Ready for Rationing? Why We Should Put the Brakes on Consumption If We Want to Survive

It’s not clear whether Stan Cox is a plant breeder with a penchant for politics, or a political provocateur who finds time to do science. Whichever aspect of his personality is dominant, Cox artfully draws on both skill sets to make the case for rationing, perhaps the most important concept that is not being widely […]

‘Peak Oil’ Is Back, but This Time It’s a Peak in Demand

Remember peak oil? It’s the theory—current about a decade ago—that global oil production would soon top out, leading to an inexorable rise in prices. Reports and books painted a grim picture of the effects this would have on the global economy; as fracking and seabed discoveries have unlocked new sources of the fossil fuel, most […]

Natural Resource Scarcity Is a Real Thing

Something I’ve noticed lately is a huge surge in commentary, generally from conservatives, lauding the boom in “unconventional” oil finds as completely debunking the fashionable “peak oil” concerns of the mid-aughts. The boom in U.S. fossil fuel production is a pretty big deal that’s created a passel of jobs and transformed some local economies, but […]

Oil Supply and Demand to 2025

Yesterday, we took a look at what 7%ish growth in China’s oil demand would do if continued to 2025 – adding about another 15 million barrels/day (mb/d) to global oil demand.  Today, let’s complete the exercise by looking at the other areas of the world where oil demand is growing rapidly, as well as the […]

The Hidden Argument Against Bike Share (and Bike Anything)

Now that bike share stations are being placed around town, people are freaking through various complaints and vandalizing the stations. So a fews days ago I went to a bike share town hall meeting, hosted by our local council member. Here are some of the arguments against bike share that I heard: “We didn’t know […]

China is using up oil faster than we can produce it

Maybe you’ve heard that North America is producing a lot more oil these days, courtesy of fracking, tar sands and other new sources. The Atlantic has a nicely reported cover story on the whole phenomenon by Charles C. Mann. Headline: “We will never run out of oil.” It’s a great article, but here’s an key […]

EIA expects US liquids fuels consumption to rise

In a Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) released Apr. 9, the US Energy Information Administration projected that world oil consumption will reach 90 million b/d in 2013 and 91.3 million b/d in 2014, lower by 100,000 b/d and 200,000 b/d, respectively, compared with last month’s STEO. World liquid fuels consumption in 2012 was 89 million b/d. […]

Extrapolating China’s Oil Consumption

Here is a graph of China’s oil consumption according to two data sources.  The annual data run 1965-2011 (2012 is not available yet): This has obviously grown hugely.  If we look at the average growth rates over the prior decade at each year, that looks as follows (blue curve, left scale): Growth has been stable […]

Peak Oil’s Impact: Golf

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 […]

Ran Out of Oil National Geographic Documentary

Aftermath: World Without Oil [720p] Our contemporary world is so dependent on technology fueled by oil, and yet oil will not last forever. How will the world change and how will people adapt as food disappears, electrical power fails? Witness the devastation in major cities as winter sets in. What will be more important to […]

Energy & New Materialism: the Other Side of a Mass Extinction Event

I’ve written previously on what is new about the New Materialism, but the politics of energy by Kevin Mequet was a most fascinating explanation of a energy catastrophe waiting on the horizon. It’s Not Just the Mass-Extinction Event… It is not simply an environmental problem.  The 5-8 degree Fahrenheit change will issue a mass extinction […]

Age of Limits Conference – May 23-27, 2013

I want to mention a conference that I will be speaking at over Memorial Day weekend near Artemas, Pennsylvania, called the Age of Limits Conference.  The conference is one of the few that deals directly with the issues we are facing today–the very real possibility of reaching Limits to Growth in a finite world, and […]

The New Texas Land Rush

The boom in hydraulic fracturing brings a wave of oil barons buying luxury homes; demands include elevators, built-in grills and plenty of display space for trophy animals. The shale-oil boom in the Lone Star State has created a different kind of gusher: oil executives flush with cash looking to buy luxury real estate. “We can […]

Unprecedented Shortages Of Ammo, Physical Gold And Physical Silver

All over the United States we are witnessing unprecedented shortages of ammunition, physical gold and physical silver.  Recent events have helped fuel a “buying frenzy” that threatens to spiral out of control.  Gun shops all over the nation are reporting that they have never seen it this bad, and in many cases any ammo that […]

Survival tips from the Gypsies

  Years of contact with the Roma, whom we also call “Gypsies,” have changed in many ways my view of the world. Not that I could penetrate more than superficially a culture that I found to be the most alien I even encountered and of which I don’t speak even one of the many dialects. […]

