Deep thought (more ruminations on riots, looting, and possible economic collapse)- Aug 17
-The Cause Of Riots And The Price of Food
-How America Could Collapse
-What looting has to do with trashing the planet
Year: 2011
Personal energy cubes
In this post, we’ll put a physical, comprehendible scale on the amount of energy typical Americans have used in their lifetimes. No judgment: just the numbers.
Where would we be today, without the fall of the Soviet Union?
Back in the 1960s and 1970s, the country that was the “big growth story” was the Soviet Union. Its oil consumption grew by leaps and bounds. Its space program grew; its military program grew; and it became much more industrialized. But then something happened to stop the amazing growth story. The Soviet Union became the Former Soviet Union (FSU) in late 1991, and even before that, oil production and consumption slowed. It is not the purpose of this article to analyze precisely what happened, but it appears that at least part of the problem was a drop in the price of oil, starting about 1981…
Growth, debt, and the World Bank
If capital is no longer the magic limiting factor whose presence unleashes economic growth, then what is it?
Shopocalypse Now: British riots and consumerism
Peaceful protests were ignored, casualties of a corrupt and alienated society. Is it any wonder violence and theft have taken their place?
The fruit olympiad
Some parents are soccer parents. Some parents are baseball or gymnastics parents. Some drive constantly to swim, cheer, play volleyball or cricket. My kids do swim, play basketball in winter and pick-up baseball anytime, but our primary family sport is fruit picking.
Commons manifesto
Transformative social movements succeed when they have a clear vision. A clear vision of what it means to be human, of how current conditions deny us our ability to flourish, and of how to transform those conditions to enable our flourishing.
Jevons’ coal question: Why the UK Coal Peak wasn’t as bad as expected
In his book The Coal Question from 1865 William Stanley Jevons examined for how long the United Kingdom could continue to fuel its economy based on cheap supplies of coal. At the time the UK consumed about 93 million tons of coal providing nearly all of its energy supply. His estimate was that within a maximum of a hundred years, or perhaps even within one or two generations, production would be in retreat due to an increase in the cost of mining which would, in Jevons’ words, “Injure the commercial and manufacturing supremacy of England.”
In this post I’ll look back at history to show that Jevons correctly foresaw the fate of the British coal industry. In Britain a peak in production occurred around 1913 caused by increasing coal mining costs, lack of technological innovation, rising competition from abroad, a number of political decisions disadvantaging coal as a fuel source, declining profits, and a slump in British economic growth coinciding with World War I.
Peak oil review – Aug 15
A weekly review of peak oil news, including:
-Oil and the global economy
-The Oil Market Report for August
-Fracking for shale gas
-Quote of the week
-Briefs
Renewable energy zealots must understand ‘Net Energy’
Was I surprised that last issue’s column, Can Renewables Outshine Fossil Fuels?, elicited a strong reaction, with written responses of support and derision? Not at all. It’s an issue that continues to divide the environmental community, and one which keeps us from moving forward as quickly as possible to conserve resources and relocalize as an era of cheap, concentrated, easy-to-get energy comes to an end.
Review of Index of U.S. Energy Security Risk (U.S. Chamber of Commerce, 2011)
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce recently released its Index of U.S. Energy Security Risk: Assessing America’s Vulnerabilities in a Global Energy Market, 2011 Edition (80 pgs). This is an update of last year’s inaugural edition and is published by the Chamber’s Institute for 21st Century Energy, headed by Karen Harbert.
Peak Moment 199: Peak oil blues – we’re all bozos on this bus
“My own reaction seemed so crazy to me,” says psychologist Kathy McMahon of her response to Peak Oil. Wondering if she was the only “wacko”, she started the Peak Oil Blues blog to explore her own and readers’ responses. As the “Peak Shrink,” Kathy formulated a delightfully tongue-in-cheek “Panglossian Disorder” — an unrealistic optimism about the future.
(UPDATE – transcript now online)
