All Rex Tillerson Cares About Is Energy

President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of state holds a unique view of the soft-power side of American diplomacy and influence in the world. ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson said in his 2012 annual corporate letter that all the good for the world, its hopes and dreams, rests with energy. “In the coming decades,” Tillerson wrote, […]

Big Oil And The Traditionalist International

During the US election campaign I occasionally wondered if a Trump administration might occasionally do some oddball things that had positive outcomes. Even after the election he made time to meet with Al Gore and Leonardo Di Caprio to talk about global warming, which could have been seen as a sign there could be some […]

The case for optimism

A quick glance at the headlines over the past year would be enough to give anyone a grim outlook on the future of our world – but there are good reasons to be hopeful. David Rothkopf makes the case for why the fate of future generations is far from doomed The average person, looking around […]

Expert warns it takes 200 gallons of water to feed one person

Expert says ‘human jawbone is the most destructive implement on the planet’ One meal requires over 200 gallons (800L) of water, 22 pounds (10kg) of topsoil Food production must double within the next 50 years to meet the world’s needs  As humanity continues to grow at a staggering rate, the resources needed to feed the […]

Worldwide Oil Demand May Soon Peak

For years, analysts feared the world had reached a peak in the supply of crude oil, and that supplies would begin to diminish rapidly as demand increased, sending prices skyrocketing. This situation is known to analysts as “peak oil.” Now, as The Christian Science Monitor reports, the opposite phenomenon may be occurring. That is, the […]

Why the Peak Oil Movement Failed

As I glance back across the trajectory of this blog over the last ten and a half years, one change stands out. When I began blogging in May of 2006, peak oil—the imminent peaking of global production of conventional petroleum, to unpack that gnomic phrase a little—was the central theme of a large, vocal, and […]

Michael Klare, Donald Trump’s Energy Nostalgia and the Path to Hell

The Trump administration-in-formation is a stew of generals, billionaires, and multimillionaires — and as in the case of retired Marine General James “Mad Dog” Mattis, the likely new secretary of defense, even the military men seem to have made more than a few bucks in these last years.  In retirement, Mattis, for instance, joined the […]

United States of Oil—fossil fuels dominate the upcoming administration

The new secretary of state? The CEO of ExxonMobil. The new head of the EPA? Part of a secretive alliance with fossil fuels companies. But those two are just the oily tip of the power oil, gas, and coal are building within the Trump administration. The oil, gas and coal industries are amassing power throughout Washington — from […]

New EIA Survey Collects Data on Production and Sales of Wood Pellets

Like Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Densified Biomass Fuel Report. Note: Data for February through June are preliminary.   During the first half of 2016, U.S. manufacturers produced approximately 3.3 million tons of wood pellets and sold 3.1 million tons, mostly to foreign markets, according to data from EIA’s newly released Densified Biomass Fuel Report. […]

David Hughes: 2016 Tight Oil Reality Check

Every year, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration (EIA), publishes its Annual Energy Outlook (AEO) in which U.S. energy supply is forecast through 2040. The EIA’s yearly AEO has enormous influence with policymakers, the media, and through them the general public. The AEO influences government policy and industry investment. In 2014, Earth Scientist […]

Kunstler: Chatting With Kate Wagner of McMansion Hell dot Com

Today I’m yakking with Kate Wagner, the antic voice behind the marvelous website Welcome to MacMansion Hell, a humorous and opinionated blog that aims to educate the general public about architecture, design, and urbanism by making examples of America’s most despised architectural style. She is currently a master’s student in Acoustics as part of a […]

Richard Heinberg : Think Resilience

This is the first of a series of 22 short videos that explore the interrelated crises of the twenty-first century, and what we as citizens, students, and community leaders can do to respond to them. Think Resilience: Preparing Communities for the Rest of the 21st Century, a 22-chapter, 4-hour video course delivered by Richard Heinberg that […]

Bombing resumes as Aleppo cease-fire falls apart

A cease-fire deal between rebels and the Syrian government in the city of Aleppo effectively collapsed on Wednesday, with fighter jets resuming deadly air raids over the opposition’s densely crowded enclave in the east of the city. The attacks threatened to scuttle plans to evacuate rebels and tens thousands of civilians out of harm’s way, […]

Limiting Waste, Conserving Resources

oday, 7.3 billion people consume 1.5 times what the Earth’s natural resources can supply. By 2050, the world’s population will exceed 9 billion, and the demand for food will double. Feeding this growing population will create a tremendous burden on a stressed food production system. We are already seeing this trend in action, as a […]

Will Humans Run Out of Fertilizer?

