Do We Really Need Economic Growth?

Marcin Gerwin: For most heads of states, the prime minister of Poland included, the central point of economic policy is maintaining or increasing economic growth. The aim is to encourage people to consume every year more goods and services so that the Gross Domestic Product continues to grow. Do you think it’s a realistic approach? […]

Lured by cheap coal, Southeast Asia turns away from gas

* Southeast Asian power generation capacity to rise 50 pct this decade * More than half of new Southeast Asian capacity to be coal-fired * LNG-fired power twice as expensive as coal-fired power in Asia Southeast Asia’s power sector will tilt away from gas to use more coal by the end of this decade, chipping […]

Iraq to Become Iran’s Largest Gas Customer

Iraq is willing to boost its gas imports from Iran to 90 million cubic meters (mcm) per day, a senior Iranian gas official said. This comes as on July 21, Iranian and Iraqi oil ministers signed the first deal to transfer Iran’s natural gas to power plants in Baghdad and Diyala provinces. Iran expects to […]

Upskilling for Post Growth Futures, Together

When I was seven, I was given an Apple Macintosh in the hope that Mavis Beacon would teach me how to touch type. It was an unreasonable expectation, for I was actually more interested in escaping to the fantasy lands of computer games such as Dungeons and Dragons, and Lode Runner. Yet, these games had […]

Growing population and economies will outpace energy efficiencies

The world is becoming more energy efficient, but growing economies and an increasing world population will drive more energy demand for decades, an industry expert said Saturday. This growth largely will come from emerging economies, where the average gross domestic product is expected to grow 2.8 percent annually for years, said David Khemakhem, an energy and […]

Arab Water Crisis to Affect Human Development

The Arab world is facing an escalating water crisis that demands quick answers in order to avoid major humanitarian consequences, a United Nations Development Program (UNDP) report warned this week. The report, entitled Water Governance in the Arab Region: Managing Scarcity and Securing the Future, revealed that out of a total of 22 countries, 15 […]

Reflections on a Transition Tour

In October, Transition Movement founder Rob Hopkins made his first (and probably only) tour of the United States. Fortunately for us, the announcement that concentrations of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere had surpassed 400ppm for the first time in 4.5 million years made Rob rethink the no-fly pledge he had made seven years earlier after […]

Transition Town: A Tonic for the Peak Oil Blues

The term “Peak oil” warns of the end of cheap and plentiful energy. An expanding world population of 6.5 billion suggests a limit for growth will eventually be reached (if it hasn’t been already) and no combination of current alternative energy sources will sustain the world’s accelerating thirst for power. As oil production inevitably declines […]

Which Sectors of U.S. Economy Will ‘Peak Oil’ Imperil?

This is what I’ve been talking about here, over and over again. We are not paying attention to this, and yet it’s the most important concern we are facing in Hawaii today. The Big Island’s anti-GMO bill, Bill 113, is just moving chairs around on the deck of the Titanic. The issue is so much […]

A Zen View Upon the World (Less is More)

This article is inspired by the Alexandrine pattern 134, Zen View. The pattern states: “The archetypal zen view occurs in a famous Japanese house, which gives this pattern its name.” Let’s start with listening to the wisdom of A Pattern Language (Please note that the illustrations of the original text are missing): A Buddhist monk […]

Crude Oil Price Volatility on the Way?

Predictive relationships appear to occur between large, rapid swings in oil price and recessions, stock market crashes and shifts in political polls, as I have previously discussed in articles published in 2010 and 2011. Given the economic disruptions that nearly always happen in the aftermath of oil shocks, it seems important to understand what is […]

Will Asia Be Looking to US For Natural Gas?

Volumes of natural gas sit beneath U.S. soil, with several Asian countries ready to buy this energy resource. However, the clashing goals of commerce, energy and environmental interests must first be ironed out, experts said at a recent roundtable discussion in Washington. To help collaborate these various interests and also elevate Asian Americans to take […]

Daniel Yergin: Power in 2030 The Roads We May Take

There is no question that we are at a turning point in world energy. But then we are often at a turning point. Just as everybody gets comfortable with what they expect to happen, a big change comes along that undercuts existing assumptions. Just consider: • Less than three years ago, a ‘‘nuclear renaissance’’ seemed […]

Americans are 5% of World Population, consume 1/4 of its Energy

Source: InternationalBusinessGuide.org www.juancole.com

GE: The Age of Gas is Upon Us

Natural gas is poised to play a far greater role in the world’s energy mix, threatening to supplant oil and coal in many areas of industrial activity as well as in transportation and in the home, according to a report recently published by General Electric Co. In fact, the report  anticipates global gas consumption will […]

