Consumption & Demand

Address to the ASPO International Conference 2009 (Denver, Colorado)

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I’m happy to have the opportunity to spend the next few minutes sharing some personal thoughts on the subjects that bring us together for this excellent event—thoughts based on my experience, during the past few years, of trying to get the message of Peak Oil out to an ever-wider audience.

Half a trillion barrels more than we thought? (Or, “The Tupi Field, the Pre-salt, and the Very Distant Future”)

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At the end of the first day of the ASPO conference in Denver, we were treated to a fantastic presentation on the oil potential of the sub-salt basins on the margins of the South Atlantic Ocean given by Dr Marcio Mello who presented the evidence for a half trillion barrels of reserves in this new frontier province. So has a new Saudi Arabia been found?

Interview with Sadad al Husseini: Part 2—“A lot of Money = a Little Oil”

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This interview with Dr. Sadad al Husseini was filmed and produced in London on September 21 by ASPO-USA’s Dave Bowden, with Steve Andrews along on his own time and dime to ask some questions. Sadad is a geologist by training and a reservoir engineer—production engineer—by actual work experience. He started with Saudi Aramco back in 1970 and retired in 2004. Most of his time was spent with exploration and production activities but also in project management. Since he left, Sadad has worked as a consultant.

Finding My Identity

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I have found an identity. Is that really such a big deal? The thing is, I didn’t realize I was missing one. There are so many things I could call myself: a human, male, a father, a husband, a writer, a thinker, a gardener, a campaigner… so many things that I feel pretty comfortable with, yet until a couple of weeks ago I didn’t realize there was something missing; something that yawned inside me, empty and lacking substance.

Food & agriculture – Oct 12

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-Scrumping for apples
-Grass-fed beef: One steer’s organic journey from ranch to dinner
-In Search of Wildlife-friendly Biofuels: Are Native Prairie Plants the Answer?
-6 Facts About Native Bees
-Cuba Pins Hopes On New Farms Run for Profit
-The Other Inconvenient Truth: The Crisis in Global Land Use

Resources and anthropocentrism

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Evolution demands short-term thinking focused on individual survival. Most attempts to overcome our evolutionarily hardwired absorption with self are selected against. The Overman is dead, killed by a high-fat diet and unwillingness to exercise. Reflexively, we follow him into the grave.

Dilemma and denial

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A couple of weeks ago Jerry Mander and I were discussing the best word to use in the heading for the back cover copy of a new short book being co-published by International Forum on Globalization and Post Carbon Institute, Searching for a Miracle: “Net Energy” and the Fate of Industrial Societies (I wrote the main text, Jerry wrote the Foreword). Jerry liked the word “conundrum,” while I argued for “dilemma.” We were in basic agreement, though, about a word we didn’t want: “problem.”