Gail Tverberg: 2017 The Year When the World Economy Starts Coming Apart

Some people would argue that 2016 was the year that the world economy started to come apart, with the passage of Brexit and the election of Donald Trump. Whether or not the “coming apart” process started in 2016, in my opinion we are going to see many more steps in this direction in 2017. Let […]

Prepare for a Bumpy Ride in 2017

After two and a half years of opening up the taps (or rather: not closing them) OPEC has changed course in what is looking to be a gamechanger for the oil market. Market sentiment has shifted and the oil price has gone up. But that doesn’t mean we can go back to the status quo […]

How high-tech agriculture can prevent oncoming global water wars

Forget about oil or gas – you should be worrying about the less discussed but far more concerning fact that the world is running out of clean, drinkable water. I wrote this article while in Kathmandu. Nepal’s capital and largest city has a severe water shortage. Even though all homeowners pay a fee to the […]

The craziest oil price predictions for 2017

Predicting where oil prices would go next month or next year has always been a game of hit and miss, all the more so in the past two years since the oil price crash began. Analysts have forecast prices in the range US$10 to US$70 at various points this year, and actual prices have also […]

The real economy: What is it?

A comment from Pierre Rabhi, a French thinker and farmer, who I prefer to call the “philosopher of the land”: “Today, when one speaks of economics, it is not a question of the real economy. The real economy is a system that aims to share resources as evenly as possible to meet the needs of […]

Half of world population made air travel in 2016

A total of 3.7 billion passengers took scheduled flights in 2016 –which amounts to almost half of the global population. A preliminary data, released by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), shows a growth of 6.0% in 2016, compared to 2015. The number of worldwide scheduled flights rose to approximately 35 million. This means that […]

ExxonMobil Develops Technology To Dehydrate Natural Gas

The drive to improve efficiency and lower costs with new technology continues with ExxonMobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) being among the latest to launch solutions. The oil and gas giant’s cMIST technology removes water vapor from natural gas using an absorption system inside pipes during production. The dehydration technology was described as an alternative to the […]

Peak Oil and Capitalism

“Securing adequate oil supplies was … an important element in all the major wars of the twentieth century and in the United States’ two most recent interventions in the Middle East.” (Matthew R. Simmons:Twilight in the Desert) Oil is a bit like the dinosaurs: it was made millions of years ago and is not being […]

2017 and “Killer Apps” for the Transition

On the Open Manufacturing Google Group, an email list for people interested in open-source industrial design and commons-based peer production models for physical production, Nathan Cravens raised the question of why peer-production of physical goods has had such a hard time gaining traction as an alternative to the corporate capitalist model: Open source projects seem […]

The Train for Berlin: Can Railroads Replace Planes for Long Distance Travel?

This November, I went by train from Locarno, in Switzerland, all the way to Berlin, for the conference of ASPO Germany.  The trip lasted more than 11 hours and it involved four different trains. It was one of the several tests I have been performing during the past few years to see how and how […]

When The Horse Is Dead, The Whip Won’t Help: It’s Time To Dismount And Acknowledge Growth Is Dead

What is Economic Growth? Investopedia says… Economic growth is an increase in the capacity of an economy to produce goods and services, compared from one period of time to another. Traditionally, aggregate economic growth is measured in terms of gross national product (GNP) or gross domestic product (GDP). Ok, but what about the capacity to […]

Knowledge, not resources, driving economic growth

Some economists worry the world economy isn’t growing fast enough. It’s slowing down and reaching the point of “secular stagnation”. On a very different wavelength, however, environmentalists worry that if the world economy keeps growing the way it is, it won’t be long before we run out of the natural resources on which that growth […]

Oil Price Roulette: Investors Bet On $100 Oil

Oil prices are rising and speculators are already staking out bullish positions on futures for the next few months, but some traders are rolling the dice on a much bigger price spike in the next two years. Some contracts that pay off big time if oil prices hit $100 per barrel by December 2018 just […]

Saudi Arabia Considers Rise in Retail Fuel Prices in 2017

Price increase to be announced before the end of the year Kingdom pursuing plan to cut dependence on oil revenue Saudi Arabia is considering increasing retail gasoline and diesel prices in 2017 for the second year in a row, as the world’s top crude exporter pursues a plan to cut its dependence on oil revenue, according […]

Chris Nelder: Resources and Economy

Podcast: Play in new window | Download Subscribe: iTunes | Android | RSS The notion of “decoupling” energy consumption from economic growth has become vogue in policy circles, but how much evidence is there that it’s really happening? If the energy intensity of our economy is falling, are we sure that it’s becoming more efficient, […]

Peak Oil is Dead. Peak Demand is Dead Ahead.

