The Fight of Our Time: Bill McKibben’s Thought Bubble
The fossil fuel industry is quickly destroying the planet, and making the fight to protect our future increasingly challenging as industry lobbying, and unabated growth continues…
Fossil Fuels
Shale gas – Aug 9
-Study links Texas earthquakes to drilling disposal wells
-Fracking poses risk to water systems, research suggests: U.S. study
-China Drills Into Shale Gas, Targeting Huge Reserves Amid Challenges
-Shale Gas And The Overhyping Of Its CO2 Reductions
-A ‘War on Shale Gas’?
Peak oil notes – August 9
A midweekly roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Developments this week
Climate change and developing countries
This post continues a theme I covered in my book Power Plays. Part 1 covered the impact on oil price and supply in Petroleum Demand in Developing Countries. Here I discuss some of the climate change implications.
The New Paradigm: Volatile Oil Markets
So far 2012 is the fourth most volatile year for oil prices since 1982. The other top three years were 2007, 2008 and 2009. Since the production of oil from conventional sources peaked in 2005 we have reached a new paradigm: highly volatile oil prices.
Profiteers of Climate Change in the Arctic
Seventy percent of the Arctic’s natural gas reserves are thought to be on Russian territory. It’s no wonder then that Russia is particularly active in the Arctic at the moment. Last year a deal was announced between Rosneft, Russia’s largest state petroleum company, and ExxonMobil to extract petroleum and gas in the Arctic. Billions are to be invested in these projects over the coming years. Jonas Grätz is convinced: “Russia is one of the major winners from the situation in the Arctic.” Grätz is a scientist at the Center for Security Studies (CSS) at ETH Zurich and has just published an analysis of the conflict potential in the region.
Degrowth, expensive oil, and the new economics of energy
Our understandings and expectations of the world have been shaped by our experience of economic growth. The dynamic stability of that growth has habituated us to what is ‘normal.’ That normal must soon shatter. – David Korowicz
Degrowth, expensive oil, and the new economics of energy
Our understandings and expectations of the world have been shaped by our experience of economic growth. The dynamic stability of that growth has habituated us to what is ‘normal.’ That normal must soon shatter. – David Korowicz
Peak oil review – August 6
A weekly roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Oil and the global economy
-The Middle East
-India’s power grid
-Kurdistan
-Quote of the week
-Briefs
Commentary: Peak Oil, Declining EROI and the New Energy-Economic Reality
This week in the ASPO-USA Webinar series, Dr. Charles A.S. Hall presented his talk “Peak Oil, Declining EROI and the New Energy-Economic Reality. Dr. Hall was trained as a systems ecologist by Howard Odum at the University of North Carolina. Today he is ESF Foundation Distinguished Professor at State University of New York in the College of Environmental Science & Forestry. He is also the author of Energy and the Wealth of Nations: Understanding the Biophysical Economy.
Mitt Romney: peak oiler?
In his 2010 book, Romney speaks about Peak Oil, cites Matt Simmons’s book “Twilight in the desert” and says that, “whether the peak is already past or will be reached within a few years, world oil supply will decline at some point.” And then he doesn’t say that the solution is just drilling more. He says that using less oil and in finding alternatives for it are just as important as solutions.
How cascading failures in the global finance system could mean TEOTWAWKI
I’ve met David Korowicz and he is a thoughtful, deeply knowledgeable, highly analytical, caring man who worries that the global system we now labor under is headed for what might be called the ultimate crash. To Korowicz, a physicist turned risk consultant, that system resembles nothing so much as a house of cards waiting to be blown down by the next financial hurricane that comes its way.
