The true cost of the US military’s oil addiction

Among the many incentives pushing the military to use less oil, reducing the number of casualties it takes to protect vulnerable fuel convoys is one of the most important. CNN

Peak oil and public health: preparing healthcare for another kind of transition

“Three threats all arise from the Earth’s limited capacity to sustain unabated human growth and consumption,” wrote Peter Winch of the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. “(1) Global climate change, (2) ecosystem degradation, and (3) peak oil production.” We have to admit that, until a few weeks ago, “peak oil” was not on our […]

Gail Tverberg: Oil Limits, Recession, and Bumping Against the Growth Ceiling

The issues we are confronted with today seem to be a subset of the issues foretold in the book Limits to Growth back in 1972. At some point, the economy cannot continue to grow as rapidly as it did in the past. It appears to me that the most immediate limit we are hitting today is […]

The Impending Demise of Globalism; How It Will Cripple Corporate America

Globalism, which has enriched Corporate America, has been an absolute disaster for U.S. manufacturing and the American worker. But, as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. So let’s make an objective analysis and a prediction of how globalism, the darling of the free traders and transnational corporations, will cease to […]

10 Signs That Economic Riots And Civil Unrest Inside The United States Are Now More Likely Than Ever

You should let the video footage of the wild violence that just took place in London burn into your memory because the same things are going to be happening all over the United States as the economy continues to crumble.  We have raised an entire generation of young people with an “entitlement mentality”, but now […]

After peak oil, peak globalisation

The reality of a globalised economy is that poverty is its only sustainable phenomenon. For decades the world economy has been on a path towards globalisation. The drive to achieve ever larger economies of scale at ever lower marginal costs pushed manufacturing to standardise, slashing expenses by outsourcing and supply chain management, consolidating suppliers, eliminating […]

The other side of the oil story

Just a few months ago, oil prices were all about supply. Not anymore. What a difference five months make. Five months ago, I was in Saudi Arabia, hoping to gain perspective on the global oil markets and whether the kingdom could maintain its role as the world’s oil price cop. Back then, the oil story […]

Recession: We are hitting an economic growth ceiling caused by limited cheap oil

People wonder what has been happening recently, with wildly gyrating financial markets and government debt problems. It seems to me that we are bumping up against an economic growth ceiling, brought on by a limited supply of cheap oil. As a result, we appear to be headed back into recession. Debt deleveraging can be expected […]

TEDxBloomington — Keith Johnson — “Food Security and Resilence”

Keith Johnson was raised in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (where he learned at an early age he was related to Johnny Appleseed), and has been a commercial landscaper, stonemason, and organic gardener since 1976 in places as varied as subtropical Bay Area of California, the White Mountains of New Hampshire, Michigan, & the mountains of W. […]

Despite the price fall, a well-known bull still sees a tight market

With crude markets down anywhere from $20/b to $30/b over the last weeks–depending on where you start to measure–it’s always interesting to see what the rock-hard bulls at Barclays Capital have to say about the market. Barclays has been bullish on the fundamentals of oil for several years, seeing worldwide demand growth and an inability […]

Number-crunching the world population and resource shortages

As the global population hurtles towards the 7 billion mark this year, people are asking whether the world has enough natural resources and food supplies to sustain that many of us. But a book due out in September – ‘The No-Nonsense Guide to World Population’ – says when it comes to resource shortages people should […]

EIA Analysis: Commercial crude oil stocks tumble despite SPR release

NYMEX crude futures jumped Wednesday, brushing off big losses in equities in favor of a surprise stock draw reported by the US Energy Information Administration. Crude stocks fell 7.719 million barrels. Some of that draw came from an SPR release, but a sizable portion was a result of higher refinery runs. Linda Rafield’s take on […]

IEA trims 2011 oil demand forecast

The International Energy Agency has trimmed its forecast for global oil demand this year, saying increased evidence of economic slowdown has raised fears of a double-dip recession. The Paris-based agency says in its monthly report that global oil demand this year will be 89.5 million barrels a day on average, or 60,000 barrels a day […]

A Vision For The Post-Peak Oil Future (Pt 5)

“We have designed and built the infrastructure of our transport, electricity, food, and heating systems to suit the unique characteristics of oil, natural gas, and coal; changing to different energy sources will require the redesign of many aspects of those systems.” [1] Of the many great challenges to be faced as we enter a future […]

AFTER PEAK OIL, PEAK GLOBALISATION

The most critical though least debated action required today is changing the business model. Our economic system has long been driven by efficiency without ever considering sufficiency. Greed, not need, has been the muse of the ranks of business. And the gap between the world’s richest and the poorest has never been so large, writes […]

Peak Oil Perceptions: If Gas Prices Soar, Who’s Most Pessimistic?

