Vance Packard’s The Waste Makers: A late review

Where did the Convenience Industrial Complex start? A 1960 classic tells all. The Convenience Industrial Complex is the term we came up with to define the economy based on us buying more and more stuff we don’t need in ever larger sizes to consume more resources which we just throw away when we are bored […]

Global Waste Limit Surpassed for 2019

COLUMBUS, Ohio – This is Earth Overshoot Day, the day of the year that environmental activists say humanity has used up more natural resources than the planet can replenish each year. The ecological deficit can be blamed on pollution of the air and water, over fishing, deforestation, excess waste, and above all, overloading the atmosphere […]

The World Is Not Enough

Earth Overshoot Day came on July 29 this year. As Statista’s Katharina Buchholz notes, this is only the second time the day, which marks the time at which humanity has used up its allotment of natural planetary resources for the year, occurred in the month of July. It had occurred in August between 2010 and 2017. The […]

Never-ending Growth?

Remaining at the present level would imply a continued carnage at the “commodity extraction frontier” until so little is left that eternal warfare and collapse are inevitable. (Remko de Waal/Getty-AFP) The most ambitious internationally agreed plan to make this world a better place are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). But during their annual review, […]

Will We Really See An Oil Glut In 2020?

There has been much talk lately about a potential oil glut in 2020, most notably by the IEA in their latest monthly oil report, but such predictions are predicated on two faulty assumptions, first being global oil demand estimates are accurate, and the second, strong US shale supply growth will continue unabated regardless of prevailing […]

Iran, Russia Planning Joint Naval Drill In Contested Gulf Waters

Russia and Iran are planning a joint naval exercise scheduled within the next year, commander of Iran’s Navy Rear Admiral Hossein Khanzadi announced Monday, according to state media. Semi-official Fars has reported it will take place by March 2020 in the Indian Ocean, and will be staged as far north as the strategic and increasingly tense Strait of Hormuz. […]

The Hawkwood Elephant

“Large-scale problems do not require large-scale solutions. They require only small-scale solutions within large-scale frameworks.” The author’s book signing circuit for small publishers like New Society and Chelsea Green is more likely to have you at something in Marianne Williamson’s comfort zone than Joe Biden’s, and it often brings me to scenic places with biodynamic […]

Saudi Arabia aims to expand pipeline to reduce oil exports via Gulf

Saudi Arabia aims to raise the capacity of its east-west pipeline by 40% in two years so more of its oil exports can avoid passing through the Strait of Hormuz, the energy minister said on Thursday. FILE PHOTO: Saudi Arabia’s Oil Minister Khalid Al-Falih talks to journalists as he arrives for an OPEC and NON-OPEC […]

Russia And OPEC Will Soon Face Test In Taming Oversupply Of Oil

The latest mission by OPEC and its partners to contain a crude oil glut is entering its most critical phase. Saudi Arabia, Russia and other major crude exporters have struggled to keep a surplus in check over the past six months. But oil prices remain stuck below levels most of the coalition need to fund […]

World’s Largest Nuclear Fusion Experiment Clears Milestone

A multination project to build a fusion reactor cleared a milestone yesterday and is now 6 ½ years away from “First Plasma,” officials announced. Yesterday, dignitaries attended a components handover ceremony at the construction site of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor in southern France. The ITER project is an experiment aimed at reaching the next […]

I Chose Not To Have Kids Because I’m Afraid For The Planet

When I first made the decision not to have a baby, in 2008, I did it because I couldn’t imagine bringing another human into a world already so overheated and overcrowded. I didn’t know anyone like me at the time. But in the intervening decade, the world’s climate change problem has escalated to a crisis, […]

Was the Automotive Era a Terrible Mistake?

The summer I was eighteen, I visited a parking lot forty-five minutes north of town and got behind the wheel for what I hoped would be the first real rite of my adulthood. I was tall, gangly, excitable. Less than a week earlier, following a brief stretch of test-taking at the Department of Motor Vehicles […]

JPMorgan: We Believe The Dollar Could Lose Its Status As World’s Reserve Currency

Almost eight year ago, we first presented a chart first created by JPMorgan’s Michael Cembalest, which showed very simply and vividly that reserve currencies don’t last forever, and that in the not too distant future, the US Dollar would also lose its status as the world’s most important currency, since it is never different this […]

Saudi Arabia’s Big IMO 2020 Lie

The recent announcement that Saudi Arabia’s Alfanar Group is to set up an office in the U.K. to oversee its multi-billion dollar renewable investments there is interesting not for says but for what it implies and what it implies is extremely misleading, to say the least. The implication is that Saudi Arabia is at the […]

US-Iran Tensions Raise Fears of War

Drones have been downed and tankers attacked in the Persian Gulf as U.S.-Iran tensions raise fears of war around a critical oil chokepoint. But any conflict between rivals might actually start in the one country where both sides have forces on the ground: Iraq. After two wars with America since 1990, a brutal civil conflict […]

