Kurt Cobb

James McCommons’ year-long train ride

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In Waiting on a Train: The Embattled Future of Passenger Rail Service James McCommons seamlessly weaves the history of passenger rail in with his artful travelogues as he describes the scenery he sees, the people he meets, and the problems and joys he encounters during a year of train travel that covers nearly every major Amtrak route. Frequently, McCommons takes train trips to meet people who are actively shaping passenger rail in the United States. That’s the part of the book about the future.

Peak antibiotics – Aug 14

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– Guardian: Are you ready for a world without antibiotics?
– VOA: South Asia superbug is potential global problem
– Fears of a new superbug from Asia may be overblown, experts say
– Conflict of interest in ‘superbug’ report: Indian health minister

Human power on the river for locally grown grain

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On August 19, 2010 a fleet of twenty human powered boats will leave Eugene, Oregon to pick up locally grown grain and beans in Harrisburg and carry them to Corvallis. This is a nod to the history of using the river as transportation and distribution for the products grown in the valley as well as a promotion of the rich variety of grain and beans raised today in the Willamette Valley.

ODAC Newsletter – Aug 13

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Oil prices dropped back out of the $80/barrel range this week on weak economic news, and stockpile gains. There is growing anticipation that the US Federal Reserve is about to embark on a new round of quantitative easing following Tuesday’s downgrade of the recovery outlook. In China, July figures showed a slowdown in industrial production and retail sales which added to market nervousness…

Embodied energy: An alternative approach to understanding urban energy use

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Everyone knows that it takes energy to produce anything. The energy used in mining, transport, processing, manufacturing, delivery, and disposal is “embodied” in every product we consume, from food to diapers to televisions and insurance policies. Our traditional way of looking at energy, however, highlights only current consumption, traditionally disaggregated into agricultural, industrial, transportation, commercial, and residential sectors.

Things fall apart – slowly

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Actually, it isn’t all that slow, because a decade ago, all of this would have been largely unthinkable. The problem is that we don’t see the gradual decline and fall – we are only vaguely aware that some things aren’t quite what they used to be, and our progressive narrative tells us that they will soon be much better. But the problem is that’s not necessarily true – there’s little evidence for it. Even the most optimistic economists (and I don’t recommend the most optimistic economists ;-)) have to admit our long term economic problems are extremely pressing.

Petro China is the world’s most valuable listed company

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“But the oil price rose. In 2002 the well-known investor Warren Buffet read Petro China’s annual report and came to the conclusion that the company was undervalued. During two years he bought shares worth 488 million dollars. In 2007 the company found the largest new Chinese oilfield for 50 years in the Bohai Gulf with an estimated 7.5 billion barrels of oil. At the same time an additional 3.7% of the shares were sold in an issue on the Shanghai stock exchange. The demand was so great that the market value of Petro China tripled. A short time later the company was worth more than 1000 billion dollars. Warren Buffet took the chance to sell his shares that were now worth more than four billion dollars.”

Peak predictions: mixing water and oil as global resources dwindle

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Oil and safe drinking water are on parallel courses to depletion – a scarcity that will lead to starvation, disease and warfare. The issue here is drinking water. And there is a lot less of that than seawater. Due to a number of management issues, made worse by climate change, drinking water is fast becoming a geopolitical resource to rival oil – a flashpoint at various places around the globe.