Is the Peak Oil Myth Dead?

In his 2005 New York Times best-selling book Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy, renowned oil analyst Matthew Simmons outlined his belief that Saudi Arabia’s giant Ghawar oil field would soon begin a terminal decline that would result in permanently falling global oil production. Indeed, from the post-recession lows […]

Making Sense of the US Oil Story

We frequently see stories telling us how well the United States is doing at oil extraction. The fact that there are stories in the press about the US wanting to export crude oil adds to the hype. How much of these stories are really true? If we believe the stories, the US is now the […]

Can an Economy Develop Without Coal?

While all fossil fuels are contributing to the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, coal stands apart as really problematic, not just because of its CO2 emissions today (see chart, global emissions in millions of tonnes CO2 vs. time), but because of the vast reserves waiting to be used and the tendency for an […]

Energy & The Financial System Presentation

The financial system as an accelerator and multiplier of the economic and social impacts of energy depletion. Presentation to Energy Systems Conference (June 2014)

Robert Rapier: King Coal Deposed in West, but Reigns in East

This is the 3rd installment in a series that examines data from the recently released Statistical Review of World Energy 2014. The previous posts – World Sets New Oil Production and Consumption Records and The US and Russia are Gas Giants – delved into world oil and natural gas production and consumption figures. Today’s post looks at the […]

The Slide To Collapse Is Greased With Self-Interest

Self-interest is intrinsically self-liquidating on a systemic level. One enduring if rarely stated principle of Neoliberal Democracy is that the single-minded pursuit of self-interest magically produces an equilibrium which serves everyone’s interests well enough to avoid the destabilization of rebellion or systemic collapse. Let’s start by defining Neoliberal Democracy: neoliberalism sees markets as the only efficient, […]

Peak Oil and the Infinite Growth Monetary Paradigm Conference in NYC

Originally Published on Jun 3, 2014 John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York – Sunday, June 1, 2014

Urgency and the long Game

While I was walking my dog this morning under the sparkly blue skies I’ve grown used to, I detected a slight shift in the angle of the light, reminding me that the earth rotates on its axis and it’s heading back around the sun. This summer has been a bounty of sub-tropical and Mediterranean weather, […]

China Halts U.S. Grain Imports Due to GMO Concerns

Of 613,678 tons that were reported at Chinese customs in April, 600,000 tons tested positive as GMO China has somewhat of a history when it comes to refusing GMOs from the United States. Now, due to fears that genetically modified grains will find their way in, China recently put the brakes on some U.S. grain […]

Battery Life ‘Holy Grail’ Discovered

It comes top of almost all ‘most wanted’ polls, but manufacturers rarely listen. Battery life has become the great unloved element of the modern smartphone and it has built an entire industry of spares, charge cases, mini power cables and much more as a consequence. But that could all change after scientists announced they have […]

Depleting oil, gas reserves to affect energy security

The depletion of oil and natural gas reserves, especially in Pakistan, will reduce energy security sustainability in the region, although coal reserves both in Pakistan and India will still be substantial in 2035, calculates a new working paper released by the Asian Development Bank (ADB). In South Asia, the energy security sustainability in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, […]

Learn to Explain the Basics of the Power Grid

If someone asked you to explain how electricity gets from the power plant to your home, would you be able to answer?  Don’t worry.  Very few people actually understand the logistics of this modern-day luxury, but with a quick scan of the basics, you’ll be able to impress your four-year-old by the time she wakes […]

Dispatch From A Post-Carbon World: Planting The Seeds For A More Resilient Future

Whenever I buy grapes imported from Chile, fill my gas tank with fuel sourced in the Persian Gulf, or select underwear made in Thailand at a department store headquartered in Minneapolis, I can’t help but wonder how much longer we can all go on like this. That our survival hinges on the economic vitality of […]

Are You Driving the Right Car for an Oil Crisis?

