Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
As long as most of us cling to the hope that high gas prices will go away or that a painless silver bullet that will solve our energy problem is just around the corner, few candidates for public office are ready to propose what are thought to be “painful solutions” to our problems. They still shoot messengers.
Review: Energy in Nature and Society
Hansen’s letter to governor Gibbons of Nevada (fossil fuels and climate)
EROEI series: Tar sands and shale oil
Bush prepares global warming initiative
Bush to State climate goals Wednesday
Economists weigh McCain’s gas-tax plan
Advisers to candidates discuss energy, climate
Contraction & Convergence proposed in Australian Senate
‘Dammed if we do’ – Traveston dam
Coal to liquids in Australia
Food vs fuel
World finance ministers emphasize food crisis over credit crisis
Energy and food problems need global solutions, says Jeffrey Sachs
Bill McKibben: Where have all the joiners gone?
New York Times on the New Survivalism
Surveying the energy-driven dynamic that is reconfiguring the international landscape, Michael Klare, the preeminent expert on resource geopolitics, forecasts a future of surprising new alliances and explosive danger. (Excerpt from Chapter 1)
A teach-in on energy, climate change, water, agriculture and population. National experts will gather for a conversation on the state of our planet’s health. Several Energy Bulletin contributors will be speaking. (Free webcast).
Hansen: Our current climate target is guaranteed catastrophe (new)
UK: Why are we going back to coal?
Swiss say action on climate is “crucial”
NYT: A shift in the debate
Now that he’d warmed us up with a talk on ‘Peak Everything,’ Richard Heinberg said he’d come back to try out some new ideas he’d working with over the past few weeks. “It’s all a big unknown,” he admitted, but had decided we were the kind of audience that could handle the unknown. Where are we? Where are we going?
While waiting for the price of gasoline to get so high that we can’t afford to drive anymore, there is still some time to ponder just how the great paradigm shift of the 21st century is going to work out.
The executives of the five biggest oil companies were called to testify at a congressional hearing on Tuesday. Lawmakers took them to task for making enormous profits but investing next to nothing in renewable sources of energy. (Excerpts from testimony) Followed by commentary from analyst Steve Kretzmann of Oil Change International.
Even the most hard-hitting questioners in the Congressional grilling of oil execs failed to pin the execs down on the real issue. Namely, how to convince an oil industry that is running up against absolute supply limits to switch gears and invest resources in the “clean energy revolution.” Calif. Rep. Jerry McNerney was the only one to utter the words “peak oil.”