“Nobody adores fertilizer,” the writer Shellen Lubin once mused. Lubin isn’t entirely correct. Bill Gates, for example, has admitted to being “a little obsessed with fertilizer.” Yes, fertilizer. The stuff you sprinkle, spray, and spread over plants to help them grow. Not the “all natural” kind that originates in the guts of farm animals, but […]

Degrowth Is Punk as Fuck

“Very serious people often tell us that the word “degrowth” is too negative. People like happy, positive, nice things. Sure, the economy is systematically destroying life on earth. But nobody wants to degrow it. Instead, these critics prefer words like “post-growth,” “a-growth,” “re-growth”, even the mythical “green growth.” They want to create a circular economy, […]

Poised For Collapse: How “Unrest Could Become Real Revolution” Inside America

There are many ways this could play out, but as SHTFPlan.com’s Mac Slavo notes, few could deny that any number of critical factors are coming to a head right here at home. If economic collapse is particularly harsh, things could easily spiral out of control. Civil unrest could become the norm, and things could reach […]

Unconventional Approach To Conventional Pressure Pumping

Increasing environmental regulatory pressures to reduce emissions and noise have operators looking for unconventional solutions to provide relief. Technology advancements are addressing these issues in a cost-effective and efficient manner in this lower-for-longer market. One solution is through the use of next-generation electric-powered hydraulic fracturing systems. As a full service electric-hydraulic fracturing company, Evolution Well […]

Can OPEC Send Oil To $70?

OPEC managed to convince almost a dozen non-OPEC producers to take part in oil production cuts over the weekend, and the news immediately sent international benchmarks higher, prompting a fresh wave of bullish forecasts. The latest, by hedge fund manager Pierre Andurand, is that crude will reach US$70 by June 2017. Andurand made this call […]

Like Giraffes, Reindeer And Polar Bears Are Also Going Extinct

It’s indeed bad times for the wildlife. Recently, reports came out about giraffes, the tallest animal on earth, facing threats to their survival, leaving environmentalists a worried lot. Now, new studies have found that the reindeer population in northern Russia and other parts of the Artic is also declining. Besides, researchers have also warned against […]

Bakken Oil Production Up Over 70,000 BPD

North Dakota just released their production numbers for the Bakken as well as for all North Dakota The numbers are shocking. The Bakken is up 70,798 bpd to 991,722 bpd and all North Dakota was up 71,447 bpd to 1,043,207 bpd. The EIA’s drilling productivity report really missed the ball on this one. Bakken bpd […]

Tillerson in His Own Words

Exxon Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Rex Tillerson is President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to become Secretary of State. Here are some comments Tillerson, 64, has made in recent years on trade, sanctions and climate change: Exxon Diplomacy Anything that promotes global energy security is in U.S. national interest. Any steps we [Exxon] take to develop […]

A Precarious State of Affairs

When asked about the state of the world today a single descriptor appears in my mind as distinct and maddening as a warning klaxon on a sinking ship: a precarious state of affairs. There are many who see the varied symptoms of the problems that face not only the United States, but civilization across the […]

Trump Likely to Pick Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry for Energy Secretary

During an infamous campaign moment, Perry forgot the name of the Energy Department when listing three federal agencies he would abolish as president. President-elect Donald Trump is reportedly set to name former Texas Gov. Rick Perry as secretary of the Energy Department. Perry, who described the president-elect as both a “barking carnival act” and “a […]

T. Boone Pickens on Rex Tillerson, Oil

T. Boone Pickens, chairman and chief executive officer at BP Capital, discusses the possibility of Exxon Mobile chief Rex Tillerson being chosen as the new Secretary of State and his outlook for oil. He speaks to Bloomberg’s Scarlet Fu and Joe Weisenthal on “What’d You Miss?” bloomberg

From Oil Age to Soil Age

The Design Museum in London opens at its new home this week with, as its centrepiece, an exhibition called Fear and Love curated by Justin McGuirk. I contributed the following text to the book. Above: Debra Solomon examines nature’s internet at Schumacher College in England) Why we need a new story In 1971 a geologist […]

I Was Wrong About Peak Oil

We used to worry about the time when the world would start running out of fossil fuels, defined as Peak Oil. The concept of Peak Oil is when the maximum rate of extraction of petroleum is reached, after which production is expected to enter terminal decline causing energy prices to skyrocket. Based on oil demand […]

OPEC, Non-OPEC Agree First Global Oil Pact Since 2001

OPEC and non-OPEC producers on Saturday reached their first deal since 2001 to curtail oil output jointly and ease a global glut after more than two years of low prices that overstretched many budgets and spurred unrest in some countries. With the deal finally signed after almost a year of arguing within the Organization of […]

Kunstler: Trumpxuberance… Until It’s Not

“Markets shrugged off the Brexit vote in a couple of days. They shrugged off Donald Trump’s election in a single day. They shrugged off the Italian referendum result in a couple of hours. Heck, in this mood they would shrug off an alien invasion of planet Earth.” — Albert Edwards, Société Générale At this time […]

China’s civilizational diplomacy

China is quickly becoming a world power, capable of exercising considerable influence over other countries. And it is advancing to the center of the geopolitical stage just as – if not because – American and European leadership seems to be retreating into the wings. China certainly has a receptive audience. One reason is that the […]

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