Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
In this captivating tale, we accompany Cornucopian Man and his faithful side-kick, Economics-Professor Boy, as they battle the confidence-destroying forces of Biophysical Reality. In today’s adventure, our heroes try to stop the nefarious villains from spilling pure Truth onto (gasp!) the front page of the New York Times. It’s a riveting story rife with rollicking adventure, knee-slapping humor, and some ‘deep thought’ to boot!
-Obama Adds Troops, but Maps Exit Plan
-Iran vows to expand its nuclear program
-A strategy to encourage Afghans and allies alike
-Iran left out in the cold
The first wells of the modern era (there may have been older ones, I don’t know) were six drilled around 1998 in the North Falklands Basin. A sniff of gas and oil was found in two of them. Other wells have since been drilled, and nothing found anything to write home about. The current minor hoo-hah relates to an old well which has been “re-interpreted” to suggest that it did cut oil-bearing reservoir. Since the early wells, FOG and Desire have been at the forefront, raising funds for more seismic and drilling, together with Rockhopper and one or two other minors and special vehicles. A few of the majors have partnered some work.
With a long-time eye to declining energy resources, Bart Anderson envisions a very different society in five years. The former editor of Energy Bulletin.net offers advice for post-oil living: Understand the problem. Prepare psychologically for big shifts and the unexpected. Find your niche and get good at it. See what your great grandparents did as a model for living well within limits. “Live poor and learn to do it well” as Bart did as a graduate student. Things will be very different, he said, but we’ll make it through.
I’ve gottten literally dozens of emails begging me to weigh in on the East Anglia climate scandal, and for a while, I was reluctant to do so, because ultimately, paying attention to something so inane just gives it credibility. We’re back, again, to the old battles over climate change — attention to trivialities in the absence of the central issue.
Most of us have heard that Dubai World is asking for a six month delay in paying back its debt. The debt was supposedly backed by the Dubai government, so Standard & Poor’s considers this a default of the Dubai government.
A few people have been in touch to ask whether, in the light of the recent illegal hacking into UEA’s emails, and the proposition by climate deniers that some of the emails that have emerged prove climate change is a scam, Transition Network now intends to renounce the absurd notion of human-induced climate change. Of course not.
Randy Udall, Dr. Robert Costanza, Albert Bates, Richard Douthwaite, Stephanie Mills, Michael Brownlee, Megan Quinn Bachman, and Thomas Greco tackle peak oil, climate change, and monetary collapse at the Conference on Michigan’s Future: Energy, Economy and Environment 2009.
As we look to the future and recovery, what should we expect? Will US oil consumption recover, or is the country fated to make do with permanently lower levels of oil consumption?
A weekly review including:
– Dubai’s early impact
– China in 2010
– Copenhagen
– Quote of the Week
– Briefs
We cannot be lulled into a false sense of security: though oil prices have declined from their historic highs, there is little doubt that peak oil is real. A 2008 research project completed at Washington University in St. Louis found strong evidence in support of the theory. Please feel free to circulate this academic document as a primer on peak oil.
Concern over running out of cheap oil is superfluous in the ruling economic doctrine’s fantasy world.
