Staff

Peak Oil Reality: Industry Experts Offer Growing Drumbeat of Supply Warnings (press release)

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Groups and individuals speaking out about forthcoming world oil supply challenges are frequently stereotyped as a fringe element with little knowledge about the oil industry. But their warnings are increasingly supported by some surprising allies: senior petroleum industry officials, consultants and analysts. Call these serious-minded critics the Harsh Realists.

The oil-economy connection

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Saudi Arabia’s oil production company is Saudi Aramco. Its former Vice President of oil exploration and production, Sadad al Husseini, recently made the following comment on oil prices at the 30th Oil & Money Conference, held in London on October 20-21: “…as you go up to say $90 a barrel, you’re consuming 4.5% of the global economy [for oil]. That in itself is a ceiling – you cannot go indefinitely into more expensive alternatives without destroying [the] economy and therefore destroying demand…”

Tackling the wood smoke problem in your community

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Some communities suffer from serious winter air pollution from residential wood heating but their leadership may be uncertain how they can reduce it without causing a big fight that pits neighbor against neighbor. The amount of air pollution from wood burning can be reduced substantially, but it can’t be done instantly and it can’t be done just by town council without buy-in from the public and the local businesses that support people’s use of wood fuel.

Peak Oil and Agriculture (transcript added)

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During the month of October, CBC Radio’s political affairs show, The House, ran a four-part mini-series on peak oil, called “Going Local.” The third episode examined the implications of peak oil for the Canadian agri-food sector and was chosen as a CBC “Editor’s Choice” item. The episode includes interviews with two farmers near Ottawa, Ontario and a discussion with Rick Munroe, the energy security analyst for Canada’s National Farmers Union.

Deconstructing Dinner: Agroinnovations Podcast with Paul Stamets, Rob Hopkins, and Richard Manning

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Today’s episode features segments from Agroinnovations featuring well-known figures like Paul Stamets – a mycologist (aka mushroom specialist) from Olympia, Washington, the U.K’s Rob Hopkins who has popularized the Transition Town Movement and Montana journalist and author Richard Manning, who possesses a keen interest in the history and future of the American prairie and agriculture.

How (not) to resolve the energy crisis

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Increasing the share of renewable energy will not make us any less dependent on fossil fuels as long as total energy consumption keeps rising. Renewable energy sources do not replace coal, oil or gas plants, they only meet (part of) the growing demand. The solution is simple: set an absolute limit to total energy production. Why should we not be able to cope in 2030 with the amount of energy we consume today?

International Energy Agency calls ‘Peak’ on OECD Oil Demand

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In World Energy Outlook 2009, the International Energy Agency seems to have dropped a bombshell that has been quietly (and politely) ignored. In their main ‘reference scenario’, the IEA forecasts that OECD demand has already peaked – it never recovers the levels seen before the oil price spikes and financial crisis unfolded.

Review: JM Greer’s The Ecotechnic Future

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Greer is at his most stimulating when he offers ways of rethinking our ideology and shifting towards more adaptive thinking. I particularly liked his insight on the tragic hero vs. the comedic hero. One dies for ideology while the other manages to come through somehow largely through adaptive survival.