The Timing of Peak Oil is Unimportant

Peak oil theory rests on the idea that petroleum extraction will one day reach a peak—this is a fundamental truth, since petroleum is a scarce and limited natural resource. Ever since this idea was introduced in the 1950s, experts have been frantically trying to determine exactly when that peak will be reached and how much time we have afterwards […]

How much is too much?

I’ve been doing rather a lot of manual labour recently—digging out a basement, digging out a pond and using the spoil from both to build a foundation for the poly tunnel on a sloping field. As I’m sure most of you know, doing work such as this is a great way to ponder things over: […]

Ukraine needs more gas to avoid problems in winter

Russia’s Gazprom (GAZP.MM) demanded a $1.66 billion pre-payment from Ukraine for June gas deliveries on Tuesday, saying the neighboring country had only half its requirements in storage to ensure a trouble-free winter. Citing a preliminary bill, Moscow pressed ahead with its demand that Ukraine pay for June deliveries early next month, heightening a dispute over […]

Orlov: Resilience in the face of genocide

The book is at the printer’s and approved the final proofs this morning. Also as if this moment there are exactly 72 copies yet to be claimed, so please place your order if you haven’t done so already. This week we showcase an article by Jason Heppenstall, a travel writer. He wrote about his experiences […]

20%-50% Saved Running Trucks on Natural Gas

Westport Innovations CEO David Demers discusses the U.S. natural gas industry and fracking on Bloomberg Television’s “In The Loo Bloomberg

Peak Oil: A Dilemma Or Two

In order to break the addiction to oil, economies dependent on oil will need to invest huge amounts of money and energy in building new social and economic infrastructures that are not so heavily dependent on oil (e.g. efficient public transport systems to incentivise people to drive less, organic food systems, renewable energy systems, etc.). […]

What to Do While Waiting (for the Crash)

SUMMARY Author Richard Heinberg on geopolitics, finance, and environment of the slow crash. Global Crossing and Green Festivals President Kevin Danaher on transition to green economy. Unicyclist for climate Joseph Boutelier. Radio Ecoshock 140507 1 hour. Welcome to Radio Ecoshock. I’m Alex and in this program we’ll visit with Kevin Danaher, a founder of Global […]

‘Peak Oil’ Burned as Exxon, Chevron, Shell See $100 a Barrel

They don’t come any smarter than Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, a former Member of Congress from Maryland. With a Ph.D. in Physiology, Dr. Bartlett had a number of high tech patents that had made him a very wealthy man. He was also a successful farmer, professor, and real estate developer. As his Legislative Director, I quickly […]

Robert Rapier: How Fossil Fuels Subsidize Us

Meet Nate Hagens A good friend of mine said something to me the other day that I thought was profound. Nate Hagens is a former editor for The Oil Drum, and has written and lectured extensively on the risks of resource depletion. Nate holds a Master’s Degree in Finance from the University of Chicago and […]

Americans Will Burn Less Oil 25 Years From Now

The most lasting change in the U.S. energy landscape may not be that we’re producing more oil — but that we’re using less. Demand for oil has fallen in recent years, as Americans drive less and buy more fuel-efficient cars. Daily consumption is down nearly 2 million barrels since 2005, a 9 percent decline. The […]

Peak Oil: $ome Number$

[The] increased oil expenditure is drawing money away from the rest of the economy. Overall, were it not for the price increase [from the historical average of $25.00 per barrel], the US would have an extra $1.5 billion per day to spend in the broader economy, or $543 billion per year. Instead, all that money […]

Americans live on a statistical reservation

America’s Bureau of Labor Statistics reports inflation in the US running at 1.5 percent. This is dangerous nonsense. The 1.5 percent number depends on a misrepresentation of a key component: food. And it is this statistical hocus-pocus that is at the heart of wealth and income gaps (and revolutionary tendencies) in the US and around […]

Supply or demand? Peak oil with Richard Heinberg and James Hamilton

Our lead story: This week Stanford said that it would divest all of its investments in coal mining companies, becoming the wealthiest US university to pledge divestment from sectors of the fossil fuel industry. Erin gives you her take on the situation. For our interviews today, we look at peak oil theory with Richard Heinberg […]

Peak Phosphorus Will be a Shortage We Can’t Stomach

Here’s the good news. We probably don’t have to worry about peak oil just yet, as it isn’t going to run out anytime soon. The bad news is, as the IPCC has recently reported, we can’t afford the costs of what liberating all that carbon into the Earth’s atmosphere would do to the climate. So […]

Optimism and Overpopulation

“Without the motivation to limit family size, access to modern contraception is nearly irrelevant.” Virginia Abernethy, The Atlantic Monthly December 1994. The above quote is from an article that was written almost 20 years ago. The author argues that the key driver of population growth is the desired number of children, rather than the lack […]

