The Perennial Search for Perennial Grains

Most would agree that there is no single solution to the challenges brought about – currently and in the future – by inexorably declining, worldwide oil production rates, or Peak Oil.  As Steve Andrews, one of the co-founders of ASPO-USA likes to say – there are no Silver Bullets, only Silver BB’s. So, Silver BB’s […]

Peak Oil’s Impact: Holiday/Family Dinners

The (I hope) festive holiday season is once more in our collective rearview mirror, and we all now eagerly await the return of spring and the good feelings the change to warmer seasons always seem to usher in. Most of us probably spent at least a brief period of time celebrating the holidays and (again, […]

The Peak Oil Crisis: Gasoline in 2012

In recent days there has been much discussion in the press about what might happen to gasoline prices in the coming year. Cognizant of the fact that retail gasoline is currently running nearly 30 cents per gallon higher than it was in January 2008 the year when prices topped out at a national average of […]

Peak oil can fuel a change for the better

The advent of peak oil means we should prepare for a downscaling of our highly energy and resource-intensive lifestyles. What is peak oil and why does it matter? And what effect will it have on the Western lifestyles we take for granted? These are not questions that many people are asking themselves yet, but this […]

Fear over fuel prices justified

What’s going on with gasoline prices? Atlantans, Georgians and virtually all Americans who drive cars have good reason to ask that question, and good reason to worry. In 2011, despite a weakened U.S. economy and high unemployment, crude oil averaged $95 per barrel and gasoline averaged $3.52 per gallon for the year. The typical American […]

The Faustian Bargain that Modern Economists Never Mention

Historically people have shifted their belief systems in various ways. The Greeks and Romans believed in numerous gods and goddesses and attributed all kinds of powers to them. Then the great monotheistic religions came along and people began to believe in just one god, though they honored him under different names. Recently, beliefs have shifted […]

A Crisis of Civilization?

Back in December I posted a trailer for The Crisis of Civilization. Based on the work of security analyst and political scientist Dr Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed, this new documentary explores the interconnections between climate change, peak oil, terrorism and our ongoing financial crisis. Mat has also written about Ahmed’s work on the connections between peak […]

What’s So Bad About Exporting Gasoline?

One of my Top 10 Energy Stories of 2011 was the fact that the U.S. had become a net exporter of finished petroleum products such as diesel and gasoline. In fact, because gasoline and diesel prices were so high, fuel exports were valued at $88 billion, which made them the top value export in 2011 […]

Trying to beat the oil addiction

Her children. They’re the reason Karen Andreassen became involved in the Transition Town movement. As the world faces diminishing oil reserves, an unstable climate and unpredictable food production, the Transition movement is a worldwide network of communities working to move away from dependency on oil and create a more sustainable future. “I used to worry […]

Qatar’s next big purchase: a farming sector

Qatar’s energy resources have given it one of the world’s highest per capita incomes, a futuristic urban skyline and enough clout to host the 2022 soccer World Cup. But its wealth may not be enough for the arid state to achieve an even more ambitious goal: becoming largely self-sufficient in food. Like other oil-rich, water-poor […]

Improving economy: More jobs, higher pump prices

As the U.S. economy recovers and adds more jobs, Americans are paying the price at the gas pump. The government said Friday that the nation’s unemployment rate dropped to 8.5 percent, the same day that gasoline prices hit an average of $3.35 a gallon, the highest ever for this time of year. Gasoline prices are […]

Nigerians protest fuel price before planned strike

* Subsidy removal more than doubles fuel price * Court order seeks to restrain unions from striking * Government says it will save $6 bln this year * No major impact expected on oil exports from strike Nigerians angered by a government decision to remove fuel subsidies protested in the capital on Friday and unions […]

EIA analysis: oil demand and stocks head in different directions

The long-standing belief that energy demand in the US could do nothing but rise inexorably continues to fade in the rear view mirror. It’s been replaced by week after week, month after month of various reports showing a decline in consumption. This week’s EIA weekly statistical report showed another drop in demand, and a concurrent […]

Edwin Black The Truth About Our Oil Addiction

In this hour long speech at Binghamton University author/journalist Edwin Black gives us an insight into the 65,000 year history of petroleum development. With a close look at the last hundred years with the growth and development of the oil monopoly. He gives the fascinating story about Henry Ford and Thomas Edison’s attempt to develop […]

The Rise of Tricycle Pushcarts

“Even in backward mining communities, as late as the sixteenth century more than half the recorded days were holidays; while for Europe as a whole, the total number of holidays, including Sunday, came to 189, a number even greater than those enjoyed by Imperial Rome. Nothing more clearly indicates a surplus of food and human […]

