How America Stopped Using 2 Million Barrels of Oil Each Day

In a recent post I noted that the decline in US oil use had been a big player in the recent fall in US carbon emissions. In fact America is using two million barrels a day less oil than it did in 2005.  As some commenters noted in the last post we can get a […]

Kunstler: Where Are We Now? – A World View

Wondering why the money world got its knickers in a twist last week? The answer is simple: the global economy is breaking apart and its constituent major players are doing face-plants on the downhill slope of a no-longer-cheap-oil way of life.  Let’s look at them case by case. The USA slogs deeper into paralysis and […]

Stealing Gas from the Poor to Power the Rich

In Kilwa District in southern Tanzania local community leader and fisherman Salim Riziki stands next to a set of turbines, newly imported from Dubai, talking about the gas finds on Songo Songo, an island 15 km off the mainland. The whirring sounds and lights from the turbines are in stark contrast to the mud and […]

Neil Howe: “The Fourth Turning Has Arrived”

In 1996, demographers William Strauss and Neil Howe published the book The Fourth Turning. This study of generational cycles (“turnings”) in America revealed predictable social trends that recur throughout history, and warned of a coming crisis (a “fourth turning”) based on this research. Fourth turnings are defined by disorder and great changes brought on by […]

10 Reasons Why America Will Continue To Dominate The Global Economy

Sure, investors have been spooked by Fed taper talks, the Bank of Japan’s unprecedented economic experiment, persistent jitters out of Europe, and concerns of a credit crisis in China. But by in large, investors should be pleased with the way things are going domestically, according to a new report from Joseph Quinlan, Chief Market Strategist […]

Global Food Production Won’t Keep Up With The World’s Growing Population, Research Warns

Global food production isn’t increasing fast enough to support the world’s rapidly growing population, according to new research from the Institute on the Environment (IonE) at the University of Minnesota. Image Credit: Deepak K Ray, Nathaniel D Mueller, Paul C West, Jonathan A Foley Crop yields are actually falling rather notably in many of the […]

China’s Iran crude imports jump ahead of US sanctions waiver

* China’s May crude imports up 49.5 pct from April * Iran imports jump in final month before U.S. waiver renewed * Iran crude imports up 6.4 pct in May from year ago * Jan-May Iran crude imports up 10 pct from same period 2012 China’s average daily crude imports from Iran jumped nearly 50 […]

Pictures That Show The World Is Too Crowded

Is overpopulation a problem? By 2100, the world’s population is expected to reach 11 billion people. As of today, we’re at 7.09 billion and counting, according to the U.S. Census World Clock. Whether you agree or disagree, overpopulation has become a major challenge and concern for countries around the world. This collection of pictures from Reuters shows just […]

India To Become World’s Most Populous Nation By 2028

UNITED NATIONS – India will surpass China to become world’s most populous nation around 2028, with its population crossing the 1.45 billion mark, according to latest report by the United Nations. The report ‘World Population Prospects’ says the world’s population will hit 7.2 billion next month and is projected to reach 10.9 billion by 2100, […]

Pro-Growth Media Bias Fuels Scientific Ignorance

/PRNewswire/ — Journalists are operating under the magnifying glass of a new “media watchdog” on the lookout for bias about growth. Most reporting and commentary in the news media about economic growth and population growth is founded on a cultural myth that endless expansion is both possible and desirable, according to the non-profit that recently launched […]

Community Owned Village Shops

Community-owned village shops continue to be one of the leading success stories of the UK co-operative and social enterprise movement. In 1993 there were just 23 community-owned shops; 20 years on there are over 300, with a further 30 anticipated to open in 2013 alone. In May 2013, Plunkett published its annual report on community […]

Natural gas to rival oil as road fuel: IEA

Natural gas is set to emerge as a significant new transportation fuel over the next five years, raising the prospect of a challenge to oil’s dominance in the sector, the International Energy Agency said Thursday. Already, gas demand in road transport grew tenfold between 2000 and 2010, but cheap gas in the U.S. as a […]

Global Food Production Won’t Meet 2050 Needs

The United Nations has announced that based on statistical projections the global population – which is currently made up of about 7.2 billion – at the rate we’re currently going, will increase to 9.6 billion by 2050, and 11 billion by 2100. Medical Daily reports that in 1999 the population had only just broken passed […]

‘Incredible Increase’ in Oil, Gas in East Africa

East Africa is in the middle of an incredible energy boom that is likely to last decades, according to energy industry executives who gathered this week in Kenya’s capital in a sign of the region’s growing prominence. The last couple of years have seen significant oil and gas discoveries in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Mozambique. […]

Upset About the Price of Gasoline? Get Some Perspective Here

Think gasoline is expensive? It’s all relative. The cost of filling up the 39-gallon tank of a Chevrolet Suburban in Turkey is $389.22, while in the U.S. it’s $137. In Venezuela, it’s just $1.56. The price of gas is one of the most universal complaints — whether it’s teeth gnashing at the water cooler or […]