Our Austerity Basics all in one place

Welcome to Transition Network’s Austerity Basics series.  Ever wondered what austerity actually means?  Where the idea comes from?  Whether it actually works?  Over 9 days in late November 2013, we posted a series of answers to the most commonly-wondered-about aspects of austerity, with the help of James Meadway, Senior Economist at new economics foundation.  Now […]

Economic Prosperity Ahead Or A Train A Comin’

Whether the light at the end of the economic tunnel represents sunshine or an on-coming train depends on whom you ask. I am of the opinion that it is a train a comin’. Economic matters cannot get better until we hit bottom and rebuild from the ashes. That need not be except government policies drive […]

Fueling the future

A compressed natural gas station in Eugene is unique in Oregon John Anderson has seen the future, and its initials are CNG. “Compressed natural gas is the transportation energy of the future, for both large and small vehicles,” said Anderson, who is president of the family-owned Eugene Truck Haven, which operates the Truck N’ Travel […]

Kunstler: (Un)Paving Our Way To The Future

You can’t overstate the baleful effects for Americans of living in the tortured landscapes and townscapes we created for ourselves in the past century. This fiasco of cartoon suburbia, overgrown metroplexes, trashed small cities and abandoned small towns, and the gruesome connective tissue of roadways, commercial smarm, and free parking is the toxic medium of […]

Tepco To Build Two Coal-Fired Plants In Fukushima

After being essentially nationalized as a result of the Fukushima explosion, and following years of denial finally admitting that TEPCO has lost control of the clean up effort of the Fukushima nuclear power plant corpse, one would think Tokyo Electric Power Company may have second thoughts about installing additional capacity around ground zero. One would […]

Oil prices likely to decrease next year

Various geopolitical uncertainties have pushed oil prices higher recently (mainly political unrest in the MENA region) and may continue to do so for some time to come. In the next 18 months, however, the overall trend in prices is declining. Non-OPEC supplies continue to grow strongly, while economic growth in the US and Europe seems […]

Gas prices nationwide at lowest point in 3 years

For those always scouring the streets for the lowest possible price on gasoline, this holiday presents special reason to be thankful, federal energy analysts say. The U.S. Energy Information Administration is reporting that average gas prices for the Thanksgiving holiday are at their lowest level in three years. “Despite this week’s increase in regular-grade gasoline […]

Sustainability Sucks

I confess to wanting to get your attention because I have something to say about sustainability.  Mostly I want to talk about the word “sustainable” which falls under the same banner as “green” and “eco” and “natural” these days, even though I may agree with many of the specific practices people are labeling as “sustainable.” […]

Why Forecasts of a World Without Carbon-Based Fuel Are Delusional

Resource pressure is a constant.   While the US continues to engage in a delusional energy “debate” about whether we will continue to burn coal and whether natural gas is a panacea, China is struggling to acquire and deploy of energy resources to support its economic growth targets. China has an environment versus growth problem.    […]

World agricultural output continues to rise, despite predictions of decline

The year 2013 has been a great year for global agriculture. Record world production of rice and healthy production of wheat and corn produced strong harvests across the world. These gains were achieved despite continuing predictions that world agricultural output is headed for a decline. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) reports that world rice […]

Peak Oil: Using Energy To Get Energy # 4

One of the key deficiencies of ‘unconventional’ fuels is their low energy return on investment relative to conventional fuels. Many analysts have ignored this factor because investment decisions are made on the basis of the financial, not energy, return on investment. But a growing literature suggests that the two are intimately related…. ROI cannot escape […]

Is “antifragile” better than “resilient”?

Antifragile” is a word you can’t find in the dictionary. Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author and student of probability and risk, coined the word because, after looking at languages across the world, he could not find a word which describes the ability to improve with stress rather than merely resist it as the word “resilient” implies. […]

Energy Collapse – Peak Oil, Painful Withdrawal

Features Richard Heinberg, Matthew Simmons, Roscoe Bartlett & David Goodstein Oil is the primary fuel of the global economy. 98% of cars and trucks,…

China Winter Gas Shortages to Last through 2020

China is likely to see natural gas shortages every winter until the end of the decade as domestic production fails to keep up with demand, a factor likely to drive global liquefied natural gas prices higher, energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie said in a report released on Friday. Increased gas demand from China for heating has […]

Oil’s biggest problem? A new ‘peak’ worry

A fashionable, if annoying, business term is “peak.” Name the commodity or resource, slap “peak” in front of it, and all of a sudden you have a crisis that can generate a few thousand disaster headlines. In recent years, we have been treated to peak oil, coal, gold, water, wheat – even peak soil. The […]

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