Orlov: Village Medicine

I am a family physician in Canada with an interest in what the future of medicine in Western societies might look like. I don’t subscribe to the mainstream narrative of ever more technically exotic and complex medicine, such as nanosurgery, individualized genetic medicine and growing replacement body parts in the lab. I think it is […]

At the Crucial Nexus of Water and Energy

Global institutions are still in the learning phase when it comes to successfully managing water and energy in an integrated manner as part of the quest for sustainable development. According to World Bank official Daryl Fields, understanding the water-energy nexus is critical for addressing growth and human development, urbanisation and climate change, but many policy-makers […]

Ukrainians told to save natural gas to survive winter

The head of Naftogaz of Ukraine, Andrei Kobolev, urged the Ukrainian citizens to save gas, as the country may have problems with the fuel in winter. According to Koboleva, the failed negotiations with Russia could lead to the shortage of six billion cubic meters of natural gas. To avoid the disaster, the population should save […]

Shale gas could meet 10 percent of EU demand

Shale could eventually meet about 10 percent of the energy demand among European nations, European Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger said. Oettinger said companies with reservations about hydrualic fracturing, the controversial drilling practice dubbed fracking, should keep all options on the table. “I estimate that Europe has the potential to secure about a tenth of our […]

Kunstler: Never has a society appeared so childishly decadent

W ith lakes, swimming holes, rivers, and pools beckoning, I went to a sporting goods chain store at the mall — where else? — seeking a new bathing suit (pardon the quaint locution). The store was curiously named Dick’s. All they had were clown trunks. By this I mean a garment designed to hang somewhere […]

The Energy Cost of Local Food

In The Energy Cost of Food I showed how incredibly energy intensive the US food system is. There’s a common assumption among those in the local food movement that one benefit of relocalizing food systems is a reduced demand for energy. As someone who’s been doing energy input-output audits of small farms for years I’ve come to believe that the realities of […]

Don’t Fear ‘Fracking,’ Fear The Horrid Illusion That Revived Fracking

In 1980 Julian Simon famously bet modern Malthusian Paul Ehrlich $10,000 that five commodity metals chosen by Ehrlich (he selected copper, chromium, nickel, tin and tungsten) would decline in price by 1990. Simon’s point was that price signals tell producers where their production is needed, so the high prices for the five would serve as […]

Electricity, gas shortage a real threat

New England’s electricity supply is in peril. As reported today in our page-one story, the region’s residents are increasingly relying on relatively inexpensive natural gas to heat their homes and turn on their lights. According to the regional electricity transmission organization ISO-New England, natural gas power plants alone produced 46 percent of the region’s power […]

Oil rich, gas poor: Iraq’s excruciating gas lines

The lines have become a part of daily life in Erbil, a relatively peaceful and prosperous city in the autonomous Kurdish region of Northern Iraq. Over the years, it’s mostly managed to avoid the problems that have plagued the rest of the country. But that’s no longer the case. In recent weeks, the war between […]

What does the “American Dream” mean today

What does the “American Dream” mean today? How—and how successfully—are Americans achieving this dream? How has the concept of the “American Dream” shifted over the past 10 years?  These questions are at the heart of the Center for a New American Dream’s 2014 national survey, conducted in partnership with PolicyInteractive. The survey, which polled 1,821 U.S. citizens ages […]

Peak Oil: The Realities of Progress

A few more thoughts about transportation and the looming challenges we’ll face in the years ahead as our fossil fuel supplies become more challenging to develop and distribute. The final and most promising mitigation option is to weaken the link between economic growth and liquid fuel demand. This will require major changes in the transport […]

2017: Oil price spike causes Worldwide Depression and Food shortages

Peak Oil strikes 2017: Oil price spike causes Worldwide Depression and Food shortages

Gas Prices Swell To 6-Year High

Expect to pay more at the pump. Conflicts in Iraq have substantially caused gas to go up. Marcus Washington reports right now gas prices are at a six-year high for early summer. As a projected 41 million people hit the road during this Fourth of July weekend, experts say get ready to pay more at […]

Oil Price Shocks Aren’t As Harmful As They Used To Be

Oil is a critical source of energy. In the past, a major oil price shock meant devastation for economic growth. “Our obsession with oil prices comes with good reason,” writes Morgan Stanley economist Ellen Zentner. “Abrupt and sharp increases in oil prices have played a key role in precipitating recessions in 1973-75, 1980-81, 1990-91, 2001 […]

Turning Fuel into Food

In The Energy Basis of Food Security and The Energy Cost of Food I explore how energy is used throughout modern industrial food systems, noting in particular how incredibly energy intensive these systems are. A common criticism I receive regarding these analyses is that I’m comparing input and output energies that, despite both being measured in calories, are so different […]

