Energy Transition & the Luxury Economy
The transition to a smaller, slower and less energy intensive economy will be made vastly more smooth and pleasant if we enact this transformation deliberately, intelligently and voluntarily.
Energy featured
Global Energy Crisis
What began as a “global energy crunch” one year ago, as we discussed with Will Kennedy in Episode #158, has now become a global energy crisis.
New fossil fuels ‘incompatible’ with 1.5C goal, comprehensive analysis finds
There is a “large consensus” across all published studies that developing new oil and gas fields is “incompatible” with the 1.5C target, a new report says.
Last Light (miniseries review)
But overall this is a mess of a show with little discernible connection to the novel on which it’s supposedly based, and nothing substantive to say about the current world energy situation.
The Trans Mountain Boondoggle: Taxpayers Lose Billions, Oil Companies Win
Trans Mountain, just like the Site C dam, celebrates the Iron Law of megaprojects. This law states that these crazy engineering schemes go over budget, take longer than planned and deliver fewer benefits than promised over and over again.
Dreaming of clean green flying machines
If we are really serious about a drastic reduction in aviation emissions, by 2030 or even by 2050, there is just one currently realistic route to that goal: we need a drastic reduction in flights.
Are Green Resource Wars Looming?
The true burden of a massive battery in an electric car or truck will be borne not just by the vehicle’s suspension system, but by the people and ecosystems unlucky enough to be in or near the global supply chain that will produce it.
‘Carbon offsetting’ is just greenwash. Here’s what we need instead
The way we’re going to actually solve problems like the UK’s addiction to carbon-intensive infrastructure isn’t through a series of customers paying companies to ‘offset’ their emissions in some scammy scheme. It’s through mass government action.
How Does Global Energy Consumption scale with GDP and Mass? A Biophysical Perspective
In summary, the global economy and biology have very parallel growth patterns relating energy consumption to size.
Is the Energy Transition Taking Off—or Hitting a Wall?
With the Inflation Reduction Act, the federal government is illogically encouraging the increasing use of fossil fuels—in order to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels.
Energy transition and post-growth scenarios
We are living in a context today in which the physical limits, natural resource constraints, and conditions of overshoot associated with the expansion of the dominant system of production and consumption are becoming increasingly clear.
Fossil fuels: Is the world on track for moving past coal, oil and gas production?
Scientists, economists and Indigenous activists met in Oxford in September to discuss a challenge central to solving climate change: how can the world rid itself of fossil fuels?
