Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Roland Watson What is the third date in the great Peak Oil saga? It is the year in which alternate energy sources finally offset the equivalent decline in crude oil production. Prior to that date, oil production will in general keep falling but the energy equivalent delivered by solar, wind, nuclear, etc. will always be less.
The big losers from the energy shortage are likely to be the world’s poor nations. Between them, the U.S., Western Europe and Japan—the old industrial centers—and the rising economies of Asia are driving up prices to levels that most of sub-Saharan Africa and countries such as Yemen and Bangladesh will not be able to afford.
Farmers market feeding the poor / Couple does its part to avoid guzzling resources / How To Do Decentralized Energy / Lending a Hand to Argentina’s Protesters / The Green Machine That Could Be Detroit / Academics propose teaching organic farming / Report gives Nova Scotia a reality check, proposes new energy strategy / More and Dumber People – Hot and Hotter Planet / Climate change inevitable: Minister / Rainbow Warrior interrupts Newcastle’s coal operations / Farms spew out nitrogen oxides / Methane May Pack Double the Climate Punch of Earlier Estimates / Planet of the Plants / Mayor calls for action to fight global warming / Congress Told Hydrogen Fuel Decades from Being Practical / With a Push From the U.N., Water Reveals Its Secrets / Power plants worried as heat wave warms Great Lakes
David’s talk focused on understanding how the decline in availability of inexpensive fossil fuels will impact society, and then segued into permaculture’s positive potentiality in the impending Energy Descent world
Colin Campbell Savages Oil Majors’ “Profits from Scarcity” / How Existing Energy Technologies Can Offset Peak Oil / The Enron of OPEC / I Cannot Yet Skin A Deer / Here’s mud in your eye / Looking Back to the Peak: A Letter from the Future / End of Oil / What happens if oil output ‘peaks’? / US Transportation Energy Data Book: A Bible for Oil Deception / Norway’s oil output at 11-year low
World’s third largest exporter blames ‘technical problems’ for decline / Shift on MTBE May Clear Way for Energy Bill / Indonesia hit by petrol shortages / Cubans sweating out summer of power and water shortages / Powering the Future / US energy bill would nearly double ethanol output / Uncertainties Slow Push for Nuclear Plants / Michael Bagley – From Capitol Hill / Unocal Board Accepts Chevron’s Raised Bid
Organic farming produces same the corn and soybean yields as conventional farms, but consumes less energy and no pesticides, a Cornell study finds.
Gas price rumor causes fueling frenzy In Michigan / Surfing the tsunami of change: following up with Plan B preparations / Oilcast: China, The Yuan and oil / Demand Destruction: Sir Bob, Bono and Peak Oil / New Statesman review of Twilight in the Desert / Rationing /
Yemen: Price hike enrages public / Yemen: 13 Dead in Riots Over World Bank-Backed Price Hikes / Shortages aren’t over, Duncan says [Canadian] Energy Minister blames previous government for problems / Hybrid Cars Burning Gas in the Drive for Power / States pull the plug on electricity deregulation / California: Emergency declared for state energy grid / Dilemma over diesel / As prices climb, more drivers flee pumps without paying / China Unpegs Itself / PINR Intelligence Brief: Unocal / Russia ready to deliver 15 million tons of oil to China in 2006 / High fuel costs threaten to choke off Asia’s burgeoning growth
Heaven Help Bus – A visit to Iceland spurs dreams of a hydrogen future / Don’t Get Fresh With Me! / Will quantifying industrial symbiosis improve the world? / Bringing organic farming down to earth / Horse-and-Plow Farming Making a Comeback / Students Flock to Campus Organic Farms / Scientist testifies on global warming / Warming Up to a New Task / A Bid to Chill Thinking – Behind Joe Barton’s Assault on Climate Scientists / Let the Real Climate Debate Begin / US Senate Panel Begins Work on Greenhouse Gas Cuts / Green groups target ExxonMobil in change of tactics / Alaska preserve hangs in the balance / World Bank to Take Lead in New Climate Change Plan
“It took us 125 years to use the first trillion barrels of oil,” notes Chevron Corporation’s two full-page ad that began appearing in July in the Wall Street Journal, the Economist, Financial Times and elsewhere. “We’ll use the next trillion in 30,” the ad continues, thus quietly admitting to the Peak Oil that the industry has not previously disclosed.
PowerSwitch recently held a conference outside London, titled Peak Speak, providing a platform to discuss the causes, consequences, and mitigation of the peak and decline in global oil production, and action that can be taken. Report includes notes on the speakers, topics they covered, and links to presentations.
Without the energy-saving advances of the past 30 years – more efficient homes, appliances and cars – we would be using 40 percent more energy today… But over the years, the country has squandered opportunities to cut even deeper into consumption…
Huge, tarlike deposits in Canada and Venezuela will be critical over the next 50 years to the supply of liquid fuels as the world’s production of easily pumped oil plummets. Yet, turning this nonconventional oil source into synthetic oil is not likely to be the solution to our energy crisis, as some claim. Canada is no Saudi Arabia.