The Story of More: Richard Heinberg

What if we aren’t about to return to economic growth? What if the economic growth era is actually behind us? Richard Heinberg’s latest landmark work, The End of Growth, goes to the heart of the ongoing financial crisis, explaining how and why it occurred, and what we must do to avert the worst potential outcomes. […]

We will not run out of fossil fuels

Fossil fuels are formed from the remains of plants and animals that died hundreds of millions of years ago, buried and transformed by heat and pressure. Since these fuels require millions of years to form, for human purposes, the supply of fossil fuels on Earth is effectively fixed. This has led to predictions — such […]

Apartment Energy Use Drops Nearly 40 Percent

If you live in an apartment building with five or more units, you probably use significantly less energy than your friends living in single-family homes. Maybe you have suspected this, because your apartment is so much tinier than most people’s houses (which is certainly the case for this reporter) and therefore uses less energy. Or […]

Growth in crop yields inadequate to feed the world by 2050

If the world is to grow enough food for the projected global population in 2050, agricultural productivity will have to rise by at least 60%, and may need to more than double, according to researchers who have studied global crop yields. They say that productivity is not rising fast enough at present to meet the […]

How Long Before America Hits ‘Peak Car’ For Real?

Economists, scientists and titans of industry often talk about “peak oil,” the idea that one day we’ll reach a point where oil supplies begin to decrease and will never rise again. But what about “peak car”? A new study argues that while the peak in cars on U.S. roads may be temporary, the peak in […]

More Evidence We’ve Reached the Era of Peak Cars

The recession knocked down the urge to buy cars in the United States, but that actually masked a longer-term trend that points to a less motorized future. We’ve all heard of peak oil, which the gallant knight Sir Fracking has slain for the time being. But in the United States, perhaps for all the rich […]

The Next New Economy

At half past three in the morning, Alec Johnson rolls out of bed, puts on his Metro Transit uniform, and walks a block to one of Nice Ride’s bike sharing stations in the Seward neighborhood. He unlocks a neon green bike and pedals down the Midtown Greenway, a former railroad corridor in Minneapolis that now […]

Did Global Oil Consumption Slow in 2012?

I hate the phrase “Innocent until proven guilty.” When serial killer Ted Bundy killed his first victim, he wasn’t innocent just because a court had yet to convict him. The correct phrasing — which practically nobody uses — is “Presumed innocent until proven guilty.” Yet nearly everyone says that a person is innocent until proven […]

Americans Exporting More Oil First Time Since ’70s

The U.S. oil boom is moving Congress closer than it has been in more than three decades to easing the ban on exporting crude imposed after the Arab embargo. Advances such as hydraulic fracturing are leading to record production that may outstrip refinery capacity within 18 months to three years, said Benjamin Salisbury, a senior […]

Economics for a finite world

“Any fool can make something complicated. It takes a genius to make it simple,” said Woodie Guthrie. Nowhere is this more true than in books about economics. And nobody needs to get off their arrogant high horses and scale down their ambitions in light of peak oil, climate change and other ecological limits to human […]

The big rigs run on natural gas

Frito-Lay is running more than 200 natural gas trucks and installing stations. A waste hauler in Connecticut has already pumped a million gallons of the stuff. At half the price of diesel (and with greatly reduced emissions), CNG and LNG are taking over the trucking business. BRIDGEPORT, CONNECTICUT — I am standing in a parking […]

Tech Talk – A June TWIP and the OPEC MOMR

The EIA has noted, in This Week in Petroleum that, for the first time, the sum of Non-OECD country demand contributed more than half to the total of liquid fuels consumed in the world.   Figure 1. Changes in the relative shares of liquid fuel consumption between the countries in and out of the OECD. […]

Can We Curb Our Addiction to AC?

If you are the average American, chances are your power bill will be lower this summer than last summer. It’s not because of falling energy prices or eco-friendly practices, but because this year is expected to be cooler than 2012, which was much warmer than normal. The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates the average summer […]

Why Oil Prices Are Bound to Stagnate

A quick look at a 10-year oil price chart reveals a clear trend: Oil prices are going up. Moreover, oil price increases are not a mere artifact of normal inflation. While the U.S. consumer price index has increased just 26.4% over the past 10 years, oil prices have gained a whopping 257%! Oil Prices vs. […]

US Oil Demand Has Peaked And Oil Markets Don’t Care

There are lots of reasons for Americans to use less oil. They’ll improve the environment. If it involves driving less, they’ll save lives. And in the long run, they’ll save money. But a collective reduction in fuel use is not yet enough to put a long-term dent in global oil prices. Here’s a chart from […]

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