No, Really: We’re Going to Keep Burning Oil—and Lots of It

I am grateful that Amory B. Lovins devoted so much attention to my piece, but I’m afraid I’m going to have to stand my ground. As I understand him, Lovins makes five main critiques: 1) My article “is entirely about quantity of [petroleum] supply,” when “mainstream analysts see ‘peak oil’ emerging not in supply but […]

Scarcity-mind or Eco-mind: Where Do They Lead?

In Brief: Humans see the world through largely unconscious frames that determine what we believe our nature to be and therefore what we believe to be possible. To address our biggest global challenges, we can shed this non-ecological mental map—what the author calls “scarcity-mind”—based in lack and fear. Locked in scarcity-mind, we remain blind to our […]

Grub’s up! Insects could feed the world

BEETLES, caterpillars and wasps could supplement diets around the world as an environmentally friendly food source if only Western consumers could get over their “disgust”, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation says. “The main message is really: `Eat insects’,” Eva Mueller, director of forest economics at the FAO, told a press conference in Rome on […]

Chinese Power Consumption Collapses: Economic Growth Slowest Since Early 2009

Not much to add here. If there still is any confusion why China is desperately manipulating its economic data, so balatantly in fact that virtually everyone has now noticed, this chart should put all doubt to rest. According to CLSA’s Chris Wood using NEA data, China’s monthly power consumption (the most accurate proxy for underlying […]

Rethinking hot dinners and cold drinks

This is part 5 of our serialization of Chapter 4 (Energy) from the latest Resilience guide, “Rebuilding the Foodshed: How to Create Local, Sustainable & Secure Food Systems“. In this excerpt we enter the kitchen. Read Part 1, Read Part 2, Read Part 3, Read Part 4 Food Storage and Preparation Data sometimes hurts, especially […]

Peak Oil: Our Children

An observation worth noting … and pondering, from John James Audubon: A true conservationist is a man who knows that the world is not given by his fathers, but borrowed from his children. Sage advice for those of with children (or just care about them). All the more pointed when those of us who have […]

Tech Talk – The Dangers of Complacency

Perceptions based on perhaps too small a collection of information can lead into opinions that, on investigation, turn out to be incorrect. Just recently a couple of friends had mentioned that charities that they are associated with were seeing a decline in donations. I built this into a picture of the general public being less […]

Feeding the Nine Billion

Global food prices have leapt in the past few years and there are fears that if the world’s population goes on growing, many more people will go hungry. A terrible prospect, but is it true? And if so, what is to be done about it? Peter Day chairs a roundtable discussion with experts from around […]

Energy Demand: Devaluing Oil

Take a look at all the “junk” you have lying around in your garage, basement, attic, closet, etc. Are you doing anything with it? Are you trying to sell it? Have you ever had a yard sale and realized that all that old junk isn’t really worth that much? That maybe for the meager amount […]

Degrowth, Anti-Consumerism And Peak Consumption

Degrowth embraces the ongoing devolution of paid work and wealth that cannot be reversed. The anti-consumerism Degrowth movement is gaining visibility and adherents in Europe. Degrowth (French: décroissance, Spanish: decrecimiento, Italian: decrescita) recognizes that the mindless expansion of mindless consumption fueled by credit and financialization is qualitatively and quantitatively different from positive growth. Degrowth is based on a number of principles: […]

Author Dmitry Orlov on why he believes the U.S. is on the brink of collapse…and how to survive it

Attachment Size 42.44 MB Buck spoke May 3 with Dmitry Orlov, author of  the award-winning book Reinventing Collapse: The Soviet Example and American Prospects, and of the forthcoming The Five Stages of Collapse: Survivors’ Toolkit. Born in Russia, he moved to the U.S. while a teenager, and traveled back repeatedly to observe the Soviet collapse […]

Saudi Arabia Seeks Stable Crude Prices, Minister Al-Naimi Says

Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest crude exporter, welcomes additional supplies from other producers that may help to stabilize prices, Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi said. “New supplies are welcome,” Al-Naimi said today in a speech in Istanbul, where he traveled to meet Turkey’s energy minister Taner Yildiz. “They will add depth and, I hope, greater stability […]

An interview with Prof. Calvin Jones: “Economics is a child of the oil age”

The other day I read an excellent piece by Calvin Jones, Professor of Economics at Cardiff Business School (see right) called Technology Cannot Tackle Climate Change.  Having argued that, due to a range of issues, economic growth is no longer possible, he writes: “Faced with these issues it is easy to withdraw into either a […]

Peak Oil’s Impact: Getting to School

Oil plays an essential role in almost everything that touches our everyday lives. From the food we eat to the means by which we transport ourselves, our goods, and our services, to what we grow, build, have, own, need, and do, oil is almost always an important element. But the painful truth now and soon […]

