Accelerating Innovation in the Electricity Sector

With the help of more than 50 participants, advisors, and support staff, Rocky Mountain Institute convened the first meeting of the Electricity Innovation Lab (“eLab”) on June 25-28 in San Diego, California. Strong forces—the growing need for major infrastructure investments, climate change, new demands for electricity services, rapid technological development and cost reduction—are aligning to […]

The Oil Prices and The Economy

This is the presentation of The Cause and Effects of Oil Prices in the Economy for Professor Feltgen – OST2335 Communication in the workforce, prepared by Team 4. Team 4 is composed by Fernando Trillo, Ryan Donato, Keith Lares, and Giovanni Picasso.

The Permaculture Handbook: Garden Farming for Town and Country

Peter Bane’s handbook, while not quite encyclopedic, is nothing if not authoritative. I can honestly say, without fear of exaggeration, that I hold my head a little higher as I stride about my miniscule fiefdom, now that I’ve read The Permaculture Handbook: Garden Farming for Town and Country. The stones Bane leaves unturned are few […]

Peak Oil’s Impact: U.S. Olympic Training Centers

Imagine, if you can, that there is a resource everyone likes to use.  They like to use it for convenience: it lets them go places, have neat things, eat the foods they want no matter what time of year it is…. Now imagine, if you can, that this resource begins to become scarce. Imagine that the […]

A soaring food price fear

Markets are bracing for a surge in global political unrest, as the worst US drought in half a century sent corn and soybean prices soaring to record highs overnight. The combination of scorching temperatures and a lack of rain has now pushed corn and soybean prices above the peaks they reached during the 2007-08 food […]

The story of change

Can shopping save the world? Put down your credit card and start exercising your citizen muscles with Annie Leonard’s new film. I used to think the truth would set us free. Like many who care about the environment, I spent years thinking that information would lead to change. If only people realize the mess our […]

The dawn of the great California energy crash

California, which imports over 25% of its electricity from out of state, is in no position to lose half (!) of its entire nuclear power capacity. But that’s exactly what happened earlier this year, when the San Onofre plant in north San Diego County unexpectedly went offline. The loss only worsens the broad energy deficit […]

IEA sees modest oil demand hike in 2013

In light of muted economic recovery, global oil demand in 2013 will increase by 1 million b/d to average 90.9 million b/d, the International Energy Agency said in its latest monthly Oil Market Report. For the first time, demand in developing countries will overtake demand in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The […]

Farming Without Machines: A Revolutionary Agricultural Technology

Originally published in 1974, How to Grow More Vegetables, Eighth Edition: (And Fruits, Nuts, Berries, Grains, and Other Crops) than You Ever Thought Possible on Less Land than You Can Imagine1 remains a vital resource for farmers, agricultural researchers and planners, sustainability activists and home gardeners, as the world confronts the challenge of feeding a […]

Fool me twice, shame on me: The oil industry repackages the fake abundance story (from the late 1990s)

[I]f you’re still operating under the assumption that the earth’s petroleum–or at least the cheap stuff–is about to run out, you’re not going to thrive in the new oil era. Technology is making it possible to find, produce, and refine oil so efficiently that its supply, at least for practical purposes, is basically unlimited. —BusinessWeek, […]

Titanic Lifeboat Academy – Navigating a Path to Resliance

Peak Moment 216: Caren Black and Christopher Paddon couldn’t find mentors to teach them self-reliant living when they became aware of peak oil. So they created a homestead and opened their doors to training others. People can take a personalized Lifeboat Course online or in person, where hands-on learning includes food production with domestic animals […]

Beyond capitalism with a human face: a radically simple way

Ted Trainer is one of the wisest, boldest, and most dedicated advocates of The Simpler Way.  In 2010 he published a book called, The Transition to a Sustainable and Just World, and I have to say that it is one of the best books I have ever read in my life. If you only have time […]

How Big is Your Pile of Coal?

The first half of 2012 has been the hottest on record in the U.S., and in many regions, people are blasting their air conditioner 24 hours a day to keep their homes comfortable and safe. Not only is the electricity used to power these air conditioners expensive, but in many regions of the country, it […]

World braced for new food crisis

The world is facing a new food crisis as the worst US drought in more than 50 years pushes agricultural commodity prices to record highs. Corn and soyabean prices surged to record highs on Thursday, surpassing the peaks of the 2007-08 crisis that sparked food riots in more than 30 countries. Wheat prices are not […]

How much oil growth do we need to support world GDP growth?

A few days ago, I showed the close relationship between growth in world oil consumption and growth in world GDP. In this post, I will extend that analysis by building a model that shows how much of an increase in world oil supply is need for a given increase in world GDP. This model indicates […]

Deja Food: Will Social Unrest Surge As Corn Prices Soar?

