Agriculture’s Missing Ingredient: Efficiency

Here’s a stomach-curdling thought: by 2050, the global population is expected to reach nine billion and, in order to feed all these people, we’ll have to increase the world’s food production by 70 percent. Unfortunately, however, there’s a huge amount of inefficiency all along the global food chain — in industrialized nations, where 670 million […]

Argentina grapples with gas shortage

Some factories burn peanut shells to run plants as natural gas is rationed. For the past several winters, Argentina’s government has rationed natural gas to manufacturers of cooking oil, auto-parts, and cement in the north of the country. The measure is meant to keep gas flowing to households during particularly cold stretches of the winter. […]

Why Haven’t Gas Prices Fallen More?

With the US economy stuck in the doldrums, weakening the demand for oil and its products, and with the fall of at least portions of Tripoli foreshadowing the eventual return of Libyan oil exports to the market, it must seem puzzling that US gasoline prices haven’t dropped farther in the last few weeks. As of […]

4 Misconceptions About the Simple Life

It is important to recognize inaccurate stereotypes about the simple life because they make it seem impractical and ill suited for responding to increasingly critical breakdowns in world systems. Four misconceptions about the simple life are so common they deserve special attention. These are equating simplicity with: poverty, moving back to the land, living without […]

Test-tube hamburger – the solution to global food shortages?

The first test-tube hamburger is only a year away and it is being developed in the Netherlands. Meat produced in a laboratory is being hailed as a possible solution to global food shortages. But what are its chances of catching on with consumers? The world population is rocketing and, with it, the demand for meat. […]

Peak Oil: Bicycle Transport

It is possible to bring two beach chairs to the beach on a bike so you don’t have to drive. Video World oil supply high demand solar how to alternative fuels global warming Peak Oil crisis understanding explaining peakoil petroleum future apocalypse end crash energy inflation gas gasoline reserves strategic reserve prices unemployment fuel finance […]

4M without power as Hurricane Irene heads north

More than 4 million homes and businesses were without power Sunday morning as Hurricane Irene continued to roar up the East Coast and took aim at the New York City area and New England. Winds of up to 115 miles per hour whipped across the Eastern Seaboard, ripping power lines from poles and snapping trees […]

Hurricane Irene may cause gas price spike

Hurricane Irene is bearing down on the East Coast, threatening nearly 10% of the nation’s refining capacity that lies in Philadelphia, New Jersey and Delaware. Gasoline futures traded in New York have already spiked, rising 10 cents a gallon this week, largely on fears there will be a disruption in output from the refineries, barge […]

Fertilizer will play critical role in producing enough food to feed future world population

At the recent annual meeting of American feed and fertilizer control officials, an expert stressed that fertilizer is vital to production of food to feed the world in the future. Julie Borlaug, assistant director of partnerships in the Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture at Texas A&M University, said in her keynote speech at the Association […]

Hurricane Irene May Reduce Natural Gas Consumption

The weather forecasts predict that the upcoming Hurricane Irene will strike North Carolina coming Saturday. Some predict that the upcoming Hurricane will reduce demand for natural gas as the rain and wind will curb the electricity demand for cooling households. On the other hand, the Hurricane might damage natural gas pipelines and cause NG production […]

Not My Problem

A short animation concerning peak oil.

United Nations’ Forecasts Invent Nonexistent Overpopulation

The UN has reversed a decade of speculation about a demographic winter in the West, and now says that every country will achieve replacement fertility by 2100 resulting in a global population of 10 billion. The problem is there is no basis for their turnabout. UN agencies are hailing new numbers as evidence of overpopulation […]

I Am the Population Problem

This fall, world population will reach 7 billion people at a time of accelerated environmental disruption. This article part of a series commissioned by RH Reality Check and with Laurie Mazur as guest editor, to examine the causes and consequences of population and environmental change from various perspectives and the policies and actions needed to […]

Humans will need ‘three planets’ by 2050

The World Wildlife Fund says three planets worth of natural resources will be needed by the middle of this century if current consumption rates continue. The group’s Australian CEO, Dermot O’Gorman, told a meeting at Adelaide Town Hall the global population is likely to grow to 9 billion by 2050. He says the world is […]

Approaching The Collapse: Don’t Panic, Go Organic

So-called “business as usual” is neither sustainable, nor even possible, for much longer. Out-of-control energy corporations, Wall Street, the Pentagon, agribusiness/biotech corporations, and indentured politicians have driven us to the brink. They tell us: don’t worry; trust the experts, things will soon return to “normal.” But reality and common sense tell a different story. Extreme […]

