Staff

Paradigm busting in a peak energy world

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This message of an ever more negative economic outlook was not even acceptable for discussion among my entrepreneurial peers who were kept inspired by an endless parade of motivational speakers. As I related the positive-to-the-point-of-delusion attitude of my business colleagues, to my peak oil companions, Kurt, who was himself from a business family, assured me that entrepreneurs must be overly positive because going into business for oneself is one of the craziest things you can do.

Federal energy incentives have chiefly benefited oil, natural gas industries; nuclear, renewables lag

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Public interest in the role of federal incentives in shaping today’s energy marketplace and future energy options has risen sharply. That interest has met with frustration in some quarters and half-truths in others because of the difficulty in developing a complete picture of the incentives that influence today’s energy options. The difficulty arises from the many forms of incentives, the variety of ways in which they are funded, managed, and monitored, and changes in the agencies responsible for administering them.

The nausea express

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Is oil priced at $80 a barrel this morning? That’s nice. Except if the company that employs you is about to fold up and you face a holiday season of driving frantically around Atlanta in search of another job, which the odds are against you find finding. Or if you’re living on a retirement fund that’s just lost 37 percent of its value and it’s time to fill the heating oil tank.

The timing of the financial crisis & peak oil

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When the froth is gone, there is still a very vibrant economy hiding underneath. In fact, and this is where I start to get concerned, to the degree that we refocus our efforts away from keeping the froth full of air, we’ll start to focus more of our effort to revving up the fundamental economic engine that sits beneath it. And so will the rest of the world, which brings me to the other half of the equation: Peak Oil.

Deep thought – Oct 12

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Heinberg: Sustainability and resource depletion: survival challenge for the 21st century
Transforming the global economy: solutions for a sustainable world (Schumacher lecture)
Thomas Friedman: Hope for a hot, flat and crowded world

Too complex to fail?

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The explosive cocktail of too much debt and too little energy has now had the effect of toppling the already top-heavy world markets. When the world economy was humming along, nary a thought was given to its enormous complexity. It is only now when it is disrupted that we are forced to notice where that complexity is breaking down.