Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Two think tanks, on different sides of the world, published peak oil reports earlier this month – generating very different levels of media and web coverage. It would be a pity if the Australian version is overlooked, as it provides a remarkably balanced overview of the whole peak oil debate.
Wednesday saw the release of BP’s Deepwater Horizon Accident Investigation report – the company’s version of the events that led to the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. BP admits responsibility for some of the list of technical and human failures which it says led to the disaster, but also heaps blame on both the rig owners Transocean and contractors Halliburton…
Someday there will be thousands of scholarly books on how political systems coped or failed during the transition from fossil fuel-sustained civilizations to that which is to come. For now, however, there are practically none as only a relative handful of the 6.7 billion on earth today have even a glimmer that the great transition is underway.
There’s a palpable sense of expectation as we cruise down the canal. Two dozen people and barely a word passes between us. It’s not the roar of the triple outboard engines, nor the forced camaraderie of strangers thrust together, with only their environmentalisms in common. Rather, it’s the sense that we’re travelling towards something—not a place, but a phenomenon, an event—whose name we know but whose face we have not yet seen.
-BP oil spill disaster report paves way for bitter legal battle
-BP Spill Report Hints at Legal Defense
-BP oil spill report: the Deepwater Horizon blame game
-Toxic dispersants in Gulf oil spill creating hidden marine crisis
-Gulf Doctors Advised to Learn to Treat Oil-Related Illnesses
-Oxygen drops near BP spill but no “dead zone”-US
A midweek roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Prices and production
-The BP report
In this seven part KrisCan interview with energy analyst Chris Nelder, they cover topics ranging from the consequences of the moratorium from the Macondo well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico to the legitimacy of Cap and Trade; how U.S. offshore oil drilling will affect domestic oil supply in the coming decade and how policy in America curtails the incentivizing of an energy transition to more renewable sources.
Nicole Foss, a.k.a. Stoneleigh, of “The Automatic Earth” launches her modern day “Paul Revere” style tour in Michigan on September 10. Foss received rave reviews for her presentation at the Transition Towns UK conference, and recently appeared on the Financial Sense News Hour with Jim Puplava. Foss takes a “big picture” approach and describes peak oil in the context of the economic crisis, adding essential information to the understanding of the future.
A weekly roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Oil and the global economy
-Food
-The moratorium
-The Bundeswehr on peak oil
The April 2010 oil leak in the Mexican Gulf illustrates the risks being taken to extract oil from inaccessible fields, and in June a Lloyd’s 360° risk insight report said, “we have entered a period of deep uncertainty in how we will source energy for power, heat and mobility and how much we will pay for it.” The reason why such damaging extraction methods are pursued, and why Lloyd’s are telling us we face a “new energy paradigm” rather than normal market volatility, is that oil discoveries peaked 40 years ago, and oil supply is probably at its maximum, with decline soon to follow. This has substantial implications for transport, food, jobs, health, and health care.
The Witch of Hebron picks up a couple of months after World Made by Hand ended. Returning to the small upstate New York town of Union Grove, the new book further defines the post-apocalyptic setting, adds depth to characters who played only minor parts in the first story, ties up loose ends from the previous book and introduces some all new dilemmas. And it does all of this against the backdrop of a full-moon Halloween, lending a delicious sense of foreboding to the proceedings.
