2006 Boston ASPO: The Canadian tar sands
The modern equivalent of “the muck called gold” is a body of rock called, affectionately, the Canadian tar sands. In the rush to develop these resources, people are becoming “clean mad” (although the development is not so clean).
November 13, 2006
2006 Boston ASPO: Peak Oil
“If you are going to take Vienna,” said Napoleon to his commanders, “then take Vienna!” And if you are going to be in the oil biz, then drill for oil! There is nothing quite like listening to the squeal of the drill pipe as the rock bit transitions from one pressure zone to another.
Also: Hubbert remembered, PO skeptics, Simmons and EROI.
November 8, 2006
Letters to the editor: global warming
My account on the global warming presentations that were delivered at the recent ASPO conference in Boston generated quite a bit of e-mail. In fact, I received more e-mail from readers on the global warming article than I have received on any article I have ever written.
November 7, 2006
2006 Boston ASPO: Renewable Energy Sources
Controlling carbon and CO2 emissions requires, at root, finding some other way to generate electricity, to power vehicles, and to heat spaces. Fortunately for the future of mankind, there is a plethora of well-developed technologies in existence just waiting for mankind to start using them on a vast scale. The big problem is getting past the inertia of previous ways of doing things.
November 1, 2006
2006 Boston ASPO: global warming
The first evening of the ASPO-USA conference kicked off with …the subject of global warming (GW). Why global warming? Because it is what you get when you burn up lots of fossil carbon-based fuels and load the atmosphere with otherwise excess levels of carbon dioxide (CO2). GW is the other side of the coin of Peak Oil.
October 30, 2006
Hubbert’s Defense Department
The U.S. military machine is built on and around cheap and available “mobility fuel,” and virtually its entire body of doctrine is founded on pre-Peak Oil thinking. If the world is at or fast approaching a state of Peak Oil, where does that leave us?
October 12, 2006