Education

A Change Coming to the World Monetary System?

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CNBC invited Jim Rickards, a senior managing director at a firm called Omnis to comment on the latest G-20 meeting and the future of the dollar. His testimony shows some rare lucidity about the present problems with our monetary system. He is bearish on the dollar, bullish on gold, but don’t mistake him for a gold bug, for he is well aware of the consequences of a flight to the “barbarian’s relic”.

Climate & environment – Oct 6

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-Arctic seas turn to acid, putting vital food chain at risk
-New Analysis Brings Dire Forecast Of 6.3-Degree Temperature Increase
-Imagining Climate Solutions
-Rich countries ‘must slash living standards’ to fight climate change
-Tipping towards the unknown
-No rainforest, no monsoon: get ready for a warmer world

Jeremy Leggett Interview—Culture Problem in the Oil Industry?

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What follows is four questions from an interview recently filmed in London by ASPO-USA’s Dave Bowden and Steve Andrews…“So I worry about peak oil. I worry about climate change. And I need no persuasion of the power of the alternatives to do something about both problems.”

Renewables and Efficiency – Oct 5

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-Oil and Solar Do Mix
-Plugged-In Age Feeds a Hunger for Electricity
-Americans Are Still Buying Gas-Guzzlers, But Here Are 7 Signs That the Market for Green Transport Is Exploding
-Passive Solar Design Overview – Part 5: Distribution, Ventilation, and Cooling
-Google working on “smart” plug-in hybrid charging
-10p to create a solar power sector in UK
-Saving BIG on electricity costs: chest refrigerators

Whither The Oil Drum?

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A few short years ago, in 2005 when I started contributing here, it seemed that people could generally be partitioned into 3 main groups regarding their views about Peak Oil. By far the smallest group were those calling for a near term (<2012) peak in global oil production. A larger, and definitively more vocal and deeper pocketed group (including IHS, CERA, most Wall St. firms and energy agencies) were in the “peak oil is not real” or “peak oil is post 2020 at a minimum” camps. But by far the largest % of the population were oblivious to these debates on oils peak, unaware of the possibility and/or importance of a potential peak and decline in our socioeconomic hemoglobin.

Whither Peak Oil?

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There’s a fascinating essay by Nate Hagens over at The Oil Drum about the future of peak oil analysis and the future of The Oil Drum. In it, Hagens argues that an oil peak will almost certainly turn out to be past us, given the lack of incentive for further investment (this is, of course, the same analysis as the IEA’s recent case), and that perhaps our preoccupation with it as a defining factor is a mistake…

Linking the past with the present: resources, land use, and the collapse of civilizations

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The human role in extinction of species and degradation of ecosystems is well documented. Since European settlement in North America, and especially after the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, we have witnessed a substantial decline in biological diversity of native taxa and profound changes in assemblages of the remaining species…We have, to the maximum possible extent allowed by our intellect and never-ending desire, consumed the planet.

Solutions & sustainability – Sept 30

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-Can one woman save Africa?
-Africa doesn’t need a green revolution. It needs agroecology
-Human-made Crises ‘Outrunning Our Ability To Deal With Them,’ Scientists Warn
-The Australian town that kicked the bottle
-Energy executives offer ideas on stimulus

Climate & environment – Sept 29

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-Ancient glaciers are disappearing faster than ever
-Iraq’s marshes are dying a second death
-“The poor are burdened twice”
-Climate Summit: China Commits, Obama Not So Much
-India could halve emissions growth…but at a price
-Met Office warns of catastrophic global warming in our lifetimes