Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
It is a testament to the psychological power of financial bubbles that people who know and trust me and generally accept the analysis I’ve put forth in my writings over the last decade are jumping into the stock market again with a pledge that they are in for the long term–no matter what.
By now you’d think we’d be planning cautiously and conservatively for America’s energy future. But thanks to the federal government’s latest report on domestic energy, most everyone is again assuming that there’s plenty of oil and nothing to worry about. Here’s why it’s dangerously wrong.
How are we going to meet the challenge of functioning without fossil fuels?
A midweek update. Oil prices, which had remained relatively steady since the end of last week, plunged on Wednesday after the EIA released its weekly stocks report showing a 6.8 million barrel increase in US crude stocks – more than four times what analysts had been expecting.
A Canadian family physician’s take on peak energy, peak food and peak population: "I became aware of peak oil five years ago, and since then I have been struggling to integrate this knowledge into my medical practice and family life."
Albert Bartlett might have been another obscure physics professor had he not put together a now famous lecture entitled "Arithmetic, Population and Energy"in 1969. The lecture begins with the line: "The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function."
With oil prices hovering near historic highs and coal, natural gas and uranium prices yo-yoing during the last several years, concerns about the future of fossil fuel and uranium supplies often elicit the response: "They’ll think of something. They always do."
Puerto Rico’s economy and population are shrinking and the island depends entirely on imported energy sources…maybe these facts made my official audience more receptive than most I’ve encountered.
I often find myself wondering where my life would be today had I not stumbled across The Oil Drum in 2005. I don’t know that I would still be writing today were it not for my early experiences with TOD readers. As TOD winds down, I thought I’d share my story, which I have not told before.
We knew Randy primarily through his crusade to bring honest discussion of America’s energy predicament into public dialog and policy. He co-founded the US chapter of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil in 2005 and spearheaded five highly touted and provocative energy conferences, creating for a few years the ultimate big tent for international energy thinkers.
Should concerns about "peak oil" focus on demand for oil rather than dwindling supplies of it? Yes, according to a new analysis.
Historically high temperatures in recent years have been accompanied by droughts and extreme heat waves, more wildfires than usual, and several intense storms that caused power and fuel disruptions for millions of people. These trends are expected to continue, which could further impact energy systems critical to the nation’s economy.
