Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
James Howard Kunstler, author of “The Long Emergency” and two World Made by Hand novels, talks to Transition Voice about recent Wall Street scandals, the role of oil and what he thinks of the Transition movement. Along with the keen analysis that readers are used to from Kunstler, this piece explores a side of his work that is not as well known. And we think that’s cool.
– Special report: How BP’s oil spill costs could double
– A Scramble for the Arctic
– Leaked cables reveal Saudi minister of petroleum helped craft toothless Copenhagen climate accord
– The Truth About the Risks to Freshwater Aquifers Posed by Underground Carbon Sequestration
Three scenarios of we may be headed are presented (continued exponential growth, downturn based on geological decline, and a collapse scenario). The major problems foreseen are different in each these three scenarios, as are the likely solutions. This post gives a brief overview of how these differ.
A midweek roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Developments this week
-Cancun
-Hydraulic Fracturing
Matt Taibbi’s new book “Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con That Is Breaking America” relentlessly hunts down the Wall Street crooks who destroyed the economy. Whether sleazy mortgage brokers who’d sell their own grandma for a quick buck, arrogant whiz kids pushing pump-and-dump schemes or smooth vampires in $4,000 suits who masterminded the whole plan to suck the middle class dry, Taibbi is not afraid to name names. And don’t forget the craven regulators like Alan Greenspan who aided and abetted the whole mob. But when it comes to energy and the oil price spike of 2008, does Taibbi check his skepticism at the door?
Economist Jeff Rubin, author of Why Your World Is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller: Oil and the End of Globalization says that high oil prices caused every US recession since the 1970s. Now we complain that credit scams are a bubble that will cause deflation. But is oil still lurking in there?
Considering climate change, Copenhagen, Cochabamba, the coming calamity, and most controversial: capitalism.
Transition is not a movement for bringing about change. Change is coming, with us or without us, whether we want it or not — profound change. Transition is a movement for preparing our communities for the changes that are coming. And our preparation is likely to crumble unless we are able to connect with and cultivate the aliveness, the wholeness, the healing, and the sacredness that underlies the Transition process.
For the past 5 years, The Oil Drum has been a home base for many high level discussions about the details and implications surrounding an early peak in global crude oil production as well as topics on society and energy in general. The entire site was started, and continued, by volunteers, in what might be described as a loose anarchy glued by social capital… In many ways our initial mission is over. The fact that oil depletion is real and urgent is no longer a 3+ standard deviation viewpoint (see recent IEA World Energy Outlook). However, thorough understanding of the nuances and importance of energy in our lives is still not widespread. [This article describes] our plans on how best TOD can play a role in the ongoing energy debate
– Kjell Aleklett in Australia: Scary new best friend for politicians – peak oil
– Tom Whipple: What ONE Policy Change Would You Make?
– Energy and immigration (peak oil and Mexico)
– Why Is Canada Freezing out Geothermal Power?
From the report: “The containment story thus contains two parallel threads. First, on April 20, the oil and gas industry was unprepared to respond to a deepwater blowout, and the federal government was similarly unprepared to provide meaningful supervision.
Second, in a compressed timeframe, BP was able to design, build, and use new containment technologies, while the federal government was able to develop effective oversight capacity. Those impressive efforts, however, were made necessary by the failure to anticipate a subsea blowout in the first place.”
Quite suddenly it was clear to me that the ‘endless growth’ model of western civilization was coming to an end and that this process would only be exacerbated by the effects of climate change. This time, it wasn’t just my own future that needed re-thinking, it was my son’s as well.
