Urban Underground Farming

According to the U.N., the world population is more than seven billion and is expected to reach more than nine billion by 2050. With a vast majority of the population migrating to urban areas, cities are forced to expand. This puts a strain on rural land space and food production; urban underground farming is being […]

Russia Blames Fed Interest Hike For Low Oil Prices

It seems that the Federal Reserve can’t get a break. For months, President Trump has been increasingly criticizing the Fed’s policy of incrementally increasing interest rates, a near-unprecedented move for an American president. After the most recent Fed move to hike interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point last week, Trump tweeted on […]

Peak Oil? Unlikely In The Near Term

WTI: surges 10% on Boxing Day. Peak oil? Maybe for Saudi Arabia? One of my themes over at “the big stories” is the growing gap between Europe and the US when it comes to being energy sufficient. Major sub-themes include: US energy centers of gravity natural gas and coal in the post-nuclear world the Saudi […]

The 10 Daily Habits Of Highly Prepared People

For some people, preparedness is about the big things: the well-stocked retreat home, buying yet another firearm, or getting a super-fancy generator. While these things can certainly be classified as preparedness endeavors, it isn’t the expensive and dramatic gestures that make us truly prepared people. The way prepared people spend their time before an emergency is the real key […]

Michael Snyder: The Worst Is Yet To Come Next Year

When talking heads on mainstream news networks are using phrases such as “the worst is yet to come next year”, that is a clear indication that a new financial crisis has arrived.  And that is an extremely bold statement to make considering that this is already the worst quarter for the stock market in 10 […]

China Cracks Open Door for US Natural Gas Imports

China last month imported two tankers of U.S. liquefied natural gas, nudging open a doorway that had been closed shut for a month at a time when America is rapidly expanding its ability to export the heating fuel. The three operating U.S. terminals soaked up more than 5.1 billion cubic feet of natural gas from […]

Have we reached Peak Car?

General Motors has announced it’s shuttering five production facilities and killing six vehicle platforms by the end of 2019 as it reallocates resources towards self-driving technologies and electric vehicles. The announcements should come as a surprise to no one, as they echo a similar announcement made by Ford earlier this year that it will exit […]

What’s Got Oil So Spooked? It’s the Economy, Stupid

It wasn’t meant to be like this. Not only are oil prices down nearly 40 percent since early October, they’re below where they were when the OPEC+ group of producers began their first round of output cuts in January 2017. There are two main factors behind this pessimism. The first stems from an undue skepticism […]

The Fabrics of Society

“Yoga pants are destroying the Earth” Reet Aus We know to avoid plastics because they are made of non-renewable fossil fuels, they are not biodegradable, and they leach hormones and toxic chemicals. What many of us are unaware of is that plastics make up the fabric of our everyday life. Look down at your shoes, […]

IEA’s WEO Presents Three Futures of World Oil Demand

You know the old adage, it takes two to tango. In the global oil market, this means the dance between supply and demand. As analysts and commentators analyzed the recent OPEC agreement to cut global production by 1.2 million barrels per day (Mbd), supply-side dynamics captured the limelight of intrigue. But should supply always steal […]

The challenges of water scarcity

Water scarcity is a global challenge with rapid population growth around the world placing extreme pressure on finite water resources. The United Nations forecasts the world’s population will increase from seven billion today to 9.7 billion by 2050, leading to a 55 per cent increase in demand for water. As a result more than 40 […]

The path to the Global Depression

The world economy has never faced a more perilous situation. While many have just started to debate whether a recession will start in 2019 or 2020, very few perceive the ’black hole’ the global economy is about to get sucked into… The hole has two main “gravitational forces”: the wide-spread mispricing of risk and stagnating […]

Historical and Social Reasons Why Sacrifice As a Plan Fails

There were some emails about my article about being able to feed 40 billion people with today’s agricultural productivity. I indicated that I had many articles about food, energy, water, and ecosystems. I know food, energy, water, and ecosystems are connected. I have thousands of articles going through it in detail. Let me discuss my […]

How We Grow and Eat Food Is Going to Kill Us All

A years-long study of global food production shows that the entire system is insane. Over the weekend, more than 200 nations reached an agreement for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions over the coming decades. Even without U.S. participation, it’s a significant step in affirming the Paris climate accord. Unfortunately, it’s still only a small step toward the […]

Buenos Aires takes on the car, and it’s not alone

The global effort to reduce reliance on gasoline and diesel may be fought on the streets of the world’s cities. In Buenos Aires , officials are making it easier to get around by bike and public transport, even on foot, to reduce car traffic and fight climate change. “We are increasing the level of service […]

Global oil supply to tighten quickly in 2019

The Paris-based IEA kept its 2019 forecast for global oil demand growth at 1.4 million barrels per day. The global oil market could move into deficit sooner than expected thanks to Opec’s output agreement with Russia and to Canada’s decision to cut supply, the International Energy Agency said on Thursday. The Paris-based IEA kept its […]

