Food & agriculture – Dec 21
Vandana Shiva on farmer suicides & more
Pot becomes top cash crop in US
An organic recipe for development
Federal subsidies turn farms into big business
Inuit diet touted as health tonic
Year: 2006
OPEC says peak oil near
In the most recent edition of the OPEC Bulletin, a senior member of OPEC writes: “…peak oil output is not very far away for all of us.”
Long U.S. work hours are bad for the environment
If the world works as many hours as Americans currently do, it would consume 15-30 percent more energy by 2050 than it would by following Europe’s model, according to a paper by the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR).
Autos – Dec 21
The Highwaymen – privatization of the roads
U.S. Interstate: A golden opportunity missed
Detroit: Misguided assault on autos won’t solve energy crisis
Ford’s new Super Duty trucks
The auto efficiency wedge
Oil sands and shale – Dec 21
The cautious U.S. boom in oil shale
Oil sands key target for global energy players
Toxic waste left in wake of oil sands extraction
US energy policy – Dec 21
State of the Region 2006 (Southern California)
New call to reduce dependence on foreign oil
FedEx founder on energy independence
Mississippi salt dome selected to expand U.S. oil reserves
Oil & gas companies to pay royalties
NY Times: royalty rip-off
OPEC and Middle East – Dec 21
Enlarged Opec aims for high crude prices
Angola joins OPEC (TOD analysis)
Saudi Aramco revealed as biggest group
Gulf states study shared nuclear program
Richest people of the Middle East
Cuba’s strange path
Cuba has become the poster child for a transition away from an agricultural economy based on fossil fuel inputs and for a society focused on self-sufficiency. Strangely, it may owe much of its success in this regard to its relative backwardness and its isolation from the world community.
The peak oil crisis: the Council of Governments
The report [for the Washington D.C. area] acknowledges and even describes in much detail that there is a debate going on about peak oil. Unfortunately when the authors start talking about production starting to peak 20 years from now the sense of urgency is somehow lost.
Turning off the digital world
More than 6 million PCs will be left on over Christmas, consuming nearly 40 million kilowatt hours of electricity. Many of our beloved technological toys are remarkably inefficient and use more electricity than they really need to.
Nawida 2150: Q&A
A final look at the deindustrial scenario sketched out in the last five Archdruid Reports — a world that has finished sliding down the far side of Hubbert’s peak.
Dollar hegemony – Dec 19
The end of Dollar supremacy
Lester Brown: Why China is rising and the U.S. is declining
Venezuela, oil producers buy Euro as Dollar, oil fall
Dollar dropped in Iran asset move
Chief banker says Iran to use all currencies in int’l exchanges
WSJ: Dollars, debt and the trade gap
Debut of the ‘Amero’?
