How Much of the Worsening Energy Crisis is Due to Depletion?
But as long as we keep extracting and burning coal, oil, and natural gas, our depletion problem likewise keeps simmering away in the background. This winter, the pot may boil over.
energy depletion
Why do Societies Collapse? Diminishing Returns are a Key Factor, a New Study Says
Why do civilizations collapse? It is a question that has been haunting the nebulous entity we call “The West” from the time when Edward Gibbon published his “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,” in 1776.
Review: Hubbert’s Peak by Kenneth Deffeyes
The goal of these books is to provide readers a rudimentary understanding of oil, where it came from and what’s involved in finding and producing it, in order to raise awareness about the peril we face as oil depletes.
The World in 2018 – Part Four
In the modern world, our perceptions of reality are largely shaped by economic and financial considerations, and our policy conversations are largely built around intellectual categories and evaluative criteria that pertain to the economics discipline. Yet a long-term view shows that ‘The world in 2018’ is in a significantly different place than what economists typically claim, and than what many of us want to believe.
Energy, Money and Technology – From the Lens of the Superorganism
During Nate Hagens’ #WEP2018 keynote, he discussed how all of our lives will be influenced by how we react to the coming era of harder to extract and more costly fossil fuels that will be combined with cleaner but more stochastic energy types.
Energy and Authoritarianism
Could declining world energy result in a turn toward authoritarianism by governments around the world? As we will see, there is no simple answer that applies to all countries. However, pursuing the question leads us on an illuminating journey through the labyrinth of relations between energy, economics, and politics.
The Peak Oil President?
The frequency of Internet searches for the term “peak oil” has waned dramatically in recent years; now even the number of articles announcing the “death” of peak oil has dwindled, so universal is the assumption that the concept is completely debunked. Why bother beating a dead horse? With supreme irony, it could be within the next few years when the maximum-ever rate of world oil production is actually achieved, to be followed by terminal decline.
Is Peak Oil Dead and What Does it Mean for Climate Change?
This session seeks to bring together fossil fuel experts and climate experts for a daring exploration of the new landscape created by fracking and other unconventional methods of fossil fuel recovery.
Whatever Happened to Peak Oil?
Whatever happened to “peak oil” – the assertion that the rate at which oil is extracted from the Earth is nearing a maximum or peak level?
Review: Cold, Hungry and in the Dark by Bill Powers and Snake Oil by Richard Heinberg
There has always seemed to be something deeply wrong with fracking for oil and natural gas.
Land and Resource Scarcity: Capitalism, struggle and well-being in a world without fossil fuels
This is a book that seems to be created above all for people who are active in social movements, but who are also uneasy about the current global crisis.
Energy, Economy and the Impending Rite of Passage
The American Dream is a meme forged in the aftermath of World War II that embedded the promise of prosperity, success and upwards mobility into the country’s cultural lexicon. It seems this Dream is coming to an end, leading many to wonder what comes next. This essay articulates a more realistic vision of how the world works as well as how rites of passage can lead people towards a worldview that will serve them well in years to come.