Don’t count on burning Libyan oil just yet

With the sudden collapse of the Gadhafi regime in Tripoli, the oil industry is hoping it can repair enough of Libya’s damaged export terminals, pumping stations and pipelines to get as much as one million barrels a day of oil flowing into the market within the next six to 12 months. But as I have […]

Why We Might Not Be Able To Return to Growth

– The basic Rogoff/Reinhart observation that financial collapses due to asset bubbles just take a long time to work through. Given the size of the 2008 collapse, historical evidence suggests that it’s going to take five or six years to recover, and that’s that. – The Tyler Cowen “Great Stagnation” hypothesis. We’ve picked through all […]

Mega Cities Could Trigger Water Shortages and Social Unrest

The rapid growth of urban population – described as one of the world’s major demographic trends – has triggered an explosion of “mega cities” in Asia, Latin America and Africa, causing a breakdown in basic services, including water supplies and sanitation facilities. And by 2050, about 70 percent of the world’s population will live in […]

One billion vehicles hit the road. Are we ready for two billion?

Last year, for the first time in history, a billion cars and trucks hit the road. Sadly, we’ll never know who registered the world’s one-billionth vehicle, but, according to the industry trade journal Ward’s, which reported the numbers, it’s increasingly likely that the lucky prize-winner could have hailed from China, India, or Brazil: The market […]

Sneak Peak: Oil Age Presentation Script

Below is the script written by Senior Fellow Richard Heinberg for the presentation Post Carbon Institute would like to create for all the hundreds of concerned citizens out there who have asked us over the years for help in educating their neighbors, family, and friends about the end of the oil age. I’ve adapted the script […]

Life Without Oil: Why We Must Shift to a New Energy Future

We are living through the strangest anomaly in human history, according to Steve Hallett’s Life Without Oil, written with journalist John Wright. The first half of the petroleum “interval”—at 200 years, it’s not long enough to merit such designations as “era” or “age”—involved massive expansion, technological explosion, and unprecedented prosperity. The second half, as Earth […]

Chinese oil demand: up about 7% from a year ago

Platts’ monthly estimate of Chinese apparent oil demand shows a rebound in July compared to June, not surprising given that many refineries came out of maintenance. But the broader number to keep your eye on is the month-to-month comparison over a 12-month period. That’s the figure that consistently ran double digits for many years, but has […]

Kurt Cobb – Rating Your Energy Thinking

Kurt Cobb discusses four rates of change and their implications for our energy future in this keynote address at the tenth annual Illinois Renewable Energy Fair in Oregon, Illinois on August 13th, 2011. Kurt Cobb is the author of the peak oil-themed novel Prelude, and has contributed to the blogs Energy Bulletin, The Oil Drum, […]

Japan Quake Is Causing Costly Shift to Fossil Fuels

The half-century-old, oil-fueled power generators here had been idle for more than a year when, a day after the nuclear accident in March, orders came from Tokyo Electric Power headquarters to fire them up. “They asked me how long it would take,” said Masatake Koseki, head of the Yokosuka plant, which is 40 miles south […]

Living Off the Grid: No Longer Just for the Amish

Whether you’re reading this on your computer or mobile device, you needed electricity from the grid at some point in the process. Those electrons come from far-flung power plants, across miles of transmission lines, and out of a plug in your wall. This routine may seem like just another part of life, but it’s not […]

Burning up food prices: More corn going to ethanol production now than food production

The world has a food shortage. This isn’t speculative or subjective, and it’s not fear-mongering or alarmist. It’s a well-documented fact and, what’s more, the real experts – those who aren’t influenced by government or corporate interests – have been trying to make that case for months. Moreover, these same experts say, the shortages are […]

World vehicle population tops 1 billion

One billion. To put such a lofty figure in perspective, let’s look at it this way: 1,000,000,000. One with nine zeros. It’s gonna take a lot of fingers and toes for us to count that high. Why do we care? According the number crunchers over at Wards Auto, 2010 marked the first year that the […]

Peak Phosphorus: Nanotechnology for Recovery of Phosphorus

In the last 50 years, the concentration of phosphate entering the water system has increased at an alarming rate, causing a significant water quality problem across the United States. An urgent need exists for improved methods of removing phosphorus from point sources, such as waste water treatment plants, and run off from agricultural farms and […]

Natural World: Farm for the Future BBC documentary

Natural World: Farm for the Future BBC documentary on the precient global farming and food crisis, filmed in the UK. Topics covered are the influence of oil on the food production, peak-oil, food security, carbon emissions, sustainability and permaculture.

The most dangerous machine ever built

Are you a hypocrite if you criticize personal cars but yet own your own car? Do you have to achieve total transportation purity — relying only on transit, bicycling or hoofing it — to earn the right to open your mouth on all the problems that the automotive industrial complex has caused, from accident deaths […]

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