Rebuilding the Foodshed: Fields of ENERGY

Over the coming days, we’ll be sharing material from Chapter 4 (Energy) of the latest Resilience guide, “Rebuilding the Foodshed: How to Create Local, Sustainable & Secure Food Systems“. This is a heck of a chapter, one that takes a look at the complex relationships between food systems, energy and waste. If you eat food, […]

Streetfacts #3: Roads Are a Money Losing Proposition

The majority of the roads and highways built in America are simply bad investments. Continuing this pattern will only ensure that wasteful projects consume larger chunks of our federal, state, and local budgets, without addressing the real need for transportation options. This Streetfacts chapter has a bit more math than usual, but we think we’ve made an […]

Natural gas becomes a fuel for the long haul

The natural gas boom has already upended the American power industry, displacing coal and bringing consumers cheaper electricity. Now the trucking industry, with its millions of 18-wheelers moving products like potato chips, underarm deodorant and copy paper around the country, is taking a leap forward in switching from petroleum to cleaner-burning natural gas. And if […]

John Michael Greer: The God With Three Heads

It’s been said that a man’s religion is the thing he can’t bear to have questioned. If there’s any truth in that old saying, the idea that faith in progress is a religion has a great deal going for it. Over the seven years this blog has been appearing, I’ve discussed any number of controversial […]

When will people start to understand peak oil?

Peak Oil will always be a controversial theory… always. But it’s a reality. What’s maddening is explaining it over and over again to people that don’t get it. For example, Dr. Sami Al-Nuaim recently wrote in the Saudi Gazette: In the last few years, there were several attempts from several non-specialized writers in the Saudi […]

‘Peak Fossil Fuels’ Is Closer Than You Think

Every time an iPhone is charged or an episode of “Mad Men” plays on a television, puffs of vaporized carbon join the atmosphere, products of power-plant combustion. And every year the world demands more. That era may be nearing an end, as the world approaches “peak fossil fuels,” a phrased used by Bloomberg New Energy […]

The benefits of alternative farming methods

Small-scale farmers produce food for 70% of the global population. Yet, they are some of the world’s poorest and most food insecure people. Alternatives to conventional farming should be embraced to improve subsistence farmers’ yields and to ensure adequate food production for the growing global population. The stark reality, according to the International Food Policy […]

Kunstler: We’ve Dug A Pretty Damn Big Hole For Ourselves

The diminishing returns of technology are insidious, and they are ever with us. By this I mean the slow erosion of the quality of life, despite the impression that technological wonders only make our lives better. We’ve Become a Society of Self-Deluded Children The most obvious example is what happened to the telephone over the […]

Food-But-No-Fuel, Fuel-But-No-Food

Interesting about the ways climate change will impact Saudi Arabia’s agriculture – already strained pretty much to the limit by inhospitable heat and drought: The difference between ETo and precipitation indicates that there may be a loss of soil moisture by 0.181 m/year (0.042–0.236 m/year) during the period of 2011 through 2050. Increase in temperature was […]

The Landscape of Energy

his essay comes from the book ENERGY: Overdevelopment and the Delusion of Endless Growth Published by the Foundation for Deep Ecology in collaboration with Watershed Media and Post Carbon Institute. Download The Landscape of Energy Post Carbon Institute/Foundation for Deep Ecology

Global food prices continue to rise

Continuing a decade-long increase, global food prices rose 2.7 percent in 2012, reaching levels not seen since the 1960s and 1970s but still well below the price spike of 1974. The price increases reverse a previous trend when real prices of food commodities declined at an average annual rate of 0.6 percent from 1960 to […]

India Clears Projects Worth Billions of Dollars

An Indian ministerial panel on Monday approved 25 oil and gas and 13 power projects involving investments worth billions of dollars as part of its efforts to boost economic growth. These are among the many projects in India which are facing delays due to bureaucratic red-tape, creating an obstacle to growth in an economy expanding […]

New UAE energy minister seeks energy efficiency

Concerned about rising domestic oil consumption, the new minister of energy of the United Arab Emirates has called for national-level improvements in energy-use efficiency. At the Dubai Global Energy Forum, Suhail bin Mohammed Al Mazrouei pointed to rapid increases in oil consumption and the UAE’s status as a net importer of natural gas and said, […]

Nobel Physicist: Society Should Convert To Natural Gas

Of all the energy sources in play, natural gas offers the most immediate promise as a clean, abundant fuel that can meet society’s needs, including the need to mitigate global warming, Nobel prize winning physicist Carlo Rubbia said in Chicago Friday. Society should pursue two goals, now within reach, to fulfill the promise of natural […]

Taking Practical Action Toward Resilience

Dreaming, organizing, and awareness raising are all important parts of the work we do, but there is something to be said for bringing people together, getting your hands dirty, and creating something beautiful. As we heard in last month’s teleseminar with Rob Hopkins, practical projects are one of the most fun and effective ways to […]

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