Beyond Meat ?

Peak meat may have occurred in the US already, however even the steadily increasing population of vegans and vegetarians that walk amongst us occasionally have a craving for something that looks and tastes like meat. As a result interest in artificial meat remains high. MIT TEchnology Review has a look at the current state of […]

Time to panic, the world is running out of (fill in the blank)

In case you missed it, the world is on the cusp of a pencil crayon shortage. As the story goes, the worldwide adult colouring book craze has spurred a run on pencils, and the companies that make them are struggling to keep up with demand. “A surge in the number of people buying adult colouring books has […]

The cuckoo that won’t sing: sustanaibility and Japanese culture

This post was published for the first time on April 6, 2011. It is re-proposed here as part of a mini-series on Japanese culture that includes the previous post here as part of a mini-series on Japanese culture that includes the previous post on population control during the Edo period   Many elements of Japanese […]

Is Cheap Oil Contractionary?

Low oil prices were supposed to be a big boost for the world economy; but it didn’t happen. Maury Obstfeld, my long-time textbook co-author and now chief economist at the IMF, offers an interesting argument about why: he suggests that it’s because of the zero lower bound. Falling oil leads to falling inflation expectations, and […]

This country could drive oil demand growth

Global oil demand growth is forecast to ease further in 2016, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Thursday, predicting a slowdown in demand from some of the world’s top consumers and a rise in demand from one particular economy. Growth in global oil demand will ease to around 1.2 million barrels a day in […]

Animals, Land and People

Will runs the largest USDA-certified organic farm in Georgia, farming 1,200 owned acres and 2,000 leased. He has over 2,000 head of cattle, raises 60,000 pastured chickens, and also raises eight other species of animals, most of which roam around in a model of farming based on the way animals graze on the Serengeti plains. […]

‘Peak Oil’ Not Until 2035

The world will begin to wean itself off its reliance on oil starting in about 20 more years. According to Bernstein analyst Neil Beveridge, the world will hit peak oil in 2035. The global crude oil supply glut, as well as the rise of electric vehicles, slowing growth in China and increases in fuel efficiency […]

IMF Warns of Global Stagnation as It Cuts Growth Outlook Again

Fund sees world GDP expanding 3.2% in 2016, 3.5% in 2017 `There is no longer much room for error,’ chief economist says A prolonged period of slow growth has left the global economy more exposed to negative shocks and raised the risk that the world will slide into stagnation, the IMF warned. The International Monetary […]

Where America Gets Its Oil: The Top 10 Foreign Suppliers Of Crude To The U.S.

Venezuela is still one of our top oil suppliers, but its exports to the U.S. are down 37% since 2005. (Photo: Bloomberg News) The past decade has seen a major shift in the U.S. crude oil market. As a result of the surge in domestic production that was largely enabled by hydraulic fracturing — a […]

19 Signs That American Families Are Being Economically Destroyed

The systematic destruction of the American way of life is happening all around us, and yet most people have no idea what is happening.  Once upon a time in America, if you were responsible and hard working you could get a good paying job that could support a middle class lifestyle for an entire family […]

$40 Per Barrel May Be The New $100 For Oil

Summary Who has been quickly preparing for a prolonged period of lower oil prices. Clearing out the rubble will be a good thing for the sector. Prolonging the inevitable would be a big mistake. Why any market intervention will make things worse over the long term. source: Stock Photo The oil sector is a complicated […]

Rolling blackout fear in SoCal

After a new report warned that the Porter Ranch gas leak could lead to power outages this summer, officials have been meeting to find ways to keep the lights on in Southern California. The report said the loss of natural gas and the shut down of the Southern California Gas Aliso Canyon facility could lead […]

The Tesla 3: an earth-rape for the rare metals

It’s depressing when even Jalopnik – a car site that’s supposed to be into cars – throws a bukakke party for the new Tesla 3. Which is a car in the same way that this is an airplane. Elon Musk’s latest four-wheeled exercise in rent-seeking will reportedly be “sold” (fundamentally dishonest word; I’ll explain) for about $35,000 to […]

Goldman says $35 oil will correct oil glut, lift market in 2017

Goldman Sachs says $35 oil is a “Goldilocks” price, meaning it’s “just right” for the oil market. It’s low enough to keep U.S. crude production declining, which is expected to correct the global oversupply and lift prices next year. But it’s still above cash costs for domestic drillers. The investment bank’s thesis is current oil […]

Timetables of power

For more than three decades, Vaclav Smil has been developing the concepts presented in his 2015 book Power Density: A Key to Understanding Energy Sources and Uses. The concept is (perhaps deceptively) simple: power density, in Smil’s formulation, is “the quotient of power and land area”. To facilitate comparisons between widely disparate energy technologies, Smil […]

Global Demand for Food Is Rising. Can We Meet It?

