Emerging Forces in Global Oil Consumption: The Middle East and Africa

Over the past decade, Asia’s transition to the leadership position in global oil consumption is well known. Starting in 2002, OECD countries slowed their consumption growth for oil and subsequent to 2005 actually saw their consumption decline. This process freed up limited oil supplies to Asia, which now accounts for 31% of total global oil […]

The story of Rabbit Island

It is said that foxes came to the Island long, long ago. Some say that the first fox couple arrived on a raft from a place beyond the horizon. Others say, instead, that foxes were created here by the Fox-God, and others still that they had always been here, from the day when the Gods […]

Peak Oil & Peak Everything Lecture

This lecture took place April 19th, 2012 and was given to the students of Professor Bill Schulze’s Sustainable Business class in Cornell University’s school of Applied Economics and Management. The lecture covers peak oil, the economics behind peak oil, the current state of our energy markets, the substitution to unconventional oil that is taking place […]

Peak oil spells bad news for farm input costs

PEAK oil may force farmers to change the way they farm and where they export, according to Sydney University Agriculture and Environment senior lecturer Dr Lindsay Campbell. Mr Campbell believes farmers will face an increase in the price of chemicals, nitrogen, phosphate and freight costs, caused by increasing energy costs stemming from peak oil. “It […]

Peak Oil: Capitalism & Sustainability (Pt 5)

Back in November, Naomi Klein offered a fascinating and thought-provoking essay in Nation magazine entitled “Capitalism vs. the Climate” in which she discussed the transformative changes needed if we are to successfully (not a guarantee) and thoroughly address the challenges of our warming planet. Her insights and observations can easily be adapted to the similar […]

Withdrawing from the global village

The world’s elites don’t want to admit it. But the kind of global village that they have insisted on building–a vast free-trade paradise run by an ever more complex and opaque system of logistics and finance–isn’t working, not even for many of them. The cost of maintaining this brittle, complex system and keeping the huge […]

U.S. oil production is up, so why are gas prices so high?

Given America’s new oil rush, it would seem the best of times for gas prices. But with $4-per-gallon sticker shock, it might feel like the worst of times. How can this be? The question is all the more perplexing, because the United States is not only producing more crude oil but also using less of […]

Expert Warns: 100% Certainty of Total Catastrophic Failure of the Entire Power Infrastructure Within 3 Years

As smart grid metering systems expand across the developed world, many are starting to ask whether the threats posed by the new devices, which officials promise will save energy and reduce end user utility costs, outweigh their benefits. In addition to documented health concerns resulting from radiation emissions and no cost savings being apparent, opponents of the technology […]

High oil prices threatened by … high oil prices

The fivefold increase in oil prices over the past decade has created boom times in Alberta, in North Dakota and in crude-producing regions across the globe, but the era of $100-a-barrel oil may be sowing the seeds of its demise. Oil-consuming nations, such as the United States and China, have become preoccupied with security of […]

Saudi Arabia Complacent in Age of Inflated Oil Prices

Saudi Arabia does not allow its oil to be traded, nor does it offer its oil without restrictions for resale. The kingdom only sells to final users — that is, to refiners, who process the crude oil themselves. That means oil may be available, but will remain unsold if refiners do not have a demand […]

Natural Gas — True Game Changer

The precipitous decline of natural gas prices — to less than $2 per 1,000 cubic feet for the first time in a decade — promises to be a real game changer for U.S. manufacturing, and indeed the overall economy. The comparable price in Europe is $11 and in South Korea $14. Of course, millions of […]

Easing Off the Gas

The Do the Math blog series has built the case that physical growth cannot continue indefinitely; that fossil fuel availability will commence a decline this century—starting with petroleum; that alternative energy schemes constitute imperfect substitutes for fossil fuels; and has concluded that a very smart strategy for us to adopt is to slow down while […]

David Holmgren: The reverse of globalization

In this video from The Nation and On The Earth Productions, ecologist David Holmgren traces the path of permaculture from its roots in the 1970s to its potential, in the future, to reshape how humans interact with the planet. He explains how its premise—working with nature rather than against it—will help us adapt to and […]

Electric cars cheaper to run, less polluting

Electric vehicles in the United States save money on fuel and are less polluting than most gasoline-powered vehicles, even in places where electricity is made by burning coal, the Union of Concerned Scientists said in a report released on Monday. “Drivers should feel confident that owning an electric vehicle is a good choice for reducing […]

Our Electric Grid – As Unsinkable as the Titanic?