Peak Oil Revisited – Oil Limits Are Now Debt Limits

LIMITS TO GROWTH Oil and energy limits are more complex than what we have imagined so far. The crossover from OECD Old World dominance of oil market demand, to Rest Of World dominance was more than 7 years ago, but the perception of what this means has been slow. Very slow.   Source: OilVoice Totally […]

Private energy investment is all the stimulus the economy needs

John Hofmeister former president of shell oil making some very interesting points around world oil demand and production. March 2013

The truth about China, statistically speaking

China’s economic achievement is so enormous, indeed literally without parallel in human history, that it is sometimes difficult for people to take in its scale. A country which in 1978, when “reform and opening up” was launched, was one of the poorest in the world, has now reached a point where it has a higher […]

OECD Oil Consumption

Here’s a slightly more detailed look at OECD oil consumption than last week, based on the EIA monthly data.  Here’s the history since 1990, broken down into three major regions (the US, Europe, and everywhere else in the OECD: Japan, Korea, Canada, Anz, etc). Consumption peaked in 2005, fell into the great recession, recovered briefly, […]

Official Food Inflation over Past 5 Years

Up over 12% (up 27% in the UK) during a period characterized by a liquidity trap, high unemployment and weak economic activity. Reconcile that!   And Japan is the next target…. plan b economics

Reaching Limits in a Finite World

We don’t usually think about it, but we live in a finite world. In other words, in theory we can count precisely how many atoms make up the earth. We can also theoretically count how many humans live on earth and how many of any other species live on earth at a particular point in […]

Fridges could be switched off without owner’s consent to reduce strain on power stations

White goods such as electric ovens would be affected by the proposals to fit all new appliances with sensors that could shut them down when the UK’s generators struggle to meet demand for power. The measures proposed by the UK’s National Grid, along with its counterparts in 34 European countries, to install the controversial devices […]

Kunstler: The Deep End of the Risk Pool

    Where on earth did Paul Krugman get the idea — expressed Monday morning — that ours is “a weak economy?” The Dow Jones Industrial Average is about to scale previously uncharted heights and the Standard & Poors Index is piling onto its molehill, too. If stocks are up the economy can’t be weak […]

Building an Agricultural Empire

Genghis Khan knew about hard times. The founder of the Mongol Empire, which spanned most of Eurasia until roughly 1227, Genghis and his clan had to survive on their wits and natural surroundings, often resorting to meals of “green leafy things” when food was scarce. Today that history seems to have been lost, with most […]

Convinced that food can save America

It’s hard to overestimate the importance of food. Yet, sometimes it appears just as hard for food writers to avoid hype. It’s all too easy for people who love food enough to write about food to lose themselves in breathless raptures over the deliciousness of forest foraged mushrooms or the power of artisanal pork to […]

Why US Mileage Ratings Are So Inaccurate

We were impressed when Ford announced that the 2013 Fusion hybrid earned an EPA ­rating of 47 mpg for both city and highway driving. Here was a generously sized and relatively conventional-looking sedan rivaling the efficiency of the ­Toyota Prius. Then we racked up a mere 32 mpg in our road test [December 2012]. That’s […]

Lower Gas Prices, But for How Long?

By now, who hasn’t heard about the oil boom in the United States? Higher oil prices and new extraction techniques are largely credited for creating a rash of new oil fields, resulting in domestic production soaring to levels that haven’t been seen in decades. In fact, many are attributing the slight dip in oil and […]

OPEC Exports Seen Stable Amid ‘Glum’ Demand, Oil Movements Says

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will keep shipments little changed this month as “glum” demand in the U.S. and Europe counters rising consumption in Asia, tanker tracker Oil Movements said. The group that supplies about 40 percent of the world’s oil will ship 23.67 million barrels a day in the four weeks to May […]

High oil prices halt growth

The man who predicted five years ago that $100 US a barrel oil was here to stay is now saying that “triple-digit oil prices” will keep the brakes on global economic growth for as long as oil remains the lubricant of the world economy. And Jeff Rubin, economist and best-selling author of The End of […]

Saudi Oil Minister: America Will Remain a Consumer of Saudi Oil

Washington, Asharq Al-Awsat—Saudi oil minister Ali Al-Naimi stated that Saudi Arabia is committed to a stable global oil market in a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington yesterday morning. Naimi stressed that Saudi Arabia does not want to see a rise in oil prices, except where this reflects actual […]

Reaching Oil Limits – New Paradigms are Needed

I have written in recent posts that oil limits are more complex than what many have imagined. They aren’t just a lack of a liquid fuel; they are inability to compete in a global economy that is based on use of cheaper fuel (coal) and a lower standard of living. Oil prices that are too low […]

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