Oil Prices: Moving to Red Alert

Peak oil is moving back fast as permitted dinner time talk – and even office time action on futures and options. And the reasons are multiple, well known, but heavily discounted until now. Through late 2011, many times, the IEA’s chief economist Fatih Birol has outlined how radically the IEA sees the oil price outlook. […]

University of Alaska Professor predicts $5-plus gasoline

A University of Alaska Fairbanks professor told a Chamber of Commerce luncheon on Tuesday that he foresees a doubling of the price of oil — and the pump price of gasoline — in the next decade. Doug Reynolds, author of an upcoming book about global oil dependence, says demand will drive prices relentlessly up, reports […]

The Peak Oil Crisis: Closing Out the Year

The returns are in and we now know that world price of a barrel of oil averaged $111 in 2011. This was up 14 percent from last year and well above the previous high of $100 set in 2008. The average barrel of oil that we bought last year cost $15 more than the year […]

In conversation with Dr. Colin J Campbell, Ballydehob, West Cork, Ireland

Founder – The Association for the Study of Peak Oil & Gas (ASPO)

Violence erupts in Nigeria over petrol prices

Protesters furious over spiralling petrol prices started fires on a motorway and at least one person was killed in the unrest after Nigeria’s government scrapped a subsidy that had kept fuel costs down for more than 20 years. One union leader described the government’s hugely unpopular move as “immoral and politically suicidal” and urged Nigerians […]

$5 A Gallon For Gas? It Could Happen In 2012

Five dollars a gallon for gas? Analysts say it could happen this year. Monique Griego has more on why gas prices could soon explode. Just this weekend, the president signed new sanctions against the country of Iran. Now, Iran is firing back with a threat that could send gas prices higher than ever. Prices at […]

Oil price ‘to stay over $100 a barrel in 2012’

THE price of North Sea Brent crude oil looks set to remain above $100 (£64) a barrel during 2012 despite the threat of a global recession, creating misery for motorists and other consumers of petroleum products and headaches for central bankers worried about inflation. City oil analysts said a combination of tight supplies, strong demand […]

Andrew McKillop: There Will Be Oil – Versus – Peak Oil Now

Claiming there is an oil limit on the economy and why peak oil is inevitable is usually talked down by saying its an unsure theory at best, and controversial, fear mongering or defeatist at worst. The totally simple numbers which prove it are however not Einstein-type mathematics and are not impossible to understand – – […]

In with the new: part III of “As economic growth fails, how do we live?”

We need a map for uncharted territory as we enter this New Year, as the realization is dawning we are dealing with an economic crisis of an entirely different character than ever before.  Our industrial civilization is reaching limits to growth, and we don’t know how to live with that. Part I of this series of three articles addressed the four major challenges […]

EU warns wasting environmental resources could spark new recession

The overuse and waste of valuable natural resources is threatening to produce a fresh economic crisis, the European Union‘s environment chief has warned. Janez Potočnik, the EU commissioner for the environment, linked the current economic crisis gripping the eurozone with potential future crises driven by price spikes in key resources, including energy and raw materials. […]

Planting Seeds for a New Society

Peak Moment 207: “We’re a conduit and a packager of important cutting edge material that people need to do the work that they’re engaged in.” Judith Plant and the New Society Publishers (NSP) team are social change agents bringing emerging ideas and authors to the forefront. They converse about the need for women’s voices in […]

32 US Coal-Fired Power Plants Headed for Closure

The hotly debated Air Toxics Rule and Cross State Air Pollution Rule now slated for enactment in three years by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are destined to close at least 32 coal-fired power plants throughout the U.S. each with an average age of 51 years. This according to a survey of 55 power plant […]

Return of the food and energy crisis: structural problems and/or financial speculation?

Sean Thompson gave this presentation to a seminar of economists organised by The International Institute for Research and Education in Amsterdam in November. An edited version will appear in the next issue of Socialist Resistance. Of course, its glaringly obvious that the fluctuations in world oil and fuel prices, particularly the wild fluctuations of the […]

Why Oil Prices Are Killing the Economy

“Oh, that was easy,” says Man, and for an encore goes on to prove that black is white and gets himself killed on the next zebra crossing.” ? Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Have rising oil prices just put the final coffin nail in the entire 2009-2011 economic recovery? Given the slowdown […]

A Severe Decrease in Oil Supply Could Devastate the World Population

The ownership of the largest deposits of oil, notably in the former U.S.S.R., e.g. Siberia and Kazakhstan and the Caspian region generally, in addition to the fields in the Middle East, will likely determine the future balance of world power. “The New World Order” as it is sometimes referred to. It is interesting that it […]

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