The Heart and Despair of Peak Oil

A new Peak Oil workshop initiative recently started in Melbourne, Australia. Early signs indicate it has broader relevance and excellent potential for effective communication, project initiation and community building.

Other energy – Mar 16

Pentagon to unveil energy conservation effort /
GE Energy’s Rob Wallace on wind power, clean coal, climate /
A supergrid for Europe /
US says it will still need more foreign oil /
Russia’s growing influence on energy issues /
Senate panel interrogates wary oil executives

Peak oil – Mar 16

Rep. Bartlett on CNN’s “Situation Room” at ~4:30pm ET /
Peak oil conference in Maryland May 7-9 /
do no harm (we have a cultural problem, not a technical one) /
Peak oil conference for New York City: April 27-29
Lundberg: Where do we go from here? /
Pickens sees $5 per gallon gasoline worldwide

Other energy – Mar 15

UK gas emergency looms /
A Hail Mary against global warming peril (thin solar panels) /
Uranium exploration in BC set to take off /
Fox: Mexican deep-water oil find may top Cantarell

Bringing the Food Economy Home

Today’s mounting social and ecological crises demand responses that are broad, deep, and strategic. Given the widespread destruction wrought by globalisation, it seems clear that the most powerful solutions will involve a fundamental change in direction – towards localizing rather than globalising economic activity. In fact, ‘going local’ may be the single most effective thing we can do.

Superbia! (book review)

How humans are able to adjust the setup of the suburbs to meet their basic needs in times of trouble will fall to those in need. Necessity is the mother of invention, or reinvention as it were.

Mexico’s Ability to Export Oil

Khebab’s technical analysis demonstrates the high likelyhood of a precipitous drop in Mexican oil exports from a country near its peak in production, with a growing population and appetite for oil.

Environment – Mar 15

Burst oil pipeline causes ‘catastrophe’ in Alaska /
UK: New suburbia is an environmental cul-de-sac /
U.S. about to become net food importer /
Is America facing yet another dust bowl? /
Climate change ‘irreversible’ as Arctic sea ice fails to re-form /
Even Bush’s business allies have seen the light on global warming, but he’s dug in /
UN report: 2004 set record for carbon dioxide

Solutions & sustainability – Mar 15

“Living on the edge”, the balcony garden designers guild /
Landscape architects and global warming /
Getting cars out of the city center /
More news outlets, fewer stories (blogs an answer?) /
Why isn’t there more new urbanism?

Bartlett: Peak Oil in Congress – one year on

On the first anniversary of his first speech to Congress on Peak Oil, Rep. Roscoe Bartlett gives an insightful summary of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers report, puts Peak Oil into a broader ecological context, and calls for a national Manhattan style energy project.