Just three months ago, the average gas price crossed 4$ a gallon. Now, oil prices have plummeted to their lowest level this year in response to the Standard & Poor’s U.S. debt rating downgrade. We’ll continue to be whipsawed by changes in oil prices, reflected in the price per gallon we pay for gasoline. That’s […]

Loaves and fishes, Transition and survivalism

As stock markets around the world gyrate and froth at the mouth, the ranks are sure to grow of concerned citizens who aren’t waiting around for the government or the rich to fix things, but have instead taken matters into their own hands. Pessimists who foresee a quick and nasty collapse of society coming soon […]

White Gold, Black Gold and China’s Energy Crisis

China has an ongoing energy crisis. Severe electricity power shortage spreads throughout most of China since spring time 2011. The power shortage occurred long before the summer peak power consumption season. Meanwhile, city residents complain about high food prices while desperate farmers had to destroy their harvest corps because no one is coming to their […]

Japan Rice Futures Surge 40%, Trigger Circuit Breaker On Concerns Fukushima Radiation Will Destroy Crops

70 years after rice futures trading was halted on the Tokyo Grain Exchange, it was finally reopened today… only to be halted immediately. The reason: concerns that Fukushima radiation would destroy rice crops and collapse supply sent the contract price soaring from the reference price of Y13,500 to a ridiculous Y18,500 at which point it […]

When Falling Oil Prices are Bad News

Economic Heartache Normally, consumers consider falling oil and gasoline prices to be good news. They have to pay less to fill up their tanks. And if the reason for that is that oil supplies are increasing at a rate faster than demand is increasing, it can indeed be a good situation for consumers, and good […]

Israelis protest against high cost of living

Hundreds of thousands pour into streets of Tel Aviv and other major cities to push the government for reforms. Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators poured into the streets of Tel Aviv and other major Israeli cities to protest against the increasing cost of living, in a big show of force by a movement that is […]

GrowthBusters: A Groundbreaking Documentary for 2011

Do concerns about water shortages, peak oil, species extinction, and deforestation keep you up at night? Do you experience dread thinking about overpopulation and unchecked consumption? Have you or your family ever wondered if there is a better gauge of happiness and success than the accumulation of more stuff and a rising GDP? If the […]

Peak Oil Perceptions: How Americans View the Risks of Major Spikes in Gas Prices

A strong majority of Americans say it is likely that oil prices will triple in the coming five years and that such a tripling would be harmful both to the economy and to public health. Conservatives and those dismissive of climate change are among the most concerned by the threat of a major spike in […]

Past peak oil – life after cheap fossil fuels

The only rational response to the end of the cheap oil is to redesign all aspects of our lives Perhaps the greatest vulnerability of the current world system is that of availability and distribution of critical resources as oil, food, and water. The very logic of accumulation under the current economic system necessitates that the […]

The Peak Oil Crisis: Parsing the GDP

Lost in the furor over the debt crisis last week came the news that the U.S. economy expanded at an annual rate of only 0.4 percent in the first quarter and 1.3 percent in the second. As these numbers were well below what economists were expecting, the revelation that the US was not coming out […]

You can’t size your infrastructure for the outliers

Yesterday’s post about recurring suggestion that we build giant water infrastructure was premised in part on this year’s extremely wet year on the Missouri-Mississippi system, the “Why not build a big pipe from there to the desert” argument. As I mention, I hear this idea a lot, but especially this year, when it seems like […]

Who Killed Economic Growth?

Economists insist that recovery is at hand, yet unemployment remains high, real estate values continue to sink, and governments stagger under record deficits. Richard Heinberg propose a startling diagnosis: humanity has reached a fundamental turning point in its economic history. The expansionary trajectory of industrial civilization is colliding with non-negotiable natural limits. Why have mainstream […]

When oil and gas are depleted

A civilization built on fossil fuels In this year, 2011, we are enjoying a lifestyle beyond the most optimistic dreams of past generations. We are benefitting from the whirlwind of achievements in science and technology during the last hundred years. There has never been a century like the one just passed, and there will never be another […]

Is our future our past?

If there’s one thing most post peak oil commentators have given too little consideration to it’s how goods will be moved and how farms will function in our scary and fast approaching future. Sure there’s the fraternity that talk about bicycles and walking and they’re on the right track, particularly if you’re lucky or wise […]

100 MPG on gasoline: Could we really?

Since I was a teenager, I frequently heard stories that some guy had invented a car that could get 100 miles per gallon (MPG), but that powerful interests (often GM, Chevron, etc.) had bought rights to the idea and sat on it. We suckers were left to shell out major bucks for gasoline, when a […]

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