[John_A]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Repent', 'O')ne financial stop-gap measure here, wait and simmer a few months, then another stop-gap financial measure (swindle) there, & they've bought a few months more. Money is a human social construction; they can play these money games forever until the reality of oil depletion can't be hidden anymore. Then the game's up!

[dcoyne78]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('shortonoil', 'A')ccording to the scientific community presently at large, global warming is slowing down. 1998 was the hottest year on record.

[Newfie]

I live in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, heart of the NG fracking boom on the US East coast.

Last week our National Public Radio affilliate (NPR - the Liberal voice in America) aired a piece about the local economy. It bemoaned the low price of NG and how development of the NG was being held back by lack of capital investment.

They actually said that they needed to find MORE ways to get people to use the stuff and to eliminate the GLUT.

F#$%^& IDIOT's.

[Ibon]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Newfie', ' ')

They actually said that they needed to find MORE ways to get people to use the stuff and to eliminate the GLUT.

F#$%^& IDIOT's.

[Newfie]

Ah yes. Adequately dark. Thanks Ibon. I am NOT alone.

[Ibon]

The ecological ignorance of the masses of humans is sometimes breathtaking. I had a couple recently telling me how green and sustainable China is becoming and the main example they gave me was the thousands of workers they saw planting several miles of flowers along the highway leading into Shanghai. They were dead serious when they told me this.

Now you tell me how do you begin to deal with this much ignorance?

Sometimes it is overwhelming.

[ralfy]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dcoyne78', 'H')i Rockman,

I am sure you are aware that increasing an increasing trend now does not guarantee an increasing trend forever. Maybe you disagree? An increase in oil consumption of 10 % over 10 years is pretty anemic. Using the BP Statistical Review (2013) consumption of tonnes of oil, the yearly rate of increase from 1965 to 1979 was 5.2 %, from 1982 to 2012 the rate was about 1.3 %. At some point people will realize that global warming is a real threat and at that point, the US and Australia may slap a hefty tax on coal and the BRICs that are increasing their use of coal may reverse course, eventually natural gas will become more expensive which will also encourage more wind, solar, and nuclear power.

I agree with your main point which is that none of this will happen very soon.

DC

[John_A]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Newfie', 'I') live in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, heart of the NG fracking boom on the US East coast.

Last week our National Public Radio affilliate (NPR - the Liberal voice in America) aired a piece about the local economy. It bemoaned the low price of NG and how development of the NG was being held back by lack of capital investment.

They actually said that they needed to find MORE ways to get people to use the stuff and to eliminate the GLUT.

F#$%^& IDIOT's.

[John_A]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ibon', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Newfie', ' ')

They actually said that they needed to find MORE ways to get people to use the stuff and to eliminate the GLUT.

F#$%^& IDIOT's.

[Graeme]

Optimism About Meeting 'Grand Challenge' of Global Prosperity

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'W')ith ecological viability threatened, world resources draining, population burgeoning and despair running rampant, the end is nigh.

Or not, says Lawrence M. Cathles, Cornell professor of earth and atmospheric sciences.

"In spite of our apparent environmental problems, we stand a remarkable chance of achieving solutions," he says. "Societies all around the world are living longer. We have more access to food, clean water and energy… and we've never been more healthy."

Cathles outlines his optimism about the world's prospects for sustaining the human population in an environmentally responsible way in his article, "Future Rx: Optimism, Preparation, Acceptance of Risk," in a special publication of The Journal of the Geological Society, released Oct. 24.

"If we have the courage to do big things, all of humanity has a fine future," says Cathles in the article, which addresses food sustainability, natural resources and energy levels, and what he calls the "Grand Challenge" of the next century for everyone to achieve a European standard of living. In his paper, Cathles proposes a path to achieving that standard.

Today the world hosts 7.13 billion people, and Cathles says that while humans are living longer, the world population will peak at 10.5 billion about 100 years from now. The most essential resource is energy, and today most of the world uses less than 2 kilowatts of power per person (for heat, lighting, transportation and manufacturing), while those at the European standard of living (the average French or German citizen, for example) use 3.5 times more. The world currently consumes energy at the rate of 15 trillion watts (15 terawatts), with 86 percent from hydrocarbon sources.

Meeting the Grand Challenge would require energy production of 50 terawatts today and 75 terawatts 100 years from now, ideally all from zero carbon energy sources, says Cathles. Growing from 15 to 75 terawatts over a century requires a growth rate of 1.6 percent per year, which is modest, he says, compared with the U.S. growth rate of 2.6 percent over the past 50 years and China's recent 12 percent growth rate and their planned growth over the next 10 years of 7 percent annually.

The lion's share of the power expansion could be met by wind, solar power produced in deserts or nuclear; but by far the least environmentally intrusive, feasible and realistic option is nuclear, he says. The oceans have enough dissolved uranium to sustain 10.5 billion people at a European standard for more than 100 centuries, and the extraction footprint would be tiny.

"Everything is possible with energy, nothing is possible without it," says Cathles.

[Graeme]

New Optimism for a Cleantech Future

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')f you've not been paying much attention to cleantech in the last little while, it's time to sit up and take notice — because post-Solyndra, cleantech has been quietly gaining momentum.

We had the chance to take a close look at the fundamentals of cleantech over the last two months in co-authoring a new (and free!) 38-page research report in conjunction with Oakland, Calif.-based advocacy group As You Sow and the Responsible Endowments Coalition of Brooklyn, New York.

Titled Cleantech Redefined: Why the next wave of cleantech infrastructure, technology and services will thrive in the twenty first century, the paper analyzes the most recent investment research available across a number of industries and major impact areas. It identifies key drivers and market size projections for various cleantech categories. It looks at examples of products and technologies currently on the market. Finally, it highlights a handful of large, mid and small cap firms and funds as possible points of entry for investors within each industry.

The paper does a good job of introducing cleantech and its significance (e.g. even only being a relatively new investment theme, cleantech is still — even today after a downturn — attracting nearly a quarter of global venture capital available.) It re-emphasizes cleantech's multi-trillion dollar individual addressable markets of power, water, agriculture, transportation and others. And it restates the significance of cleantech's drivers, and that they're not going away any time soon.

But to me, one of the most interesting sections of the report compares the cleantech wave to other technology booms of the last 50 years, like the dot com boom, the networking craze, biotech, the PC and the microprocessor. We found a number of parallels and a number of reasons for optimism when you compare the cycles. After 20 years in technology, personally, the more I looked at the data, the more it felt like I'd seen this movie before.

[peripato]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ibon', 'T')he ecological ignorance of the masses of humans is sometimes breathtaking. I had a couple recently telling me how green and sustainable China is becoming and the main example they gave me was the thousands of workers they saw planting several miles of flowers along the highway leading into Shanghai. They were dead serious when they told me this.

Now you tell me how do you begin to deal with this much ignorance?

Sometimes it is overwhelming.

[John_A]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('peripato', '
')That's a beauty, never underestimate the power of blind optimism and faith to work the magic of denial on people.

[dbruning]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'C')ommenting on the characteristics of peak oil proponents on a peak oil website might be considered rude.

[John_A]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dbruning', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'C')ommenting on the characteristics of peak oil proponents on a peak oil website might be considered rude.

[JV153]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('John_A', '
')
Taking the forum seriously isn't the issue. I'm with Jars Mueller on this one, the connotations now associated with the very words "peak oil", and how they came into existence, is the issue.


A rapture event is the best way to describe it. The power of faith and magic, only those of us "in the know" will be saved.