With Corn hitting its highs again, we are reminded that global food production has been hitting constraints as rising populations and changing diets hit against flattening productivity, water and fertility constraints, and the likely early effects of climate change. As was described in the recent all-encompassing theory of global-collapse, there is general agreement that one […]

Should the US Become An Oil Exporter?

Last week I missed attending a fascinating panel on the growth of US oil production, hosted by  the New America Foundation in Washington, D.C. Fortunately, I was able to catch most of the live webcast, which is still available for replay. Much of the discussion focused on the potential of new “tight oil” production techniques, similar […]

(There ain’t no) green jobs

Jobs, or rather the lack of, have been a major issue during the last French elections. This is hardly surprising as mass unemployment has been a fact of life in France for a whole generation. Unemployment rates have begun to climb during the late seventies and have hovered between eight and ten percent since then. […]

Evidence that Oil Limits are Leading to Limits to GDP Growth

The usual assumption that economists, financial planners, and actuaries make is that future real GDP growth can be expected to be fairly similar to the average past growth rate for some historical time period. This assumption can take a number of forms–how much a portfolio can be expected to yield in a future period, or […]

Peak Oil: Keeping Reality In Mind (Pt 5)

The problem isn’t just political intransigence—it’s that neither political party has made an effort to convince the electorate of the need for change. Without that sort of public discussion, closed-door negotiations are bound to go nowhere. But while party polarization plays a large part in legislative stalemates, the problem goes deeper. Neither political party has […]

Corruption and Mismanagement See Much of the US without Power

Amidst record-high temperatures and a very anti-climactic 4th of July, power outages have left millions without air-conditioning and even water in rural areas where households rely on electric pumps.  At least 52 people have died from heat and three million people are still without power. No it’s not Yemen, where power outages in the capital […]

‘Peak oil’ a certainty, just as was ‘peak cod’

Paul Schneidereit’s July 10 column “Humans’ love affair with fossil fuels won’t end anytime soon” slammed soothsayers who supposedly predicted doom because we would run out of oil. One such soothsayer was King Hubbert, a geophysicist who worked for Shell Oil and the U.S. Geological Survey. In 1956, he predicted crude oil production in America […]

Rich Nations Losing Control of Oil Market

Starting next year, for the first time on record the wealthy nations of Europe, North America and Japan will account for less than one-half the world’s oil usage, projects the latest Oil Market Report from the International Energy Agency. That’s partially a reflection of the growing efficiency of wealthy nations, and partially a reflection of […]

The Bicycle Revolution in Paris, Five Years Later

In July 2007, many Parisians laughed at their mayor, Bertrand Delanoë, when he announced the creation of a public bicycle sharing system aimed at reducing traffic in the French capital. The system was called Vélib’, a combination of “vélo”, which means bicycle in colloquial French, and “liberté”, or freedom. During its first few months of […]

What will we do when all the oil is gone?

If the oil runs out, will you be ready? Rin Simpson investigates the issues surrounding peak oil, sustainable development and why we need to do things differently in order to have any hope of a comfortable future One day, the oil will run out. It’s only logical. It’s a finite resource, so unless we can […]

Ecovillage Forges a Path to Sustainable Living

Ecovillage at Ithaca (EVI), located in the beautiful Finger Lakes region of upstate New York, is an intentional community of 160 people striving for greater sustainability, a better quality of life, and perhaps even a new model for urban planners the world over. Enjoying breathtaking surroundings, residents wander around the village on pedestrian-only streets, swim […]

World Energy Consumption Facts, Figures, and Shockers

In the first installment of this series, I reviewed U.S. and global oil reserves according to the 2012 BP Statistical Review of World Energy. The second installment covered oil production. Today, I want to examine the changes in consumption of coal, oil, and natural gas since 1965 in the three major consuming regions of the […]

Orlov: Unlearn, Rewild

One of the least useful words in the English language is the word “wilderness.” I grew up wandering the woods, and, to me, where the road and the trail end and the animal (and human) paths begin is a point of fundamental transition: beyond this point lies something else—an older, perfectly ordinary, normal way of […]

Saudi Arabia, Iran Sent 62% of Oil Exports to Asia in 2011

Saudi Arabia and Iran shipped about 62 percent of their oil exports to buyers in the Asia-Pacific region last year, according to data in OPEC’s Annual Statistical Bulletin. Asian buyers received 4.5 million barrels a day of Saudi crude last year, rising from 4.3 million in 2010, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said in […]

James Howard Kunstler: It’s Too Late for Solutions

Author and social critic James Howard Kunstler has been one of the earliest, most direct, and most articulate voices to warn of the consequences — economic and otherwise — of modern society’s profligate wasting of the resources that underlie its growth. In his new book Too Much Magic, Jim attacks the wishful thinking dominant today […]

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