New Catalyst Could Revolutionize Natural Gas

  The Scripps Energy and Materials Center (SEMC) Transformer. A catalyst made with thallium (orange) readily converts methane (gray and white molecule) into liquid methanol, a starting point for producing commodity chemicals and fuels. Natural gas is great at heating our houses, but it’s not so good at fueling our cars—at least not yet. Researchers […]

Shale gas and oil boom not sustainable

How much faith can we put in our ability to decipher all the numbers out there telling us the US is closing in on its cornering of the global oil market? There’s another side to the story of the relentless US shale boom, one that says that some of the numbers are misunderstood, while others […]

IEA Raises 2014 Oil Demand Estimate as World Economy Recovers

Oil demand will be higher in 2014 than previously estimated as global economic growth recovers, the International Energy Agency said. Pressure on supplies will ease in coming months as seasonal consumption dips. World consumption will increase by 1.4 million barrels a day, or 1.5 percent, this year to a record 92.7 million a day, or […]

Building a movement for change: Positive Money

Positive Money is a movement to democratise money and banking so that it works for society and not against it. Our current financial system has left us with the highest personal debt in history, unaffordable housing, worsening inequality, high unemployment and banks that are subsidised and underwritten with taxpayers’ money. We believe that these problems […]

Permablitz – A Blitzkrieg of Permaculture Awesomeness

Kirby poses with a class of students at a permaculture design course at Heirloom Blooms. Photo by Melanie Strang-Hardy. Last week we introduced the food forest as a great way to leave an awesome trace in the world – a perennial forest gardening system designed to provide organic food and other resources while regenerating the […]

Stunting Consumption Growth Through Population Control

Countdown (Little, Brown and Company, 2013), by Alan Weisman, details the burgeoning effects that human population growth has on our environment. Weisman reveals what may be the fastest, most acceptable way of balancing this impact. This excerpt explores the reality that although population control is a possible solution, consumption growth is projected to continue. Mass starvation […]

Depletion is winning

EROI of different fuels and the implications for society Charles A.S. Hall, Jessica G. Lambert, and Stephen B. Balogh Energy Policy, Volume 64, January 2014, Pages 141–152 “The decline in EROI among major fossil fuels suggests that in the race between technological advances and depletion, depletion is winning. Past attempts to rectify falling oil production […]

Flying Without Fossil Fuels: The Need For High Energy Density

There are few more remarkable machines than a Boeing 747. Four hundred people can be hurled half way across the planet with levels of comfort, efficiency and reliability that would have been deemed miraculous by those living a few centuries ago. A vision of the incredible technical proficiency humanity has gained since the Industrial Revolution, […]

Is Natural Gas-Fired Electricity An Intermittent Resource?

Wind power is only available when the wind is blowing. Similarly, cloudy skies means less solar power. The use of renewable energy resources for generating electric power is limited by the fact that renewable resources are not always available. This is why renewable energy is commonly described as an “intermittent” energy resource. Intermittency, or “ […]

It Will Be Shocking for the Average American: “Your Cost of Living Will Quadruple”

It’s no secret that the U.S. government is in serious fiscal trouble. So much so that our Treasury Secretary recently noted that should the debt ceiling fail to be increased, the fall-out would be “catastrophic” and last for generations. Given that sobering report, consider that everything in America, from food to fuel, is subsidized in […]

18% of global population lack access to electricity

2014 marks the start of the United Nations Decade of Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL), the international effort to bring modern and sustainable energy to everyone on the planet. IEA data collected over more than a decade have been vital to the push already, establishing the size of the problem and helping determine the resources […]

UN warns food security a risk to Asia-Pacific

The world must increase its food production by 60 percent by mid-century or risk serious food shortages that could bring social unrest and civil wars, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Monday. Demand for food will rise rapidly over the next few decades as the world population surpasses 9 billion and increasingly […]

Why the Days of Cheap Oil Are Gone

One of the biggest things I like about owning oil companies is that the math game works in their favor. For instance, it took 123 years for the global population to go from 1 billion to 2 billion people. But it only took 12 years for it to go from 6 billion people to 7 […]

A Gift From The Collapseniks

Of what possible use is it to imagine the end of civilization or even of the species? Is it simply a pessimistic indulgence or can it contribute to progressive and other positive results? When I was a child, my family’s pastor used to elbow into almost every sermon an admiring reference to “St. John languishing […]

Grasshoppers, caterpillars to be on your dinner plate soon

People would soon have no choice but to consume insects as it would be increasingly difficult to feed the burgeoning world population—close to 8 billion now—in near future, warned the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). How would you react if your neighbourhood restaurant serves you a menu that only lists cuisines […]

