America: You’ve got three more years to drive normally

Three more years? That’s pretty scary! Surely there must be a mistake in that headline. First in a series Is it possible that average Americans could have a hard time driving only three years from now? Preposterous, to say the very least! Three more years to drive would be awful scary if it were true. […]

Our Bubble Economy Is On Its Last Gasp

Over the years I’ve heard the cries of “Economic Collapse Ahead!” more times then I care to remember. I’m sure you have as well. Ever since the crash of 2007-2008, it seems like nearly every internet voice has claimed at one time or another, that we are headed for an apocalyptic market correction (and just […]

Inflation Watch: How Much $1 Used To Get You

Despite promises that inflation is “contained,” the dollar ain’t quite what it used to be…     Don’t Worry. Inflation is Well Contained according to your friends at the Federal Reserve. burning platform

Coal-to-gas displacement not to exceed 2012-2013 levels

At recent natural gas prices, analysts at Barclays Research said Friday that coal-to-gas displacement will not reach the heights it did in 2012 and 2013, with implied average coal displacement in 2014 of 2.5 Bcf/d, or about 74% of that in the previous year. “While current prices certainly are lower than the high levels during […]

Oil Price Plunge? It’s The Global Economy, Stupid!

The decline in the price of oil – in the face of surging geopolitical pandemonium – has been lauded as indicative of both US’ awesomeness in energy independence and a tax cut for Americans… but, as the following chart suggests, there may be another – much more realistic – explanation for why oil is plunging… […]

International Energy Agency slashes oil demand outlook

The oil market has lost pace because of weak growth in Europe and slowdown in China, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Thursday, cutting its estimates for demand. The growth in demand for oil this year and next will be markedly lower than expected, the IEA said, and this together with plentiful supply explains […]

If oil prices stay low for long, Putin and OPEC are headed for trouble

Oil plunged today below $100 a barrel, a psychological threshold that, if it holds, threatens the rulers of Russia and numerous OPEC states that rely on higher prices to mollify their populations. A critical question, then, is whether we are looking at a sustained period of lower prices or a blip before a swing back up. The […]

Global Food Supply May Not Meet Escalating Demand

As the world population continues to grow, by about 1 billion people every 12 to 14 years since the 1960s, the global food supply may not meet escalating demand — particularly for agriculturally poor countries in arid to semi-arid regions, such as Africa’s Sahel, that already depend on imports for much of their food supply. […]

An Energy-Related Reason Why US Healthcare Outcomes are Awful

Back in January 2013, the US Institute of Medicine published a report called U.S. Health in International Perspective: Shorter Lives, Poorer Health. This poor health outcome for US citizens is in spite of the US spending twice as much as a percentage of GDP on healthcare as other high-income nations. As an example of the […]

Voices and Reflections of the Community Resilience and New Economy Movement

This week PCI launches a new report, Weaving the Community Resilience and New Economy Movement: Voices and Reflections from the Field, based on a series of interviews and conversations with visionary leaders who are bringing to life a new economic vision with thriving, resilient communities at its heart. A movement is emerging in many places, […]

Why Gasoline Prices Vary So Much From State-To-State

Expand If you’ve ever driven cross-country you know how much the price of gasoline can vary, ranging from nearly $4.00 in San Francisco to just a hair over $3.00 in Roanoke, Virginia. What’s the deal? Give credit to higher taxes, distance from supply, and type of fuel. Taxes Expand The map above comes from The […]

US fuel markets still rely on imports

Some markets in the United States still rely heavily on imports to meet regional demand for petroleum products, the U.S. Energy Department said. The U.S. Energy Information Administration said exports of U.S. gasoline, jet fuel and other petroleum products averaged 3.7 million barrels per day in June, the last full month for which data are […]

Helping People Understand the Power Grid: The Story of Electricity

Recently, the Institute for Energy Research launched a project to help people gain a better understanding of the electric power grid, a marvel of modern society that most people take for granted — unless its product delivery is interrupted for more than a few minutes. This information project is timely, especially considering all of the […]

To Fear Peak Oil, Or to Pursue it? That is the Essential Limits to Growth Question

On a world in which fossil fuel burning is now in the process of setting off various events of geological scale, one of the things we could well hope for most is a peak in fossil fuel supply. Such an event would force countries and economies to adjust. To abandon business as usual economics and […]

China now gets more oil from the Middle East than the US does

China is quickly overtaking the United States as the world’s biggest importer of oil. Not only that, but China now buys more crude oil from the Middle East than the US does — a shift that some experts think could have big geopolitical implications in the years ahead. Roughly half of China’s imported oil now […]