With further escalation in hostilities in Iraq as the militant group, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) tries to lock down more oil and gas assets, it is hard not to worry that an oil crisis might be looming. Saudi Arabia has fortified its northern border with Iraq with more military hardware and […]

Average Price of Electricity Climbs to All-Time Record

For the first time ever, the average price for a kilowatthour (KWH) of electricity in the United States has broken through the 14-cent mark, climbing to a record 14.3 cents in June, according to data released last week by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Before this June, the highest the average price for a KWH […]

Ship loads first US condensate export cargo in 40 years

An oil tanker has started loading a cargo of condensate, or ultra-light oil, the first such export from the United States since the easing of a 40-year-old ban on U.S. crude exports, two sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. Westport Petroleum Inc, the Franklin, Tennessee-based shipping arm of Japanese trader Mitsui & Co, […]

Buyer of Kurdish oil revealed in report

A report Tuesday says Talmay Trading of the British Virgin Islands is scheduled to take Kurdish crude oil loaded on a tanker parked off the coast of Texas. CNBC reports the company contracted AET Offshore Services in Dallas to unload the 1 million barrels of crude oil on board the United Kalavytra, anchored off the […]

Solution to World Hunger? Scientists Sequence Genome of African Rice

An international team of researchers have sequenced the complete genome of African rice, enabling the development of new rice varieties that are better able to cope with increasing environmental stresses to help solve global hunger issues. The genetic information will also enhance understanding of the growing patterns of African rice. The effort to sequence the […]

Making Good Food Affordable

In Treating Food as an Investment, I note the relationship between reduced food expenditures in the United States over the past several decades and the increasing trend in healthcare spending. There are many reasons underlying this relationship, but among them is the fact that most Americans buy very low quality food, a habit that harms our health on […]

Food – Thou Shall Not Waste

“Only two years ago, the soup kitchen was serving 50 meals a day. Today the number has almost doubled and, what is even more worrying, we have started receiving families with children,” says Donatella Turri, director of the Caritas Diocese of Lucca. The paradox is that the lengthening queues at the Lucca soup kitchen come […]

The amount of oil the world uses, seen through different eyes

How much oil does the world consume? You’d think this would be a fairly straightforward question, given its economic importance to the world economy, and indeed answers are not hard to find. The problem is those answers differ significantly. Even with the development of the Joint Organisations Data Initiative–an evolving beast designed to bring improved […]

Tech Talk – Changes in global supply and demand

At the beginning of the month I pointed out that there are three components to the coming Energy Mess. The first of these is the steady increase in global demand for oil and its products, the second is the decline in production from existing wells and fields, and the third is the shrinking pool of […]

5 Industries Worried About Peak Oil

The debate over the impact of peak oil has been raging for decades. Although few deny that the end of mass oil consumption is drawing nearer, educated estimates now range between 2020 and 2030. But more important than the timeframe of peak oil are its consequences. Some seek to spell the end of life as […]

Why doesn’t the ‘long emergency’ feel like an emergency?

In 2006 when James Howard Kunstler published his breakthrough book The Long Emergency, the next two years seemed to vindicate his warning that the oil age was coming to an end with perilous consequences. Oil soared to $147 a barrel in mid-2008. A few analysts suggested that it was headed for $200; but that was […]

New study looks at the role plastic films play in global food production

In order to feed a global population, which is expected to top nine billion people by 2050, the world must reduce food waste and the distribution of food needs to be improved and food production increased. At the same time, agriculture faces challenges due to changing economic and environmental trends including climate change, biofuel expansion, […]

Escaping The Rat-Race

The changing nature of work doesn’t just matter to new graduates seeking their first career-track job—it’s equally important to experienced workers seeking to escape the corporate rat-race or build a new career after a layoff. Those who understand these changes will be able to successfully adapt. Those who don’t, won’t. The Disruptive Forces Transforming the […]

Iran Working on Large-Scale Plans to Export Gas to Europe

The Iranian oil ministry has large-scale programs underway to export natural Gas to European nations, a senior energy official announced on Saturday. “We have macro-scale plans to supply gas to Europe,” Iranian Deputy Oil Minister Ali Majedi told FNA on Saturday. He noted that Europeans have shown deep interest in importing Iran’s gas in a […]

Post-peak Rome: the lake that defeated concrete

I think this video it is worth looking and listening at even if you don’t understand Italian. It is the story of a lake which has naturally emerged in the middle of a (probably) illegal housing development in Rome. The buildings have partly collapsed and some of them were never completed. At some moment, a […]

Meat, Seafood Prices Rising Due to Widespread Drought and Disease

Wholesale beef prices forecast to jump by 8 percent to 9 percent on the year Overall U.S. food inflation will remain near the historic norm in 2014, even as prices for meat and seafood are pushed higher by disease and widespread drought, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said on Friday. Prices for shelf-stable and processed […]

Peak Oil: Reality Checks From The Desert

Peak Oil: Reality Checks From The Desert – PART 1 of 2

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