Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Tom Whipple The world demand for oil, while down by a million or two barrels per day seems to be holding up pretty well. If there is obvious conclusion from the $100+ drop in oil prices during the last six months, it is that world oil prices have become highly sensitive to over-supply and shortages.
Discussions on the role of technology in the future usually focus on those new and flashy enough to attract attention. History shows, however, that it’s the technologies that have become an unnoticed part of the texture of everyday life that determine, by their survival or disappearance, the fate of societies.
A weekly update including:
– Prices and production
– A supply crunch?
On March 2, environmentalist Bill McKibben will join demonstrators who plan to march on a coal-fired power plant in Washington D.C. In this article for Yale Environment 360, he explains why he’s ready to go to jail to protest the continued burning of coal.
Using a comprehensive database of giant oil field production, the average decline rates of the world’s giant oil fields are estimated… The evolution of decline rates over past decades includes the impact of new technologies and production techniques and clearly shows that the average decline rate for individual giant fields is increasing with time. These factors have significant implications for the future, since the most important world oil production base – giant fields – will decline more rapidly in the future, according to our findings.
Meet the doomsayers of our time
Buckminster Fuller’s Critical Path
Growth (some conservatives re-thinking growth)
The ways out of the crisis evoke the lifestyle of Amish communities rather than the apocalyptic vision of Mad Max. (French Cyberpunk/futurology e-zine interviews mild-mannered peak oil journalist.)
To reach its full potential, a garden farm should embrace four areas: garden, pasture, tree grove, and the watery domain of pool, pond or creek… Of the four parts, the tree grove usually receives the least attention from garden farmers, which is why I have been writing about it so much…
An Update from Transition around the world
Powerdown Toolkit #3: It’s All Connected
New HopeDance
Green burials
Entropypawsed Chickens
Artists’ creative use of vacant shops brings life to desolate high streets
Facing the Zoning Monster
Growth pattern crippled Phoenix
KunstlerCast #51: Seaside Revisited
Total’s de Margerie says oil output near peak
The Economics of Volatile Oil Prices
German “Peak Oil Briefing” now in English
Explorations – Environmental collapse (interview with Richard Heinberg)
Transition is a huge social experiment, and the States embraces new ways of thinking much more so than the UK….On a related note, the pioneer spirit is very much alive in the States and embodied by many survivalists….Transition US hopes to be able to engage the survivalist community. We recognize that they have many of the skills that will be needed in a post peak world, and we honor that wisdom.