Shell Creates Motor Oil From Natural Gas

New PurePlus™ Technology results in base oils developed using 40 years of Shell natural-gas-to-liquids innovation. Shell announced today the creation of the first-of-its kind base oil made from natural gas, the cleanest burning fossil fuel. It is called Shell PurePlus(TM) Technology, a patented process of converting natural gas into a clear base oil, which is […]

The Oil Production Story: Pre- and Post-Peak Nations

BP just released its latest annual Statistical Review of World Energy.  ASPO-USA co-founders Randy Udall and Steve Andrews first collaborated in 2005 on a summary table to highlight key parts of the BP data.  It has been updated annually with each new release from BP.   The latest update with commentary by Steve Andrews is […]

More on the Energetics of Food Distribution

In The Energetics of Food Distribution I explored the energy demand associated with transporting food based on estimates of gallons of fuel burned per ton of food moved. This is a perfectly reasonable unit, but a departure from calories of input energy per calorie of edible food, the unit I use in The Energy Cost of Food, The Energy […]

Robert Rapier: Where The US Got Its Oil From in 2013

As events in Iraq continue to unfold, we have been getting quite a few queries on just how much oil the US imports from Iraq. In my previous post – The Top 10 Oil Producers in 2013 — I showed that even though the US is a major oil producer, we are an even greater oil […]

Richard Heinberg: Peak Oil And How To See The Bigger Picture

Richard Heinberg explaining everything that you need to know about Peak Oil and how to prepare for it, because we are already deep in Peak Oil time!

Peak Oil – It’s Just a Rumour

Whenever I present a course, someone will inevitably ask: “When, exactly, do you think we will run out of oil?” “Never!” is always my response. The world will never run out of oil. “But”, they protest, “I saw a report about it on TV”. “I saw a YouTube video about it”. “My science teacher showed […]

Telling Piketty the real reason why economies can’t keep growing

Thomas Piketty’s “Capital” is an extremely important contribution to the study of economics and inequality over the last few centuries. But because it fails to address the real limits on growth—namely our ecological crisis—it can’t be a roadmap for the next. (Photo: Dai Luo / Flickr) By now, it’s no secret that French economist Thomas […]

The Energetics of Food Distribution

On June 11 Vermont Public Radio aired a brief piece called Running the Numbers on Local Vs. Long Distance Food wherein Jane Lindholm interviewed me about the work I do studying the energetics of food systems. The segment focused on the efficiencies typically associated with long distance food transport that can make national or even global food distribution […]

This City is Our Future

If you wish to understand the future you need to understand the city, for the human future is an overwhelmingly urban future. The city may have always been synonymous with civilization, but the rise of urban humanity has been something that has almost all occurred after the onset of the industrial revolution. In 1800 a […]

Inflation? Only If You Look At Food, Water, Gas, Electricity And Everything Else

Have you noticed that prices are going up rapidly?  If so, you are certainly not alone.  But Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen, the Obama administration and the mainstream media would have us believe that inflation is completely under control and exactly where it should be.  Perhaps if the highly manipulated numbers that they quote us […]

How the collapse of Iraq could actually save oil

If the Baghdad government can keep Sunni militants away from its oil fields, production in Iraq may actually increase—though global prices are still seen staying higher. Fear that Iraqi oil production could be disrupted by an insurgence by the militants has driven Brent futures up 5 percent in the past 10 days to about $115 […]

Will the Iraqi Siege Cause Oil and Gasoline Prices to Spike?

Should we be worried about a major spike in oil prices—and summer gas prices—because of the sectarian conflict in Iraq? It’s an important question in the markets right now, because every $10 increase in the price of oil shaves 0.5 percent of global growth. I’m cautiously optimistic for the moment that the answer will be: […]

Economy: There Are Many Alternatives

“One of the most frightening things to the people who oppose the development of a new economy is the possibility that we are actually able to do things for ourselves. One of the ways that old economy is able to exist is on the notion that ‘There Is No Alternative’ (TINA). To that we must […]

The Energetic Evolution of the US Food System

In The Energy Cost of Food I detailed how incredibly energy intensive the US food system is, particularly noting how it likely requires at least 15 calories of industrial energy inputs to produce, process and distribute 1 calorie of consumed food. It hasn’t always been this way though; before 1900 the US food system likely delivered more calories of […]

IEA says ‘peak oil demand’ could hit as early as 2020

Little more that a year after the International Energy Agency added its voice to the chorus chiming that peak oil was dead, a new report from the uconservative adviser to industrialised nations suggests it has changed its tune. Only this time it is not peak supply that is on its radar, but peak demand. The […]

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