Future of electric cars hinges on better batteries

Electric cars are a game-changing technology with an Achilles’ heel — the battery. Current batteries are expensive and have limited range, making it hard to drive from San Jose to San Francisco and back without stopping to recharge. Experts agree consumers will never fully embrace electric vehicles until they can travel as far as a […]

Japan power sector oil demand may triple

apan’s demand for crude and oil products to fuel power plants could triple if the country shuts all its nuclear reactors due to growing public safety concerns after the March earthquake and tsunami. The country’s energy policy was left in tatters after the quake caused by the worst nuclear accident in 25 years. Japan had […]

‘Carmageddon’ begins in Los Angeles

The closure of a mountain highway pass in the heart of the nation’s second-largest city — an event anticipated to be so calamitous to car-loving Southern California that it’s been dubbed “Carmageddon” — hit the area Friday night. Crews began closing ramps late Friday on Interstate 405, where it passes over the Santa Monica Mountains, […]

Dwindling global rice surplus prompts price surge fears

* Shrinking crop areas for top exporters Thailand, Vietnam * Risks from adverse weather, labor and water shortages * Global annual rice surplus to shrink 90% at decade end BANGKOK/HANOI – A significant rice surplus is forecast to shrink by the end of the decade if more farmland in top exporting nations is put to […]

Peak Copper

Copper surprised everyone with its rapid ascent from the recession, propelled by China’s stockpiling program to hit record-high prices. Prices were buoyed by underlying changes to the supply chain, with analysts closely watching eroding stockpiles of copper in warehouses, and predicting that sooner, rather than later, we will run out of copper. We all have […]

T Boone Pickens: We’ll see $5 at the pump in 2012

Oil tycoon/ We’ll see $5 at the pump in 2012.CBS – 7/14/11

How Dependent Is the U.S. on Foreign Oil? – EIA Reports Current Trends

The U.S. imported about 49 percent of the crude oil and refined petroleum products that were consumed during 2010, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) noted in a recent brief on the issue. About half of these imports came from the Western Hemisphere, EIA said, adding that U.S. dependence on foreign petroleum has declined since […]

China facing severe water crisis due to massive food production

As the world’s population increases, so too does its need for food and water – the two resources which are absolutely necessary to sustain life. And as it happens, one is needed to grow the other, so it should alarm you to know that the country with the largest population – China – is is […]

The Link Between Peak Oil and Peak Debt – Part 2

In Part 1 of this post, I pointed out that an economy is closely linked with the resources that underly it. Because of this, if there is really is a limit that prevents oil supply from rising endlessly, then there is also a limit that prevents debt from rising endlessly. I talked about seeing a […]

Motorists driving less, but gas prices keep rising

(AP) — Gasoline prices are rising again even though drivers in the U.S. have bought less gas for four months in a row. Oil, which is used to make gasoline, is higher as well. On Tuesday. Benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude for August delivery gained $2.28, or 2.4 percent, to settle at $97.43 per barrel […]

OPEC: Fragile global economy means lower demand for 2012

Members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said a fragile global economy is likely to hold the rise in oil demand to 1.32 million b/d in 2012, about 3% lower than this year. “World oil demand is forecast to grow by 1.36 million b/d in 2011, slightly lower than in the previous report, as […]

Egyptian gas pipeline to supplying gas to Israel blown up again

The pipeline serves 40 per cent of Israel’s gas consumption. Gunmen have blown up a terminal of the Egyptian natural gas pipeline that supplies Israel and Jordan in a predawn attack, Egyptian state television reports. The explosion occurred east of El-Arish, a city in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, located about 50km west of the Israeli border, the […]

The Transition Movement – Preparing for a World After Peak Oil

How will the world function if fossil fuels become scarcer and their consumption becomes increasingly regulated to fight climate change? How will people live with less oil? What will communities be like? The advocates of a social movement called Transition think the world is now entering just such an environment of oil-scarcity. Transition organizers think […]

US Oil Consumption

The above graph shows US weekly petroleum products supplied (EIA) along with a nine week centered moving average to try to smooth out the noise a bit.  Data begin in 2000 and go through the week of July 1st 2011.  You can see that the high prices since the beginning of 2011 were causing a […]

Countdown to $100 oil – a date with history?

On two past occasions, the average annual oil price has hit $100 per barrel and this has been followed by recession. At time of writing (7th July) the annual average for Brent was $95.4, on course to breach $100 some time in September. Will history repeat itself? Or has the global economy grown immune to […]

Australia driving less than ever

CITY driving in Australia and other developed countries peaked in 2004 and has been declining since. A paper by Curtin University academics Peter Newman and Jeff Kenworthy, Peak Car Use: Understanding the Demise of Automobile Dependence, cites soaring oil prices, traffic congestion, a preference for inner-city living, public transport growth, an ageing population, and more […]

Can we cope with the growing oil shortage?