Last Week, The US Ended Its Reliance On Foreign Oil

For the first time in 75 years, the U.S. became a net exporter of oil last week. From Bloomberg: The shift to net exports caps a tumultuous week for energy markets and politics. OPEC and its allies are meeting in Vienna this week, trying to make a tough choice whether to cut output and support […]

Uber, Moore’s Law and the limits of the technofix

Uber remains a darling of the tech world. It is regarded as a disruptive upstart that recognized the unused capacity of privately-owned automobiles and their owners. It unleashed that capacity on cities worldwide using cellphone technology to provide discount rides to customers, ones who might otherwise have taken traditional taxis or public transportation. It’s a […]

Beef-eating ‘must fall drastically’ as world population grows

People in rich nations will have to make big cuts to the amount of beef and lamb they eat if the world is to be able to feed 10 billion people, according to a new report. These cuts and a series of other measures are also needed to prevent catastrophic climate change, it says. More […]

Resources Are Almost 5 Times as Abundant as They Were in 1980

Humanity is enjoying a world of increasingly cheap and ever more abundant mineral, argicultural, forestry and energy resources reports a brilliant new study, the Simon Abundance Index. This analysis by Marian Tupy,* editor of Human Progress at the Cato Institute, and Professor Gale Pooley from Brigham Young University – Hawaii uses data on 50 different […]

Have we reached Peak Car?

General Motors has announced it’s shuttering five production facilities and killing six vehicle platforms by the end of 2019 as it reallocates resources towards self-driving technologies and electric vehicles. The announcements should come as a surprise to no one, as they echo a similar announcement made by Ford earlier this year that it will exit […]

Low Oil Prices: An Indication of Major Problems Ahead?

Many people, including most Peak Oilers, expect that oil prices will rise endlessly. They expect rising oil prices because, over time, companies find it necessary to access more difficult-to-extract oil. Accessing such oil tends to be increasingly expensive because it tends to require the use of greater quantities of resources and more advanced technology. This […]

A Rising Money Supply Doesn’t Necessarily Lead to Rising Prices

According to many mainstream economists, a lack of good correlation between the monetary growth and the growth rate of various price indexes casts doubt on the commonly held view that the key source of inflation is increases in money supply. It is also argued that before the 1990, the relationship between money supply and inflation […]

Does The US Really Need Saudi Oil?

“Saudi Arabia — if we broke with them, I think your oil prices would go through the roof. I’ve kept them down,” President Trump told reporters on Tuesday. “They’ve helped me keep them down. Right now we have low oil prices, or relatively. I’d like to see it go down even lower — lower.” Oil […]

For Whom is Peak Oil Coming? If you own a Diesel Car, it is Coming for you!

At the beginning, the idea of “peak oil” seemed to be relatively uncomplicated: we would climb from one side and then go down the other side. But no, the story turned out to be devilishly complex. For one thing, there is no such a thing as “oil” intended as a combustible liquid — there are […]

The Arithmetic of Plastic

“Isn’t it time we asked why we design a material to last forever and then put that into objects intended to be discarded after a single use?” The late University of Colorado mathematics professor Albert Bartlett is said to have given his classic lecture on the exponential function more than 1000 times. I show the […]

Oil prices hit a 2018 low

Global oil supply has surged this year, with the top-three producers — the United States, Russia and Saudi Arabia — pumping more than a third of global consumption. Saudi Arabia is pushing OPEC to cut oil supply by as much as 1.4 million bpd to prevent a supply glut. Shanghai stocks fell the most in […]

The World, Built by China

How China became a superpower Seven dams generate almost half of Cambodia’s electricity. China built and paid for all of them. This one, near Cambodia’s southern coast, is about 360 feet tall. It is the fourth-largest by power output in the country. Dam Kamchay Dam, Cambodia Sri Lanka borrowed more than $1 billion from China […]

Oil Demand for Cars Is Already Falling

The International Energy Agency published its World Energy Outlook this week, its annual effort at revising assessments of future demand for and supply of fuels and electricity. 1 There’s a familiar theme within it: The IEA expects more renewable-energy use in the future than it did in last year’s outlook, which was more than it […]

Global Coal Use May have Peaked in 2014

The world may never again use as much coal as during a peak in 2014, according to the latest World Energy Outlook from the International Energy Agency (IEA). The weighty annual outlook is one of the most widely respected and eagerly anticipated publications among energy analysts and policymakers. The 2018 edition runs to 662 pages and contains […]

« Previous Page — Next Page »

LATEST NEWS HEADLINES

• Why the IEA is Wrong About Peak Oil Demand
• Did we inadvertently speed global warming?  
• Venezuela’s Oil Monopoly Eases
• Why Germany is Choosing Natural Gas Over Nuclear Power
• U.S. coal-fired electricity generation decreased in 2022 and 2023

• America Cracks Down on Methane Emissions from Oil and Gas Facilities
• Meet America’s Newest Oil Trader Extraordinaire: Joe Biden
• Is It Time To Refill America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve?
• Oil prices set to end year 10% lower as demand concerns snap winning streak
• What’s Driving America’s New Oil and Gas Boom?
• China’s peak oil demand bombshell eviscerates Danielle Smith’s energy strategy