Today’s issue is a little different to usual. That’s mostly because of time constraints. I’m preparing my speech for the launch party for The Exponentialist this evening. It promises to be a great event. If you’re coming along (it’s by invite only I’m afraid) then I’ll see you in a few hours. But there’s another […]

Iran Starts Selling Oil To Italy

National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) has signed a short-term contract with Eni to sell crude, an Iranian official said on Monday, as it seeks to revive the agreement it had with the Italian oil major prior to sanctions on Tehran. “The National Iranian Oil Company has sold one cargo of crude oil to this Italian […]

Instead of another shopping fix, repair what we’ve got

Ah, it’s that fake time of the year for me. I don’t remember my family celebrating the Christmas season with heart and soul like the faithful do when I was a small child, but I do remember unboxing the plastic tree. Fake presents went under it. I wrapped empty boxes in reused patterned paper, and […]

These striking images show just how overcrowded China’s population really is

China’s population was approaching 1 billion when it established its one-child-per-family policy in the late 1970s. But in the fall of 2015, China announced that the policy would be dropped because of unintended consequences, including a skewing of the population toward males and a disproportionate representation of elderly people. By allowing couples to have two […]

Is Economic Growth Environmentally Sustainable?

Is economic growth environmentally sustainable? No, say a group of prominent ecological economists led by the Australian hydrologist James Ward. In a new PLoS ONE article—”Is Decoupling GDP Growth from Environmental Impact Possible?“—they offer an analysis inspired by the 1972 neo-Malthusian classic The Limits to Growth. They even suggest that The Limits to Growth’s projections […]

Expert warns it takes 200 gallons of water to feed one person

Expert says ‘human jawbone is the most destructive implement on the planet’ One meal requires over 200 gallons (800L) of water, 22 pounds (10kg) of topsoil Food production must double within the next 50 years to meet the world’s needs  As humanity continues to grow at a staggering rate, the resources needed to feed the […]

Worldwide Oil Demand May Soon Peak

For years, analysts feared the world had reached a peak in the supply of crude oil, and that supplies would begin to diminish rapidly as demand increased, sending prices skyrocketing. This situation is known to analysts as “peak oil.” Now, as The Christian Science Monitor reports, the opposite phenomenon may be occurring. That is, the […]

Kunstler: Chatting With Kate Wagner of McMansion Hell dot Com

Today I’m yakking with Kate Wagner, the antic voice behind the marvelous website Welcome to MacMansion Hell, a humorous and opinionated blog that aims to educate the general public about architecture, design, and urbanism by making examples of America’s most despised architectural style. She is currently a master’s student in Acoustics as part of a […]

Limiting Waste, Conserving Resources

oday, 7.3 billion people consume 1.5 times what the Earth’s natural resources can supply. By 2050, the world’s population will exceed 9 billion, and the demand for food will double. Feeding this growing population will create a tremendous burden on a stressed food production system. We are already seeing this trend in action, as a […]

Will Humans Run Out of Fertilizer?

“Nobody adores fertilizer,” the writer Shellen Lubin once mused. Lubin isn’t entirely correct. Bill Gates, for example, has admitted to being “a little obsessed with fertilizer.” Yes, fertilizer. The stuff you sprinkle, spray, and spread over plants to help them grow. Not the “all natural” kind that originates in the guts of farm animals, but […]

Degrowth Is Punk as Fuck

“Very serious people often tell us that the word “degrowth” is too negative. People like happy, positive, nice things. Sure, the economy is systematically destroying life on earth. But nobody wants to degrow it. Instead, these critics prefer words like “post-growth,” “a-growth,” “re-growth”, even the mythical “green growth.” They want to create a circular economy, […]

Can OPEC Send Oil To $70?

OPEC managed to convince almost a dozen non-OPEC producers to take part in oil production cuts over the weekend, and the news immediately sent international benchmarks higher, prompting a fresh wave of bullish forecasts. The latest, by hedge fund manager Pierre Andurand, is that crude will reach US$70 by June 2017. Andurand made this call […]

Vision 2030: The Blueprint for Life After Oil

Both Saudi Arabia and the UAE, two of the Middle East’s biggest powerhouses, are establishing a roadmap for economic development based on reduced reliance on oil. Top experts discussed what they see as the plan’s biggest challenges and opportunities with Bloomberg’s Riad Hamade at the Bloomberg Markets Most Influential Summit in Abu Dhabi on December […]

What Has Gone Wrong With Oil Prices, Debt, & GDP Growth?

Our economy is a mystery to almost everyone, including economists. Let me explain the way I see the situation: (1) The big thing that pulls the economy forward is the time-shifting nature of debt and debt-like instruments. If we want any kind of specialization, we need some sort of long-term obligation that will make that […]

Will We See $60 Oil By Christmas?

For the first 11 months of the year, OPEC talked oil prices up, but by December it became clear that oil prices were not going to rise higher on mere promises, and so OPEC announced a deal to cut production in their Algiers meeting on November 30. Crude oil promptly responded by rallying 12% since […]

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