Tom Whipple

The peak oil crisis: turmoil erupts

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The Financial Times and Wall Street Journal have gone into full crisis mode with live blogs continuously reporting unfolding events. Equity markets are falling and London oil prices have been flirting with $100 a barrel for the first time since February. Talk of recessions, depressions, and even collapse of the euro zone is everywhere.

There is a definite possibility, if not a likelihood, that the innumerable debt crises when coupled with high and ever increasing energy costs could evolve into a major economic depression.

Memo to the #Occupied movement (a post-growth economy)

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You courageous people in the #occupy movement are absolutely right in saying the system is broken, greedy, and unfair. But when our discussion turns to replacing the current system, we’ve got to embrace a bigger view of reality than the one held by stock traders and politicians. It’s not just our wealth they want to control, it’s our vision for what is both possible and necessary. We need a post-growth economy that works both for people (all of them) and for the rest of nature: a localized economy based on renewable resources harvested at nature’s rates of replenishment

The ecocide trial

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The UK Supreme Court hears appeal cases of huge constitutional significance, the outcomes of which often ricochet through the political arena, challenging the status quo, and shifting societal perceptions. It is fitting then, that on 30th September 2011 this grand building in Parliament Square provided a stage for the hearing of Regina v Bannerman & Tench. In this mock trial, two CEO’s stood accused of aiding and abetting the crime of ‘ecocide’. Currently just a conceptual crime, ecocide has been submitted to the UN for consideration as the fifth crime against peace (alongside genocide, war crimes, crimes of aggression and crimes against humanity).

Zalmay Khalilzad’s not-so-excellent Afghan oil adventure

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The private investment firm of Zalmay Khalilzad, the former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan and one of the most powerful diplomats in the George W. Bush Administration, is upset that a client has lost an oil deal in the country. Khalilzad’s son, Alexander Benard, is on the attack in Washington, in particular against the Pentagon, which he says acted against U.S. interests by not advising the Afghan government to favor Western companies in the deal.

Bringing down the wall: Occupy Wall Street and the Brooklyn Bridge arrests

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The big bronze bull is surrounded by metal fences and strategically placed members of NYPD’s finest. The famous statue, the symbol of aggressive market optimism, is normally open for tourists to grope and fondle, but today, in part because of the “Occupy Wall Street” protest, it has been penned. Today, the Wall Street Bull looks amusingly like a panicked animal in a cage.

On the Occupy Wall Street ‘media blackout’

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Part of the blame for poor coverage lies in the movement’s own media strategy, or lack thereof. From the outset, its organizers have focused primarily on creating their own media—just as Gandhi did during the Indian liberation struggle, and as so many other movements have since. The occupiers do this very well, with a (theoretically) 24-hour livestream, a newspaper, websites, and more.

Meanwhile, many organizers have purposely avoided contact with mainstream media outlets, and no plan was in place at first for how to deal with them should they arrive. … This is changing.

The peak oil initiation

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A commonplace of discussion in the peak oil scene for most of its existence is the way that communication so often fails between those who get peak oil and the majority that doesn’t. In this third post discussing the interface between peak oil and magic, the Archdruid offers another way of looking at these breakdowns. Step into the lodge room and make the secret sign–today’s meeting of the Ancient Hubbertian Order of Peak Oil is about to begin…