The GOOD 100: The Oil Drum

We’re running out of oil, but search for the phrase “peak oil” on the websites of 31 major U.S. newspapers, and you’ll get a mere 941 hits, total. That’s the kind of thing the Oil Drum would like to address. The online think tank, launched in 2005, is filling that void with grounded writing on natural resources and energy.
According to co-founder Kyle L. Saunders, a political-science professor at Colorado State University, “We started off like a relatively normal blog, but then, because of our complex subject matter, started discovering a lot of other people concerned about resource depletion and sustainability.” Before long, the Oil Drum had attracted a roster of expert contributors that included engineers, physicists, and security analysts.

Posts on the Oil Drum—often supported with compelling charts and data—can be dazzling in their scope and depth. A recent post explored how reward pathways in the human brain have been “hijacked” by advertising and a status-obsessed culture to drive compulsive consumption, compounding the strain on our natural resources.

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