Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
I’m sitting before a photograph of the completion of the transcontinental railroad–140 years ago this May, in 1869. The driving of the golden spike poetically combined the symbolic with the hard, physical world–an event that should have carried forth well into this century. Instead, we were interrupted and led astray by oil, and the automobile.
It’s the end of the decade 2000-2009, and there has been progress as well as potential disaster for sustainability. In chronological order, I’ve chosen these ten stories to show a range of relevant global and national issues and events on climate, business, government, media, design, technology, language and demographics.
In February this year, global oil production / demand hit an interim low of 84.0 million barrels per day (mmbpd) and the average price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) that month was $39.16 / bbl. Since then, demand has recovered to 85.9 mmbpd in November and the average price was $78.08 / bbl. A rise in demand of 2.3% has led to an oil price rise of 99.4%.
-Unplugging from the world’s power lines
-How Effective Are Renewables, Really?
-Bringing Hope to Copenhagen With a Novel Investment Idea
As many have now written, the Cop15 conference, which is focussed on creating a treaty that will prevent our climate from undergoing a systems state change and re-establishing itself in a new stable state that much less conductive to human survival, seems certain to fall far short of what is needed or fail completely.
“as mankind proceeded to get bigger and bigger we silently crossed a threshold”
As a peak-oil/climate-aware high school teacher, I try to tell the kids the truth about what’s coming. I don’t see the point in lying to them about our possible futures. And I think maybe it’s time for everybody to just start telling the truth. …And then we need to get down to work. …But first the truth.
Three weeks ago the US Government Accountability Office released a 50-page analysis of the nexus between biofuel production and water resources.
There is a huge amount of oil which theoretically can be extracted, but the question is whether the cost will be cheap enough for us to be able to afford to extract it. If the oil is too expensive to extract, the shortage of oil seems to cause a recession, similar to what we are having now. I discuss this in purely monetary terms, but it is also an issue with respect to low energy return on investment (EROI), for those of you used to thinking in EROI terms.
A weekly roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Prices and production
-Baghdad’s second auction
-Climate change
-The IEA’s peak
-Briefs
Lest you think I’m all about unwarranted criticism, the reason I keep turning to these particular blogs is because I enjoy their writing. So, although I’ll be poking a little fun and pointing out the absurdities I observe, I’ll keep reading these folks as long as they keep me entertained or informed. I’m especially inclined toward humor, and especially writers who manage to take their own messages seriously without taking themselves seriously.
Abstract: In recent years, several published reports have assured the public that all is well with the global petroleum supply, citing new oil-production technologies and a record-high oil-reserve figure. Oil production has exceeded demand since late 1997, driving oil prices downward. Global oil consumption, however, is continuing to increase while new oil discoveries decrease…
