Richard Heinberg

What happened to the Icelandic banks?

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The same conclusion could be drawn for all the post-bubble economies, and of course it is important that we ‘learn the lessons of Iceland’ in terms of crony capitalism and financial instability. But for a green economist the most important lesson is the need to reconnect finance with the real economy. When finance runs out of control the consequence in unsustainability as well as instability. An economy in a steady state would return money to its proper role as a medium of exchange.

Trying to make sense out of the last supper

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First of all, I care because I think many small churches are closing for the same reason small farms are closing, that is, false notions about economics. The general thinking is that it is more profitable to cram more people into fewer, bigger churches just like it is more profitable to cram more hogs into fewer, bigger barns.

The peak oil crisis: protests, tsunamis & deficits

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It is coming to the point that one’s world outlook has to be modified every few months as the old ways of looking at things are changed by events. So it is with oil — supply, demand and, of course, price. At the beginning of the year the future of oil was thought to be mostly about China and how fast its economy and demand for oil would grow during 2011. In last two months, however, the world situation has changed markedly and we now have a multiplicity of factors vying to influence the global oil markets in ways as yet unknown.

The Japan syndrome

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Coming, as I do, from an alcoholic family, I have a tendency to watch any unfolding disaster with a single idea in the back of my mind: “I knew it.” This is even true of a disaster like the one in Japan, where the causes are seemingly so unpredictable.

The limits of incantation

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From the Fukushima nuclear crisis to the civil war in Libya, a rising spiral of troubles that may just mark a new phase in the predicament of industrial society is being met more and more often with what amount to incantations. As something of a specialist in incantations, the Archdruid suggests that something more practical may be needed just now.

Proposal for Fukushima-I post-accident scenario analysis

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A retired nuclear scientist gives his take on the events in Japan and the possible dangers to Americans.:

“One possibly worrisome long-term scenario is that the Fukushima-I plant is RIGHT on the Japanese east coast. I wondered about ocean currents and where they might deliver any radiation entering the ocean, AND what uptake and concentration mechanisms might be operable in sea-life in the various ocean ecosystems.

“The contaminants move through the ocean’s various food-chains, ultimately to species humans eat, potentially accumulating near the top of the food chains.

“Here on the U.S. coast we have become attuned to food-chain concentration of mercury in aquatic and other life, although I have no knowledge of the environmental pathways. Are we facing the possibility of a similar problem with some radioactive and heavy element species one, two, or three decades hence? Could my children’s salmon contain Japanese reactor fission products?”

“The oil of the Arctic is not worth the risks”

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Carl-Henric Svanberg, the chairman of BP, delivered his speech and then left by the back door when the World Maritime University and International Maritime Organization held a conference in Malmö, Sweden, on the handling of risk and oil spills. In his speech Svanberg noted that one must drill in the deep ocean, including in the Arctic, to meet the future’s energy needs. His statement is, naturally, advertising for BP’s future activities. BP notes that “without new additions to production provided by deep-water drilling we have a restricted future in front of us”.

Japan – March 15

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– Official: Japan’s Nuclear Situation Nearing Severity of Chernobyl
– Nuclear industry in turmoil after Japan quake
– Disruptions of Power and Water Threaten Japan’s Economy