Over the last century, the global population has quadrupled. In 1915, there were 1.8 billion people in the world. Today, according to the most recent estimate by the UN, there are 7.3 billion people — and we may reach 9.7 billion by 2050. This growth, along with rising incomes in developing countries (which cause dietary changes […]

Saudi Arabia is buying US land to feed its cows

Unable to sustain their own livestock in the desert, Saudi Arabia is scooping up more and more American farmland, with the onus now on drought-stricken U.S. states to raise the crops to feed Saudi dairy cows. Saudi dairy company Almarai, which in 2014 bought 9,600 acres of farmland in Arizona, has expanded its U.S. farmland […]

The world’s going to need 50% more food by 2050

Imagine if Golden Corral, the super buffet restaurant, released a report stating that by 2050, their business model would no longer be sustainable. No longer would they be able to offer an all-you-can-eat buffet with all the fixings of a Thanksgiving feast. Rather, they’d replace it with an all-you-can-drink smoothie bar with tasty protein options. […]

Human Settlers Grew like an ‘Invasive Species’

  Photo: Amy Goldberg Bustling cities, sprawling suburbs and blossoming agricultural regions might seem like strong evidence that people have always dominated the environment. A Stanford study of South America’s colonization shows that human populations did not always grow unchecked, but were at one time limited by local resources – just like any other species.In […]

Plastic, China and how to drive your brand into the circular economy

As our seafood gets overfished, and with a growing global population that consumes many more products and plastic, we are facing a growing waste challenge which may lead us to having an ocean that has more plastic than fish by 2050. Part of me believes this tragic result will come much earlier, due to the […]

$120 Oil As Soon As 2018?

Today, I’m going to try and tackle the reasoning for my ‘wild’ predictions for oil reaching triple digits by the end of 2017. While I am nearly alone in these forecasts, they are not just pulled out of space, but with deep regard for the fundamental supply/demand picture that everyone mostly agrees upon, combined with […]

Alarmists won’t like it, but fossil fuel supply is abundant

T seems what’s good news for most of humanity is bad news for global warming alarmists. In a recent article in the Journal of Economic Perspective, researchers Thomas Covert, Michael Greenstone and Christopher R. Knittel ask, “Will We Ever Stop Using Fossil Fuels?” They conclude: No. This disturbs them, since the three are adherents of […]

Is This the End of Cheap Food?

Enter your local supermarket and it’s hard to miss the mile-long piles of fresh produce. And when those heads of lettuce or cauliflower are in season, the prices can be low enough that feeding yourself doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg. But that may not last much longer. The world population continues […]

Too Big to Scale

“We’re looking at The Cloud from both sides now.” While it is not likely that the heterodox economist E.F. “Fritz” Schumacher was the first to use the term “appropriate technology” — he preferred “intermediate technology” — he certainly had a big role in defining it. In Small is Beautiful he described it as the “middle […]

Andy Hall Thinks Oil Could Go Back Above $100

As we discussed yesterday, the jobs number today came and went without much of a market impact.  Stocks went lower, then higher. Rate went lower, then higher, then lower.  The dollar was mixed.  As we said, the job creation has been steadily good.  But the quality of jobs, the ability of workers to command better […]

Age of Stagnation

The common political conversation about our shared economic future focuses on achieving an escape velocity where the post-war growth boom can return as usual. While years of lackluster economic performance mount, a rapidly growing global economy is still discussed like it is readily just over the horizon. Can the factors creating a slower growth world […]

Could an Economic Collapse be in Our Near Future?

Climate scientists and others have in the past few years issued a steady stream of analyses showing that without immediate remedial actions, a disastrous future is headed our way. But is it a four-decade-old study that will prove prescient? That study, issued in the 1972 book The Limits to Growth, forecast that industrial output would […]

The U.S. Is a Big Oil Importer Again

In the three months since the U.S. lifted its 40-year ban on crude oil exports, a curious thing has happened. Rather than flooding global markets, U.S. crude shipments to foreign buyers have stalled. At the same time, imports into the U.S. jumped to a three-year high in what looks to be a reversal of a […]

World’s Biggest Oil Market Too Tied To Mideast To End Addiction

Even in a world awash with crude, buyers in the world’s biggest oil market can’t seem to escape their addiction to Middle East supplies. South Korea’s imports from the Middle East climbed last year to the highest level since at least 1980, while refiners in India say they are shunning shipments from distant ports and […]

Peak Oil And Runaway China: A Dangerous Combination Of Memes

Back in 2005, investors heard an endless chorus in the financial media around two memes: the end of oil, and the growth of China. Oil production was supposedly hitting its upper limits. In 2005, the US Department of Energy published a study on the peaking of world oil production (.PDF) that stated: Because oil prices […]

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