During much of the nearly 20 years I lived in rural Cornwall I had no car (though I cheated and took taxis). I had no central heating, no freezer, and I used a composting toilet. Now, I am afraid, I am once more a city slicker. However, it was an experiment in the right direction. […]

Soaring Costs Forcing UK Drivers Off Road

Some 1.3 million people have been driven off the UK’s roads this year as a result of rising motoring costs, according to new research. The staggering figure, released by Sainsbury’s Car Insurance, suggests one in 30 drivers have given up their cars over the past 12 months. The report found the average car owner is […]

T. Boone Pickens Says Peak Oil Is Already Here & Oil Going To $300

Peak Oil & Oil Research: http://TurnKeyOil.com “All the easy oil and gas in the world has pretty much been found. Now comes the harder work in finding and producing oil from more challenging environments and work areas.” – William J. Cummings, Exxon-Mobil company spokesman, December 2005 “It is pretty clear that there is not much […]

Israel : Preparing for the end of the world as we know it

The era of inexpensive and easily accessible fossil fuels may be drawing to a close, and some Israelis are preparing for it in earnest. The neo-liberal global economic system is on its deathbed, and Israel may soon have to provide for all of its own food and fuel needs, instead of trading for them with […]

Leaving the casino

I’ve never been to Las Vegas, and my experience of gambling casinos is limited to a short visit to a modestly sized casino in Windsor, Ontario. The experience was, however, quite memorable. I went in prepared to lose $100 just to have the experience of gambling in a casino. Surprisingly, I ended up some $121 […]

Toward a Post-Growth Society

“The good news is that more and more people sense at some level that there’s a great misdirection of life’s energy. We know we’re slighting the things that truly make life worthwhile. One survey found that 81 percent of Americans think the country is too focused on shopping and spending; 88 percent say American society […]

Airlines Get All Clear for Plant-Based Fuel

After decades of waiting, commercial airlines have been given the go-ahead to use fuel made from algae, wood chips and other plants with obscure names. Test flights in recent years by United Continental Holdings Inc. (UAL), Japan Airlines Co. and Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. have shown that planes can fly on everything from coconut oil […]

Economical and Social impacts of Peak Oil

Recent reports of potential reductions in petrol prices will be welcome relief to many motorists.It was only about 10 or 15 years ago that petrol prices were less than half of what they are now. Unfortunately petrol prices are not likely to stay down for long. In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if within the […]

Is Super Wheat a Solution to Global Food Shortage?

We’ve been honest before on TGB that we are torn on the concept of GMO crops or even significantly cross-bred crops and evil. We wish the conversation were unnecessary, but to a certain degree the ship has sailed and it may be too late to get rid of them entirely. Additionally, the increasing world population […]

We Are Approaching Peak Car Use

Many major cities have seen a decline in driving over the past few years. The reasons for this are varied, but if it’s a continuing trend, it’s going to mean drastic changes for the way we shape our cities. Even major oil companies admit that we are reaching peak oil–the point when the maximum rate […]

Goodbye gasoline? GM gives natural gas cars a boost

American automobiles have a limited diet, but gasoline’s monopoly at the pump may be ending. The giant of U.S. automakers is turning to something cheaper and cleaner: natural gas. General Motors Corp (GM.N) announced plans this week to develop its first natural gas-powered engine, overcoming its long aversion to alternative fuels and joining a host […]

It all starts at the dinner table

Eat together. Could the solution to the vexing challenges of peak oil, food insecurity, food price shocks, diet-related disease, globalization and commodification of food be that simple? The dinner table is as good a place to start as any and that’s exactly where about 100 of Vancouver’s farmers, policy wonks, food and poverty activists, nonprofit […]

The World Will Never Run Out Of Oil — Might Its Price Tank?

While global demand for oil has moved to an all-time high, one long-established theory suggests that oil production (and consumption) might be peaking out. If this is the case, might its price tank? If one thinks about it, the world will never run out of oil. As oil becomes scarce, consumers will necessarily turn to […]

Bangla Desh: The deepening energy crisis

One has reasons to be worried about the future of the country if the projections of the energy experts that natural gas resources discovered until now would be fully exhausted within the next three to four years. The attempts made in recent years to discover gas reserves onshore, in most cases, have not been successful. […]

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