Sharing as the new common sense in a post-growth world

We need to talk a lot more about sharing as a way to radically reframe the post-growth debate, argues a recent report from the Green House. If growthism is the substitute for a more just and equal society, then it’s time that we all start saying so – and embrace a new common sense for […]

Petrolify®: Don’t Just Seize the Day, Seize Life

Side effects may vary. Find out of Petrolify® is right for your world at http://www.petrolify.comDirector: Jacob McClure (http://www.jacobardenmcclure.com)DP: Michael Edo KeaneConcept: Asher Miller/Tod BrilliantProduced By: Post Carbon Institute

New research shows we’re nearing collapse

Four decades after the book was published, Limit to Growth’s forecasts have been vindicated by new Australian research. Expect the early stages of global collapse to start appearing soon The 1972 book Limits to Growth, which predicted our civilisation would probably collapse some time this century, has been criticised as doomsday fantasy since it was […]

Inflation

For close to 300 years, inflation in the US remained very subdued. Small spurts occurred around major wars (Revolutionary, Civil, WW1, etc), but after each, inflation quickly trended back down to its long-term baseline. If you lived during this stretch of time, your money had roughly the same purchasing power your great-grandfather’s did. But something […]

How Many More Times Can The World Be Twice As Big?

How Many More Times Can The World Be Twice As Big?

Peak Oil: A Farm For The Future With Colin Campball

Originally Published April 2009 BBC documentary on the precient global farming and food crisis, filmed in the UK. Featuring Martin Crawford (Agroforestry Research Trust), Fordhall Farm, Richard Heinberg and others. Topics covered are the influence of oil on the food production, peak-oil, food security, carbon emissions, sustainability and permaculture.

Some choose to not have kids to protect earth

Jessica Cupp does what she can to protect the environment. She recycles, re-purposes and reuses whatever she can. She has a garden, raises chickens and tries to be as self-sustaining as possible. And although she can’t afford a Prius or solar panels, the 28-year-old Springfield woman is doing something big to help the planet: she […]

Chinese oil demand declines

Month-to-month demand down 6.2 percent. The decline in how much oil China needs is a reflection of a slowdown in its economy, analysis from Platts said Wednesday. Apparent oil demand, a reflection of how much oil goes into domestic refineries combined with net oil product imports, decreased 2.1 percent in July year-on-year. From June, apparent […]

The oil industry – looking a bit peaky, after all

It was Woody Allen who said “if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.” However, if that doesn’t work, then try some energy price forecasts – preferably those produced by government or industry experts. By way of example, here’s an Economist article from 1999: “The chairman of Royal Dutch/Shell, Mark Moody-Stuart, three […]

Labor Day gas prices cheapest since 2010

The late summer slide in global crude oil prices will push the cost of U.S. gasoline to its lowest Labor Day level since 2010. Better yet: prices are likely to continue dropping to 2014 lows by mid-autumn. Nationally, regular, unleaded gasoline will average $3.41 a gallon – 18 cents cheaper than 2013’s Labor Day weekend […]

Forget “Peak Oil” and “Peak Credit” … Are We On the Downslope of “Peak Intelligence”?

Is Modern Life Making Us Dumber? Scientists say that we have much smaller brains than our ancestors had 20,000 years ago … and we might have gotten stupider since agriculture became widespread. Huffington Post reports that we’ve probably gotten dumber than even our Victorian ancestors: A provocative new study suggests human intelligence is on the […]

The Energetic Basis of Wealth

Last year I did an analysis to try to understand whether it’s possible to feed the world sustainably. Today I’d like to try to understand what happens to countries as they must rely upon the sun for energy (and, indirectly, wealth). An old proposition in the sustainability community is that the material wealth we enjoy […]

The Catch-22 of Energy Storage

Pick up a research paper on battery technology, fuel cells, energy storage technologies or any of the advanced materials science used in these fields, and you will likely find somewhere in the introductory paragraphs a throwaway line about its application to the storage of renewable energy.  Energy storage makes sense for enabling a transition away […]

Sustained Growth On A Finite Planet

In recent years, it has been increasingly popular to make statements along the line that exponential* economic growth cannot continue forever in a finite planet. (One of the more popular examples of this argument was the essay Exponential Economist Meets Finite Physicist, by Tom Murphy, an Associate Professor of Physics at the University of California, […]

Global Gasoline Guzzling Set To Plummet

Policies designed to minimise and redefine dependence upon oil for transportation have been the talk of many towns around the world over the past several years, leading Navigant Research to posit that gasoline consumption for road transportation will fall by 4% from 2014 to 2035. Policies intended to reduce fuel consumption have ranged from subsidising […]

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