Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Anthony Perl The British government’s recent decision to cancel construction of a third runway at London’s Heathrow airport marks a major milestone in our adaptation to post-carbon mobility. This is the first time that a government has canceled plans for major aviation infrastructure expansion due to global, rather than local, concerns about environmental degradation.
Back in 2000, the EIA developed their first power-point presentation covering the topic of peak oil. A version of it was presented by EIA Administrator Jay Hakes to the American Association of Petroleum Geologists…What was the EIA’s rationale at the time? How has their view held up a decade later?
On this Independence Day, I’m celebrating the ways my family’s lifestyle is becoming more independent from the mainstream. This means our lifestyle is becoming more independent from oil for long-distance transport of goods, more independent from carbon emissions, more independent from the Industrial Growth Paradigm, demanding less earth resources, and thus much more resilient.
One of my favorite sources of rules of thumb is thermodynamics. It doesn’t tell you how to do things, or how fast you can do them, but it tells you whether something, like running your car on water, is impossible.
A weekly roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Oil and the global economy
-The Deepwater Horizon
-China
-Quote of the week
-Briefs
The above data shows the debt outstanding of various sectors in the US economy. It comes from the Federal Reserve Z1 release, and the data are annual except for the 2010 point, which is for Q1 (on the graph, the annual data are shown at the mid-point of the year, and the Q1 point is shown 1/8 of the way into the year, so slopes should still be accurate).
The Mayor of Oklahoma City is recommending that bus service to the “fringes” of the city be discontinued, for fiscal reasons, thereby proving that he “gets it”, in terms of the realities of the peak oil future.
Michael Lind is the Policy Director of New America’s Economic Growth Program and a frequent contributor to Salon.com. He recently published an article regarding the future of transportation—fixed/high-speed rail. He offers up an attitude regarding our approach to transportation and automobiles that can only cause us more problems as we confront Peak Oil.
What should be taken from this record of the complexity gurus? Certainly, they have technical knowledge which few can match. And, they keep track of developments in their respective areas much more thoroughly than nonspecialists. So, given that, why are their judgments frequently so mistaken?
Widespread bans on at least gas-operated leaf blowers are likely in the future. But why wait until gasoline prices go up the predicted $5 to $10 a gallon? Since we do not really need such blowers–given that brooms and rakes do fine—why waste our precious declining petroleum supplies and further cause chaotic climate change?
– NYT: As Oil Industry Fights a Tax, It Reaps Billions From Subsidies
– Aleklett: Oil in the veins of sub-Saharan Africa
– SciAm: What happens when coal is gone?
– WaPo: Pigs in Takoma Park highlight rise in suburban livestock
– Titanic Syndrome
If we choose to marginalize and destroy our oil and gas infrastructure – we will see what “Hubbert’s Cliff” looks like, due to accelerating depletion. I suspect that the accompanying scenario would make Mr. Kunstler’s novel look like a walk in the park.
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