Why I’m still bullish on oil for the long run

Today I wanted to look at the world’s most important commodity: oil. I say it’s the most important commodity because, despite the huge advances made in alternative energy, it remains the single most important source of global power. Roughly one third of global energy comes from burning oil. Indeed, roughly 85% of global energy comes […]

After Oil

Peak oil is the day when the world’s supply of oil reaches its peak and then begins to decline… and it could be right around the corner. Hear what the academics and experts are saying about what we an and should do to prepare for a world After Oil. Join Barbara Bogaev and hear from […]

The world faces a dwindling supply of this crucial resource needed to grow food

By 2030, the world’s population is projected to be about 8.5 billion people. Global food security is a major concern for governments – zero hunger is the second most important of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. However, there is a severe conflict between sustainable food production and the use of nonrenewable resources in agricultural […]

US Shale: Peak Oil Finally Arrives

Summary Shale seems to be hitting a plateau, and at the very least the rate of increase will taper off. It is also possible that in absolute terms it could fall in the months ahead. This has real impacts for the oil market. Discussion follows. This idea was discussed in more depth with members of […]

Is a new US-led war looming with Iran?

An image grab taken from a broadcast by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on July 19, 2019 reportedly shows footage from an IRGC drone, showing a map of the route taken by the US amphibious assault ship USS Boxer; the US is about to send troops into Saudi Arabia An image grab taken from […]

Half the battle in global oil market dominance

In the last one week it was the usual interplay of the forces of bulls and bears in the global oil market. Tensions in the Middle East continued to weigh on oil futures. The United States benchmark, West Texas Intermediate, WTI traded down by US$1.70 (-2.85 percent) at US$57.88 last Tuesday after reports that the […]

Air conditioning is making the world a hotter place

With two-thirds of the US experiencing a heat wave, it seems like a good time to talk about air conditioning. According to the annual Characteristics of New Housing data released by the Census Bureau early this month, 94% of the new housing units completed in the US in 2018 came with it built in, up […]

So You Think We’re Reducing Fossil Fuel? — Think Again

If you think we’ve been doing a reasonable job of curbing fossil fuel use, you are sadly mistaken. Global energy demand grew yet again in 2018, by 2.3%, its fastest pace in ten years. 70% of that was provided by fossil fuel, and only 30% by renewables and nuclear. America is awash in new oil, […]

‘HOSTILE ACT’ Iran seizes British oil tanker in the Gulf with 23 crew

A BRITISH-flagged Swedish owned tanker has been seized by Iran and is heading for the Revolutionary Guard base at Qeshm Island. Northern Marine, a subsidiary of Stena AB, confirmed “hostile action” had occurred before the tanker Stena Impero changed its course this afternoon. 7 The Stena Impero has been seized by Iran’s Revolutionary GuardCredit: PA:Press […]

Energy Sector’s Impact Shrinking

Oil has surged this year and energy stocks have rallied, but interest in the sector continues to shrink day by day. The weighting of energy equities within the S&P 500 is at its lowest level since at least 1990, according to Bloomberg—last standing at a mere 4.87%. That makes energy the fourth-smallest sector, ahead of […]

The Stars Are Finally Aligned for Clean and Limitless Fusion Energy Generators at Kronos Fusion

A California start-up has redesigned Fusion Energy by leveraging three major breakthroughs in Fusion Power and managed to cut costs by 20%. Kronos-Fusion at MathLabs Ventures has given investors, scientists and policymakers renewed optimism for clean, limitless energy. Plasma with-in a fusion reaction causes damage, melting and vaporizing components. Precious materials escape confinement to destroy reactors, making, long-shot damages, loss […]

Boomer generation must address climate change now

I can understand the concern over Oregon’s cap and trade bill. I can also understand that it is controversial. However, as a professional engineer licensed in two states and a small woodland owner, I am not sure that the issue of energy use and climate change is fully understood by most. Please look at the […]

Peak Oil and NTHE–the intersection

What I’m still trying to do, even in the face of overwhelming evidence. For those joining this site recently–I’ve been writing about Peak Oil and NTHE for seven years. But not intersectionally. If you know about Peak Oil, you can probably skip this. Peak Oil was first defined in 1956 by one M. King Hubbert, […]

Ten Countries That Dominate Fossil Fuel Production

In this Sept. 7, 2018 file photo bucket wheels dig for coal near the Hambach Forest near Dueren, Germany. Despite its role as a renewable energy leader, Germany remains one of the world’s leading producers of coal. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner) Despite the rapid growth of renewable energy over the past decade, fossil fuels still dominate global […]

Tropical Storm Barry shuts 70% of U.S. Gulf of Mexico oil output

Nearly 70% or 1.3 million barrels per day (bpd), of crude oil production in the U.S.-regulated areas of the Gulf of Mexico has been cut because of Tropical Storm Barry, the U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) said on Saturday Natural gas output from offshore platforms in the Gulf has been cut by […]

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