Orlov: Resilient Health Care

When I asked people to contribute content to the book on Communities that Abide, which is now nearing publication (with two chapters already at the proofreading stage), I didn’t know quite to expect. The results went far beyond my expectations. This week I will highlight the chapter by James Truong, MD, who practices emergency and […]

The invasion of the resource zombies

You probably heard that new ideas are “are born as heresies and die as superstitions”. But it can be worse than that: there are ideas which simply refuse to die and, like zombies, continue forever haunting the human mindscape. One of these ideas is that the problem with mineral resources consists in “running out” of […]

Economists back increase in US oil, gas exports

Whether to allow more exports of U.S. oil and natural gas has become a matter of political debate in Washington. But to economists, the answer is clear: The nation would benefit. The vast majority of economists surveyed this month by The Associated Press say lifting restrictions on exports of oil and natural gas would help […]

Peak Oil: What’s Their Plan C?

Given that shale oil production is, in fact, currently doing the most to meet growing oil demand, any shale oil ‘bust’ is likely to have significant implications for an already-strained oil market. [1] While there’s some (strained) logic to the efforts of fossil fuel industry officials and their spokespeople to do nothing but offer the […]

This Is What Tent Cities Will Look Like After Peak Oil

Expand This tent could one day be your home. It will provide you with shelter from the elements, food, energy, and purified water. Meet the Urban Algae Canopy — perfect for all your environmental apocalypse needs. Expand This prototype is the brainchild of Italian design firm Carlo Ratti Associati, and were previewed during last month’s […]

Has US oil consumption decreased because of peak oil?

Since 2008, U.S. oil consumption has declined by more than 20 percent, giving peak-oil theorists their confirmation — world crude oil production is decreasing. And no matter how much U.S. production increases, everyone will feel the squeeze in the face of rising international oil prices. It is really hard to argue against this. After all, […]

The Peak Oil Crisis: Revisiting Natural Gas

A couple of months back I noted that the U.S. was burning through the stocks of natural gas we store in underground caverns at an unprecedented rate. These are the stocks that provide a buffer so that when the 50 percent of us that heat with natural gas turn on our furnaces each fall there […]

Peak Oil: What’s A Few Hundred Billion $$ ?

[I]f crude oil had not peaked and the price of oil remained at around $25 per barrel, the US would be spending around $1.5 billion less per day on oil, or $543 billion less per year. Most importantly, however, the US would be spending almost $600 million less per day on oil imports, or $216 […]

America the Food Desert: How Peak Oil Will Make Food Less Nutritious

There’s a great post up on Reddit that articulates something that I’ve been thinking for a while. Namely, that as people get hungrier, food won’t get more expensive — it’ll just get less nutritious and more toxic. Ultimately, the entire country will become a food desert, and even the suburbs will be the culinary equivalent […]

Is GDP still the best measure of prosperity?

Today was when the White House announced the estimated GDP for the first quarter of the year. While GDP (Gross Domestic Product) is still the fundamental measure for economic growth here and around the world, many question whether it’s an adequate measure of well-being and prosperity, especially since it doesn’t take into account the health […]

Time to take ownership of the Anthropocene

Maybe you, too, know that feeling of despair that comes when learning of some catastrophic impact of climate change — a disappearing coral reef, an extinguished species, a rising coastline’s impact on struggling farmers. A recent headline in the Guardian about the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report makes it hard to feel anything […]

Just keeping up

HERE is a striking fact from James Hamilton: U.S. production of oil from tight formations is up 3.5 mb/d since 2005, and yet total global field production of crude from all sources is only up 2.3 mb/d. In other words, more than all of the increase worldwide over the last 8 years is attributable to […]

China secures Abu Dhabi oil field

China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) has secured the rights to produce and export oil from Abu Dhabi, helping China secure more fuel for its rapid economic growth. State-run CNPC has expanded over the past decade to over 30 countries around the globe to help secure supplies of the oil and gas that China needs to […]

Venezuela’s Oil Heads East

The late Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez used to berate the old management of state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) for sending oil to Europe. Chávez, who died in March 2013, said PDVSA’s sales to Germany, the U.K., and Sweden made no commercial sense because of the distance involved and the proximity of Middle East […]

REALLY saving energy: Paul Wheaton at TEDxWhitefish

Paul Wheaton, the bad boy of Permaculture was proclaimed by Geoff Lawton in 2012 the Duke of Permaculture. He is the creator of two on-line communities. One is about Permaculture, Permies.com, and one is about software engineering, CodeRanch.com. He is a powerful advocate of Sepp Holzer’s techniques for which a recent study showed they have […]

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