Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
On August 14th 2003, New York City lost power citywide for the first time since 1977. To everyone’s collective surprise, nothing happened. No looting, rioting, arson or massive destruction of private property. On July 13th 1977, a different story emerged.
ASPO August Newsletter / Oil Supplies and the “Infallible” Goddess of the Marketplace / Kuntsler on Yergin / Get ready for return of the bad ’70s / Malaysia: Cut air-conditioner usage / King Fahd of Saudi Arabia dies / Long-lived the kings / Appetite for destruction
Our voracious oil consumption corrupts mideast policy / Energy Bill Raises Fears About Pollution, Fraud, Critics Point to Perks for Industry / Democrats and the energy bill / Energy bill criticized as lacking new policy / An energy policy about half right
…the global peak in oil production is likely to lead to economic chaos and extreme geopolitical tensions, raising the spectres of war, revolution, terrorism, and even famine, unless nations adopt some method of cooperatively reducing their reliance on oil. The Oil Depletion Protocol provides a way forward…
In the case of peak oil, we can intellectually accept the evidence, but we find it extremely hard to accept individual or collective responsibility for a problem of such enormity. Indeed, the most powerful evidence of our denial is the failure to even recognize that there is a moral dimension with identifiable perpetrators and victims of the crisis. We know who is at fault here, we see what they are trying to do, and we lack the efficacy and the will to do anything about it.
Energy experts like to call coal a bridge fuel leading to a future society based on hydrogen and other renewable energy sources.
…at a national energy conference Thursday on the campus of Case Western Reserve University, Ohio Gov. Bob Taft and other attendees acknowledged the world has little time left to counter the consequences of widespread fossil fuel use before dramatic and expensive action is inescapable.
The post-peak oil world will look a lot like the bleak 1970s. But much worse.
A recession will grip the globe because the price of oil, and everything tied to it, will skyrocket.
Starvation will abound because oil-based fertilizers we’ve grown to depend on will be in short supply. Energy wars could erupt to control the remaining oil fields.
Oil is the world’s biggest business and one of its most combustible. It has drawn all sorts of eccentrics, from H.L. “Boy” Hunt, gambling host and bigamist, to Armand Hammer, Kremlin confidante and bull semen salesman. It has fueled inflation, recession, pollution, scandal and war.
Early on, oil made modern Cleveland.
The granddaddy of fossil fuels that has fouled the air, poisoned the waters — and created the industrial revolution — will also be the fuel of the digital age. Coal, called an antique fuel by some environmentalists, still produces more than half the electricity in the nation.
Here, then, is a significant report produced by an independent research company for the US Department of Energy, warning of a global problem of “unprecedented” proportions with economic, social, and political impacts that are likely to be extremely severe. The authors forecast “protracted economic hardship” for the United States and the rest of the world. It is a problem that deserves “immediate, serious attention.” Yet, half a year after release, discussion of the Hirsch report is conspicuously absent from the press and the halls of Congress. [updated version late 7/31]
EIA: US oil demand growth has picked up /
Upward trend for electricity use /
Summer brings air conditioner wars /
Utility chairmen asks how to ensure power / Metropolitan Dubai and the rise of architectural fantasy /
What’s up at Pemex? /
It’s the oil, stupid
Will FERC force LNG terminals on unwilling communities? /
Michael Bagley on the energy bill /
Salon: The porking of the energy bill /
Big Brother at work by Michael Klare
