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria have shown, the U.S. alone cannot impose solutions or force the surrender of adversaries like the Islamic State group, which cannot be deterred by […]

Feds May Have Made A Huge Breakthrough In Cold Fusion

A report from the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) claimed government researchers had confirmed the existence of a cold fusion nuclear reaction. The report was allegedly authored by scientists from Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command and the University of New Mexico. DTRA’s report includes several questionable statements unlikely to appear in an official […]

At least 21 civilians killed in Saudi-led air strikes

At least 21 civilians were killed in two separate air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition in northern Yemen on Saturday, residents said on Sunday, as fighting intensified in the country before the Muslim Eid al-Adha feast. They said at least 15 civilians were killed when war planes targeted workers drilling for water in the Beit […]

Iran studying Europe gas export plans

Iran says it is studying various options for exports of natural gas to Europe thus again reviving an ambitious plan that had been previously shelved due to sanctions as well as technical problems. Alireza Kameli, the managing director of the National Iranian Gas Export Company (NIGEC), was quoted by Iran’s media as saying that exporting natural gas […]

Apache’s West Texas Find Further Discredits Malthusianism

Apache Corp. has announced a major oil-and-gas discovery in an area of Texas that geologists previously dismissed as not likely to have recoverable hydrocarbons. That’s good news for energy consumers, including electric generators, although not particularly welcome for energy producers, where it could contribute to continuing soft prices. The Journal reported that the area in […]

Water strategy crucial for long-term sustainability

SOUTH Africa, facing its most serious water crisis in recent history, must urgently adopt a comprehensive long-term water strategy to ensure that the country has enough clean water for the next 100 years. It is imperative that South Africa prioritises a holistic water strategy to stave off catastrophe ahead. Last year was ground breaking in […]

Chinese Food Security and the Opportunities of Brexit

The old adage – “the way to someone’s heart is through their stomach” – has never been more pertinent to global security.  With the world’s population now exceeding 7.2 billion (an awful lot of stomachs to fill) we require a mind-boggling amount of food. In fact, farmers will need to grow as much food in […]

Incorrect theory from 18th century still guides policy

Tom Hanks lands a plane on the Hudson River in a movie out late last week, starring in “Sully,” a biopic about Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, who did it in real life in 2009. Hanks hits the big screen again next month as Robert Langdon, the Harvard symbologist of novelist Dan Brown’s creation. “Inferno” opens […]

If Everything’s Doing So Great, How Come I’m Not?

Are you better off than you were 10 years ago? by Charles Hugh Smith We’re ceaselessly told/sold that the U.S. economy is doing phenomenally well in our current slow-growth world — generating record corporate profits, record highs in the S&P 500 stock index, and historically low unemployment (4.9% in July 2016). While GDP growth is […]

The global economy will never be the same again

The current economic era is coming to an end, and over the next 30 or so years, the global economy is going to change massively, according to research from Deutsche Bank. In the bank’s latest Long-Term Asset Return Study, strategists Jim Reid, Nick Burns, and Sukanto Chanda argue that the current economic age, which began […]

The Transition Town Movement with Rob Hopkins

My guest for this episode is Rob Hopkins the creator of the idea of Transition Towns, a way for us to move from oil dependency to local resilience. That lead to his writing The Transition Handbook, something every permaculture practitioner should have in their library and which serves as a good introduction, along with Toby […]

Peak Radiation: Scientists Hope To Calculate Nuclear Fuel Left Inside Earth By 2025

By 1992, environmental activist Jeremy Rifkin claimed, we would achieve Peak Oil. Fossil fuels would begin to decline. Rifkin was just going by an environmental press release but Peak Oil had a long history; almost as long as oil itself. In 1919, the chief geologist of the United States Geological Survey, said Peak Oil would […]

See where Apache Corp. says it found billions of barrels of oil

Apache Corp. stock is among the top gainers this week after the energy company revealed an “immense” oil and gas reserve in a relatively unknown corner of west Texas. Apache APA, +0.90%  estimated that its more than 300,000 contiguous acres in the region holds about 3 billion barrels of oil and 75 trillion cubic feet […]

Wild Cards in Play During Run-Up to OPEC Freeze Meeting

Another day, another set of headlines about who’s on first – and indeed, who’s even a player – in the latest iteration of a potential OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) production freeze on crude. Deon Daugherty Senior Editor, Rigzone While the United States basked in an end-of-summer break, folks around the world appeared […]

Some Thoughts on System Change

It becomes clearer with each passing day that simply ameliorating current problems is not going to be sufficient. This blog is about how we might scale up transformative change. There is an ongoing litany of alarming and depressing news regarding climate change and the growing gap between our aspirations for addressing it and reality (and […]

« Previous Page — Next Page »

LATEST NEWS HEADLINES

• Why the IEA is Wrong About Peak Oil Demand
• Did we inadvertently speed global warming?  
• Venezuela’s Oil Monopoly Eases
• Why Germany is Choosing Natural Gas Over Nuclear Power
• U.S. coal-fired electricity generation decreased in 2022 and 2023

• America Cracks Down on Methane Emissions from Oil and Gas Facilities
• Meet America’s Newest Oil Trader Extraordinaire: Joe Biden
• Is It Time To Refill America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve?
• Oil prices set to end year 10% lower as demand concerns snap winning streak
• What’s Driving America’s New Oil and Gas Boom?
• China’s peak oil demand bombshell eviscerates Danielle Smith’s energy strategy