Fossil Fuels

Euroland, the horror movie

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An Olympian game of musical chairs in global finance heads for a climax in the days ahead as so many eyes are diverted to alternate festivities in British Columbia, where grown men compete for gold by riding things that look like cafeteria trays down icy mountainsides — is this the moment that comes every four years when you wonder why you didn’t get your kid a luge for Christmas?

The Transition Towns Movement: Its Huge Significance and a Friendly Criticism

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The world is immensely complicated, and the forces of sweeping change may overall boost transition towns for their positive contribution. Or as Ted Trainer lays out below, a course correction is needed now.

Energy Transitions and the Next “Paradigmatic Image of the World”

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The history of modern humankind has undergone two major energy transitions, marked by the invention and development of agriculture and the discovery and exploitation of oil. The two energy transitions partition human history into three phases: hunter-gatherer, agricultural, and industrial. Faber et al. (1996) refer to these phases as “Paradigmatic Images of the World,” because they describe the common structure of societies throughout the world. The most important question is “what is the next paradigmatic image of the world?”

Agricultural Commodities in Light of Peak Oil

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The subject of Peak Oil seems timely this week, as it has been pointed to in a number of news-worthy articles and video interviews. It is imperative to stay informed on this issue. This article hopes to provide some of the latest pertinent information on the subject while tying together how agricultural and oil commodities may relate to Peak Oil.

Tracking U.S. farmers’ supply of nitrogen fertilizer

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We burn through more of it per capita than any other country; and our appetite for it can only be sated with massive imports. No, not oil–I’m talking about nitrogen fertilizer. With only 5 percent of the world population, the U.S. consumes nearly 12 percent of the globe’s annual synthetic nitrogen fertilizer production. And we’re producing less and less of it at home–meaning that, as with petroleum, we’re increasingly dependent on other nations for this key crop nutrient.