Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Myra Eddy The dandelion is a much maligned meadow plant, a native of Europe. Americans fiercely and defiantly dig out and poison this miracle plant, for no obvious reason other than they think they should. I started thinking for myself, and I have found out quite a bit about this miracle plant.
A weekly roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Prices and production
-Isolating Iran
-Defense turns pessimistic
-Energy stat of the week
-Briefs
It’s fair to say that lot of people, from shale gas operators to Pennsylvania state revenue collectors, see $$$ every time they think about the Marcellus shale. Only recalcitrant environmentalists worried about polluted drinking water do not salivate at the prospect that many years of U.S. gas supply will come from the Marcellus. Today I will not deal with the environmental issues. Instead, I want to examine the view that resources in the Marcellus are a big part of the shale gas cure-all for America’s energy problems.
Steve Sorrel, Senior Fellow, Sussex Energy Group, University of Sussex in the UK has recently published a 25 page paper called Energy, Growth and Sustainability which can be downloaded at this link. This post provides some excerpts from the paper, which summarize its findings. Readers are encouraged to read the entire paper.
I’m sure many of you are aware that there’s been an enormous amount of hype accompanying the coming Shale Gas Revolution.
Wherever we go, and whatever we do, we find ourselves surrounded by a variety of human and animal noises: “Woof!” — “Meow!” — “Moo!” — “Baah!” — “Tweet! — “How about them Red Sox!” And, naturally, we find ourselves wondering, What are they all saying? What does it all mean? Does it mean anything at all, or is it just a lot of meaningless background noise?
Recent weeks have seen an explosion of information on peak oil – everywhere it seems except in the mainstream media. It may be in the business sections, but not the news pages.
– Joe [Bageant], why did you crap out on us?
– The global war on tribes
– Guy McPherson: Surveying the field and charting a course
– “Space, Oil and Capital” (book)
– The index of life
– Hollywood stars join politicians at Bolivia’s ‘cool’ global warming summit
– Evo Morales: Climate change and the rights of Mother Earth
– Bill McKibben on Cochabamba summit
– In defense of Pachamama
– Inside Cuba’s urban agriculture revolution (video)
– Flight ban could leave UK short of fruit and veg
– Beating obesity
– The trouble with Brazil’s much-celebrated ethanol ‘miracle’
– ‘Biggest problem you’ve never heard of’: Peak phosphorus
– Phosphorus famine: The threat to our food supply (Scientific American)
Talk with many green technology advocates and you might get the impression that we have forever and a day to make the transition from an unsustainable society to a sustainable one. But the most critical question is how much time we have to make the transition. A fully equipped hospital with on-duty surgeons and staff may be the ideal technology for a critically injured patient. But they mean little to such a patient if we are in the position of having to build the hospital and train the surgeons and staff before administering treatment.
Research shows amazing results when people come together and build social ties: People are healthier, happier and live longer. One study found that social isolation is as bad for you as smoking a pack of cigarettes a day.
