World fossil-fuel use could peak in 9 years

Probably you’ve heard of “peak oil,” the theoretical point at which maximum pumping of the planet’s oil resources is reached and production begins to decline for various reasons, including rising extraction costs and shrinking reserves. This is a passionately disputed conjecture, but there is one point of general agreement — the peak has been pushed […]

Compost Capitalism

I’ve had a handful of requests from people asking for a transcript of my short introduction to the film premiere last Friday (full documentary is now available here). I’ve turned my notes into a script which I think is pretty much word for word. Good evening everyone, a very warm welcome to you all, my […]

Bad things need to happen for oil prices to rise

Oil prices (CLN16.NYM) have been kept at low levels largely due to the glut in global supply. While low prices have been bad news for the industry (OIL) and the oil-driven economies, producers have been reluctant to cut back for fear of losing market share. In the absence of voluntary production cuts, Goldman Sachs analysts […]

Oil could plunge about 60% from current levels

Oil futures have staged a magnificent comeback in recent months. However, if history is any guide, the struggling market isn’t out of the woods. Looking at the performance of West Texas Intermediate crude oil CLN6, -1.24%  since 1870, Paul Jackson, head of research at exchange-traded-fund provider Source, predicted that prices will tank to $20 a […]

Peak Oil: The Next Steps Pt 3

A moment’s pause to consider the practical realities of billions of others looking to improve their lifestyles on any scale by which we measure our own progress and achievements should realize immediately that a finite set of ever-more-challenging-to-acquire energy supplies needed to power those advances can only be spread so thin. I’m fairly certain that […]

Is $100 oil on the horizon?

Oil investors are buying contracts that will only pay out if crude rises well above $100 a barrel over the next four years — a clear sign some believe today’s bust is sowing the seeds of the next boom. The options deals, which brokers said bear the hallmarks of trades made by hedge funds, appear […]

IEA Sees Tighter Markets Next Decade

The International Energy Agency (IEA) sees the present length in the global gas market – as evidenced by spot prices lower than oil-indexed prices would be – continuing, with “heavy oversupply” until 2018. But upstream investments will remain low, setting the course for higher prices by the early to mid-2020s, its latest Medium-Term Market Report for gas […]

Peak oil is so yesterday; now it’s all about peak auto

Remember peak oil theory? It was all the rage just a few years ago. Serious books were devoted to the idea that the world was running out of crude. Deep thinkers pontificated about its potentially dire impact on human civilization. But then all that peak oil talk peaked. Thanks to the fracking revolution, it became clear that the world […]

Yergin Sees Beginnings of Oil Market Recovery

The global oil and natural gas industry is beginning its long-awaited recovery, but crude oil prices likely will remain in the “$50 orbit” during the third quarter, energy expert Daniel Yergin said Monday. The IHS Inc. vice chairman who often hobnobs with world energy leaders, shared the stage with Canada Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr […]

Scientists identify protein which boosts rice yield by fifty percent

In collaboration with researchers at Nanjing Agricultural University, Dr Tony Miller from the John Innes Centre has developed rice crops with an improved ability to manage their own pH levels, enabling them to take up significantly more nitrogen, iron and phosphorus from soil and increase yield by up to 54 percent. Rice is a major […]

On Surplus

This is Part 1 of a 2 or 3 part series on the concept of surplus. Surplus is one of the most central features of modern industrial and democratic societies. In fact it is so central and its permanence so taken for granted that it is scarcely noticed and even less understood. The following installations […]

Diesel is finite. Trucks are the bedrock of civilization. So where are the battery electric trucks?

Introduction to battery electric trucks Heavy-duty diesel-engine trucks (agricultural, cargo, mining, logging, construction, garbage, cement, 18-wheelers) are the main engines of civilization. Without them, no goods would be delivered, no food planted or harvested, no garbage picked up, no minerals mined, no concrete made, or oil and gas drilled to keep them all rolling. If […]

Food: Trading away our future

The increase in trade has big environmental repercussions as well as a big social and cultural impact. The increasing distance makes it easier for market actors to externalize costs and more difficult to citizens and the political system to influence the way things are produced. Trade is not only a response to market demand, it […]

Why Oil Bears Are Still Wrong

Summary Oil production is probably close to its peak level currently. At best supply can stay the same, but is more likely to drop. Global oil demand, though, has been growing rapidly since the Credit Crisis. Demand is likely to exceed supply in 2017 and probably 2018. Prices will then rise significantly. The OPEC has […]

Oil demand to peak in 2030

Global oil demand could  peak by the end of the next decade  even as global economic growth climbs. The latest downward revision to forecasts, from consulting firm McKinsey, could  leave major new investments uneconomic if demand for energy fails to meet expectations. McKinsey said it has cut its forecast for growth in demand  to 0.8pc […]

