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Deepwater Horizon: Lessons from Petroleum Engineering and the Roman Empire


Why did the Deepwater Horizon blow up last year, kill 11 workers, and cause the massive oil eruption into the Gulf of Mexico? You're likely to get different answers if you talk separately to a petroleum engineer or an anthropologist. When they team up, it gets really interesting. Anthropologist Joseph Tainter (author of The Collapse of Complex Societies) and petroleum engineer Tad Patzek talk about the new book they've co-authored: Drilling Down: The Gulf oil debacle and our energy dilemma.

Carl Etnier hosts.


Shale gas, tight oil, and fracking - May 21

•At margins of shale oil boom, a tempered euphoria •Fracking envy …

Half of oil burnable in 2000-2050 to keep us within 2 degrees warming has been used up as we hit 400 ppm

We have a race between peak oil and global warming. Symptoms of these …

Peak oil review - May 20

 A weekly update. Including: -Oil and the global economy -Middle East …

Will the International Energy Agency's oil forecast be wrong again?

The famous Danish physicist Niels Bohr once humorously observed, …

Peak oil - May 17

•Supply shock from North American oil rippling through global markets …

Unburnable: Risky Fossil Fuel Investments & Climate Crisis  

Two new reports say climate change could cause the next financial crisis. …

Peak oil notes - May 16

A mid-week update. While oil prices are little changed this week, there has …