Energy Policy

Peak oil and the Olduvai catastrophe: is there a link?

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The Olduvai Theory is about the declining total world energy supplies and the catastrophic consequences. Peak Oil is a more confined thesis about oil supply declining due to the looming exhaustion of oil reserves in the ground. So Olduvai addresses all energy sources, but Peak Oil is only about one of the energy sources – oil.

In a recent article (Leigh, 2008), I failed to explain the Olduvai and Peak Oil relationship fully and clearly, and I would like to do so in this brief article. So what is the relationship between Olduvai and Peak Oil? Indeed, is there one at all?

United States & Canada – July 9

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Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens wants to supplant oil with wind
Is it safe now to admit Jimmy Carter was right?
Oilsands image fight targets U.S. politicians
Labour’s plan for dealing with high energy prices
Ex-EPA aide tells of White House censorship
In energy, there are no easy answers

China’s renewable energy plans: shaken, not stirred

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The May 12th earthquake in western China’s Sichuan Province will have effects reaching further outside China than Beijing is letting on. Sichuan Province holds the key to China’s hydroelectric power generation plans in its renewable power targets and the area is also a hub for worldwide outsourced wind turbine equipment. Both were badly damaged.

Is oil independence an illusion?

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Robert Bryce’s new book, Gusher of Lies, provides a refreshing counterpoint to many simplistic, political discussions about energy, but in the end, his blithe optimism about fossil fuel availability, U.S. financial resources, and global warming’s consequences leaves his arguments as dangerously deluded as those he criticizes.