A catastrophic failure compounded by a lack of failover strategies and an inability to think the unthinkable.  These are the main reasons for the sinking of the Titanic. Could these also be the post-mortem conclusions for the next large-scale electric grid failure?  Even as we note the 100 year anniversary of that maritime tragedy, we […]

The World is Finite, Isn’t It?

Yesterday I gave a presentation to a group of distinguished business leaders.  In my presentation, I tried to show that the global rate of production of petroleum and the associated lease condensate is at an all-time high or a “peak” that at a greatly expanded scale looks like a “plateau.”  I used my published, peer-reviewed […]

China to Overtake U.S. as Biggest Tanker User

China will pass the U.S. in 2013 as the biggest user of tankers carrying oil at sea as Asian imports travel over longer distances and fewer cargoes go to the world’s biggest economy, according to Arctic Securities ASA. The CHART OF THE DAY shows tanker use based on ton-mile demand, which multiplies cargo size by […]

Peak Oil: Capitalism & Sustainability (Pt 4)

Back in November, Naomi Klein offered a fascinating and thought-provoking essay in Nation magazine entitled “Capitalism vs. the Climate” in which she discussed the transformative changes needed if we are to successfully (not a guarantee) and thoroughly address the challenges of our warming planet. Her insights and observations can easily be adapted to the similar […]

Looking for a place to crash

People keep asking me where they think the best place would be to hold out when the post industrial age gets into full swing. I’ve said before that I think Britain is as good a place as any, with some large provisos. There are a number of reasons I think this to be so, which […]

Let’s hear it for higher gasoline prices

Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe. — U.S. Secretary of Energy-designate Steven Chu, 2008 Of course we don’t want the price of gasoline to go up, we want it to go down. — U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, 2012   Gas prices […]

How Long Will the Pain at the Pump Last?

Ways to save, with relief in sight Numerous factors threaten to derail the U.S. economic recovery: The European financial crisis could worsen dramatically, causing a spillover effect in the United States. Businesses, which have added jobs in recent months, could stop hiring. Stock indices, which have been up for most of the year, could again […]

Natural Gas Vehicles In China

With the price of a gallon of gasoline in the United States now at $5 — and climbing — CNBC’s Rick Santelli is making it his personal mission to demonstrate to the world that cars can easily be converted to run on natural gas. Santelli is best known for starting the Tea Party movement with […]

Japan Use of Oil May Surge

Japanese utilities will use 300,000 more barrels of oil a day in 2012 than before last year’s nuclear crisis unless it restores some of its atomic reactors, according to the International Energy Agency. Japan will also need an additional 23 billion cubic meters of liquefied natural gas to meet demand if utilities can’t access idled […]

The Impact of $5 Gas Prices, and Eco-Proppants

In this week’s episode of R-Squared Energy TV, I talk about the impact I believe $5 gasoline will have on most people, and whether there are any environmentally friendly proppants that can be used for hydraulic fracturing. Some of the topics discussed this week are: My observations here in Hawaii on the impact of $5 […]

Peak oil, economic growth and the big lie

In the commentary on Peak Oil recently published in the leading scientific journal Nature, James Murray (the founding director of the University of Washington’s Program on Climate Change) and David King (the Director of the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, University of Oxford) made the following statement, Historically, there has been a tight […]

America: The Gasoline War

I apologize in advance to those of my readers who find military history uninteresting. The next part of the story I’m exploring just now, the story of the British Empire’s fall and its replacement by today’s American empire, can’t be understood without a sense of the military realities that drove that process, and the decline […]

Peak oil spells disaster

GLOBAL oil shortages and rising fuel costs could spell disaster for Australia’s agricultural industry. That’s the dire warning from Australian Association of the Study of Peak Oil and Gas (ASPO) convenor Bruce Robinson. He said farmers needed to be more alert to so-called peak oil, estimated to occur within the next five years. “We have […]

Is the oil industry underestimating it’s profits

In my last blog, I posted estimates on how much of the money you spend on gas is going to the oil industry’s profits. Our updated estimate shows that 23 cents of every dollar you spent on gasoline in February went to the oil industry’s after-tax profits.[1]  If you’re like the average driver, you pay […]

If Things Keep Going the Way They Are… (Infographic)

Having fun with trends, an educator and author on his Post Carbon Institute blog, also reveals the absurdity at the end of a drawn-out trend line. For instance, if technology continues on its course, within 20 years transistors will be the size of an atom, and after another generation or so, he says, they will […]

Why don’t farmers just do it?

Excluding livestock from streams is possibly the single most effective Best Management Practice in animal agriculture. But too many farmers hesitate to get on board with these practices, even when it’s better for their own animals. Why don’t farmers just do it?  I mean fence their cattle out of the streams.  If farmers would do […]

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