No Discipline
James Howard Kunstler, Clusterfuck Nation
…Now, it’s my personal opinion that we really are headed for crash central this fall. The price of oil is entering uncharted territory. Natural gas has virtually tripled in price since 2003. People are beginning to fear that the heating season will be brutal for those in the employ of WalMart and worse for those in the employ of nobody. Magical as this phony-baloney over-leveraged economy has seemed, whatever remains of real life will be affected by higher gasoline prices. I know it sounds absurd to say that, because so far Americans have seemed to absorb a one year price doubling without complaint. But we’re hostages to motoring, whether we like it or not, and when the price of gasoline goes north of $3 a gallon (coming very soon) yowls will be heard even in the soundproofed sanctums of Karl Rove’s west wing headquarters.
Trouble is brewing with WalMart’s chief partner, China. They are ticked off that they are prevented from acquiring hard strategic assets, such as US owned oil companies, with all those US dollars we have snookered them into hoarding from the sale of their plastic-ware. Together with Russia, China is egging on the former soviet-o-stans to kick out our military bases. China is inking long-term supply contracts with the people we desperately depend on for our oil: Venezuela and Canada. China is tired of our tendentious jive.
(8 August 2005)
Introducing ASPO-USA (AUDIO)
David Room, Global Public Media
Steve Andrews and Jim Baldauf speak with GPM’s David Room about ASPO-USA, a non-profit, non-partisan Research and Public Education Initiative to Address America’s Peak Oil Energy Challenge. On November 10-11, 2005 the ASPO-USA Denver World Oil Conference “Beyond Oil: Intelligent Response to Peak Oil Impacts-a Dialogue with the Experts” will be held in Colorado.” Steve Andrews, 25-year energy consultant/freelance writer, long-time speaker on the subject of peak oil, and advocate for balanced energy strategies. Jim Baldauf is a Texas Oilman and environmentalist.
(22 July 2005)
Threats of Peak Oil to the Global Food Supply” (AUDIO)
Richard Heinberg, Global Public Media
An in depth look at energy, carrying capacity and trade as they relate to modern food production in the face of impending global oil peak. Delivered at the “Food Security in an Energy Scarce World” Conference held in Dublin, Ireland. The conference was organised by Feasta (Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability) in association with the Department of Environmental Resource Management at the Faculty of Agri-Food and the Environment, University College Dublin.
(23 June, 2005)
Open Letter to Senator Schumer
Ianqui Doodle, Peak Oil NYC Blog
peakguy writes: Ianqui from The Oil Drum asked me to post this
letter that she is sending to US Senator Chuck Schumer. You will see
lots of politicians pandering to their gas-guzzling constituency as oil
prices climb. What we need to do is show them that these quick fixes are
really just like giving an addict one last cheap hit before prices go
sky-high.
(4 August 2005)
The End is Nigh
(review of The Long Emergency by James H. Kunstler
David Ehrenfeld, American Scientist
…What sets The Long Emergency apart from numerous other books on this theme is its comprehensive sweep—its powerful integration of science, technology, economics, finance, international politics and social change—along with a fascinating attempt to peer into a chaotic future. And Kunstler is such a compelling, fast-paced and sometimes eloquent writer that the book is hard to put down.
…Kunstler, like George Orwell, understands that being honest about the past and present is the only way to prepare ourselves for an uncertain future. Civilization, he believes, will survive the end of cheap oil, but not without great loss. “How many … familiar things in time may go?” he wonders. “What will abide in our collective memory?” Not all readers will accept his answers to these questions, but I think we must be grateful to him for showing us the need to ask them.
David Ehrenfeld is a professor of biology at Rutgers University. He was the founding editor of Conservation Biology and is the author of a number of books, including Swimming Lessons: Keeping Afloat in the Age of Technology (2002) and The Arrogance of Humanism (1978), both from Oxford University Press.
(11 August 2005 — Sept/Oct 05 issue)
A literate and favorable review by a leading environmental thinker. (See Ehrenfeld’s The Joseph Strategy.)
The American Scientist website asked for a login and password, but seemed to accept a nonsense password I keyed in. -BA
The Course of Our Lives May Be Determined by the First Derivative of a Function
Prof. Goose, The Oil Drum
It seems to me that one of the keys to the puzzle of why people don’t understand peak oil and other sustainability issues is innumeracy and a lack of understanding spatial functions.
(11 August 2005)
Limitations of the Hirsch report on peak oil
James Hamilton, Econbrowser
…And good instructions and advice [Hirsch] has plenty of– what kind of engines to put in our cars, which energy sources to be developing, all with a dramatic and forceful timetable spelling out exactly when we need to do all this. He’s quite certain that nobody will act on those implications of his analysis that could make anyone who follows them quite rich, but at the same time hopes that we we will believe in his analysis sufficiently to want to implement policies that would render those who are forced to follow them unambiguously poorer.
(9 August 2005)
Don’t miss the extensive Comments section at the end of the article. Heading out of The Oil Drum weighed in there, as well as in a post on his home site.
Rate hike fears as oil prices hit new high
Brian O’Mahony, Irish Examiner
INTERNATIONAL oil prices continued to soar yesterday rising to new highs of $64 per barrel and threatening higher interest rates.
…Meanwhile, the Green Party hit out at the Government’s failure to develop a coherent energy policy following the latest oil price shocks.
Prices are ahead by 48% in the last year without any significant Government response, said Eamon Ryan, Green Party spokesman on Energy. He called on Minister Noel Dempsey to detail what type of analysis, if any, the Government has conducted into peak oil production.
Many experts believe supply and demand is the key issue facing the global economy and not market speculators exploiting nervousness about supplies. Peak Oil experts argue the core issue the world faces is the fact that demand is starting to run ahead of available oil supplies.
Colin Campbell, a former geologist with leading international oil companies, and a founder of the Peak Oil lobby, says the globe could be facing into a 20-year recession as the world adapts to a decline in the black gold.
(8 August 2005)