Cheap Money Helped Inflate Energy Balloon

Count the intensity of the shale oil boom — and its severe bust — as one of the unintended consequences of the Federal Reserve’s efforts to buttress the economy. The hydraulic fracturing (fracking) method of extracting oil and gas from shale rock has been around for decades, but it didn’t really take off until right […]

No Single Project is the Magic Acorn…

My interview with @tbonini has ben published in Italian at Che Fara.Here is the English version: Q Among the many case histories that you brilliantly discovered and reported in your book, is there someone that you believe is extremely central in planning the “tomorrow’s world”? A The sheer variety of projects and initiatives out there […]

Demand destruction and peak oil

We are fully under the influence of petroleum demand destruction. The global oil market can’t function without real oil production price discovery, which doesn’t exist in the currently deflationary global economy, which forces indebted producers to sell far below cost. Both supply and demand seem to cyclic in nature and we are not finished with […]

Good luck predicting future of energy

Two years ago, the Nuclear Energy Institute, a nuclear power industry group, analyzed the economic outlook for three Exelon Corp. nuclear plants (Clinton, Quad Cities and Byron) in Illinois. “These three plants are at a significant risk of premature retirement because of a perfect storm of economic challenges — sluggish economy, historically low natural gas […]

Oil Price Poised For A Boost From A Big Fall In U.S. Production

U.S. oil production has entered the end game with output forecast to plummet as drilling dries up and banks foreclose on oil companies teetering on the brink of insolvency. Long predicted as a natural development after the 2014 start of the collapse in the oil price the inevitable has been delayed by drillers squeezing every […]

Can India Surpass China’s Crude Oil Demand Growth?

Over the last decade, China has been the most important driver of commodity markets, particularly crude oil, due to its exponentially growing economy. However, over the last year, the country has consciously moved away from an energy-intensive economic growth to a service-dominated economy. Due to this fundamental shift, the country’s energy consumption has come down […]

Peak Oil: Big Oil Faces ‘Slow And Steady Decline’

“Peak oil demand” is the new “peak oil supply” because of climate change and plummeting costs for electric car batteries. It’s increasingly clear that we’re not going to move off of oil because we run out of supply. Rather, we’re going to move off of oil because it is both the economic and moral thing […]

In praise of the slow car

via Isetta/ Slow cars can go off road It’s deja vu all over again, reading Alex Steffen’s The future of cars is slow in Medium. He is looking at the future of the self-driving car, or autonomous vehicle (AV) and makes some good points, concluding that The optimal speed for a self-driving car is slow. […]

Why Oil Prices Won’t Go Much Higher Than $50

Seth Kleinman, Citigroup’s global head of energy research, discusses the outlook for OPEC production and oil prices with Bloomberg’s Joe Weisenthal, Oliver Renick and Scarlet Fu on “What’d You Miss?”

Consumerism, Collective Psychopathology, Waste

The Power Elite on Display – the economics of Thorsten Veblen In 1899 the maverick economist Thorsten Veblen portrayed the power elite of his day in The Theory of the Leisure Class. What he described were extrinsic motivations at work. Success for the business elite was demonstrated through conspicuous consumption, by which he meant display […]

Gas-Guzzlers Take Over The Roads Again

Sadly, everyone has seemingly forgotten that the lessons of the past can help prepare us for the future. For example, one would assume that the sting of owning an truck or SUV during the financial crisis would stick with consumers long enough to deter them from falling back into the same trap again just because […]

Why Peak Oil Demand Will Destroy Oil Prices

Summary Transportation fuels make up the large majority of crude oil consumption. Increasing fuel efficiency and the improvements in electric vehicles will inevitably lead to demand destruction for the primary crude market. Peak demand or stagnating growth will likely occur by 2030 and, as a result, oil prices will fall to the marginal cost of […]

$50 Oil Doesn’t Work

$50 per barrel oil is clearly less impossible to live with than $30 per barrel oil, because most businesses cannot make a profit with $30 per barrel oil. But is $50 per barrel oil helpful? I would argue that it really is not. When oil was over $100 per barrel, human beings in many countries […]

The Effects of Fossil Fuel Depletion

Can you imagine the world without using these fossil fuels? What are these? Is this important in our lives? Fossil fuels are simply the remains of the prehistoric plants and animals that are compressed and buried down into the Earth many million years ago. These dead organisms undergo processes such as anaerobic decomposition and through […]

Oil demand peaks beyond 2050

Any long-term oil demand projection rests on understanding transport demand, which today comprises 54% of global oil consumption. In their base case, BofA Merrill Lynch Global Commodity Research analysts expect that growth in transport demand will continue to more than offset fuel efficiency gains and substitution to alternatives. “As such, peak global oil demand lies beyond 2050, as long aswe remain […]

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