Natural Gas Will Not Save the US Economy

Economist Kenneth Boulding famously said, “Anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist.” But it’s not just economists who believe that anymore. Such ideas are still widely accepted by thought leaders, journalists, and politicians who, together, form a strong consensus that the U.S. […]

Natural gas by the quart: Shell’s new oil isn’t crude

Natural gas probably isn’t running your car, but it may soon be lubricating your engine. Royal Dutch Shell, which owns Pennzoil, Quaker State and other brands, is announcing Friday that it has already started selling a premium motor oil that is derived from natural gas and not crude. The process begins with Shell’s $19 billion […]

Peak Oil: Appreciating The Risks

An observation worth noting … and pondering, from Richard Steiner: The first step in recovering from any addiction is to tell the truth — admit the addiction, acknowledge its consequences. Yet this is something we still seem unwilling to do with our addiction to oil…. The truth about oil is that while there are benefits […]

The Math Of Feeding The World

The next time you’re enjoying a meal, take a moment to think about where the food came from. Think about the family farmer or rancher who helped put it on your plate—not only that day, but all 365 sunrises a year for you and the other 7 billion and counting people around the world American […]

Reasons for our Energy Predicament: An Overview

Quiz: What will cause world oil supply to fall? Too little oil in the ground Oil prices are too low for oil producers Oil prices are too high for oil consumers leading to recession, debt defaults, and ultimately a cut back in credit availability and very low oil prices Oil exporters are subject to civil […]

‘Doctor EROEI’ Was Wrong

‘For some years now,‘ Tim Morgan writes in Life After Growth, ‘global average EROEIs have been falling, as energy resources have become both smaller and more difficult (meaning energy-costly) to extract.‘ You may have heard of this concept called energy return on energy invested (EROEI). It looks at how much energy we expend in relation […]

Peak Oil: Facts Annoy

TRUTH BE TOLD   Crude oil production is heavily concentrated in a small number of countries and a small number of giant  fields….Future global production is therefore heavily dependent on the future prospects of the giant fields, but this remains uncertain—in part because the required field-level data are either unavailable or unreliable. (links/citations in original) […]

EROEI: Economics Without the Money

“For some years now,” Tim Morgan writes in Life After Growth, “global average EROEIs have been falling, as energy resources have become both smaller and more difficult (meaning energy-costly) to extract.” You may have heard of this concept called energy return on energy invested (EROEI). It looks at how much energy we expend in relation […]

T. Boone Pickens: Let’s transform energy — with natural gas

The US consumes 25% of the world’s oil — but as energy tycoon T. Boone Pickens points out onstage, the country has no energy policy to prepare for the inevitable. Is alternative energy our bridge to an oil-free future? After losing $150 million investing in wind energy, Pickens suggests it isn’t, not yet. What might […]

End of Suburbia

Peak Oil and the Future of Energy

Total CEO to Yergin: “peak capacity”

Oil industry costs are spiraling out of control, and it’s time to rein them in, Total CEO Christophe de Margerie insisted Tuesday. “Excellence cannot be an excuse for doing anything at any price,” de Margerie told oil and gas industry executives gathered at the IHS CERAWeek energy summit in Houston. “We cannot continue to swallow […]

Peak oil demand: maybe here, but not there

For years, meaning until the arrival of U.S. shale production, much ink was spilled on the concept of “peak oil” — the argument that the world was fast approaching an absolute maximum of crude oil that can be produced on a  daily basis. Shale production has put the kabosh on that for the time being, […]

More On Peak Demand

An observation worth noting … and pondering, from Mark Lewis (links in original): Oil market commentators increasingly dismiss the very idea of supply-side constraints on the oil market, pointing to the recent surge in light-tight oil production from US shale deposits and the existence of vast shale formations elsewhere in the world…. But does this […]

Tech Talk – Coal prospects

Last week was the annual Society of Mining Engineers annual meeting, this year in Salt Lake City, with the title “Leadership in Uncertain Times.” To illustrate the point it had some 6,000 members or more in attendance, as I hear and was quite successful from that point of view. However, through the grapevine I also […]

Beginning of the End? Oil Companies Cut Back on Spending

Steve Kopits recently gave a presentation [link to presentation at resilience.org] explaining our current predicament: the cost of oil extraction has been rising rapidly (10.9% per year) but oil prices have been flat. Major oil companies are finding their profits squeezed, and have recently announced plans to sell off part of their assets in order to have funds […]

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