Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
-The power of nightmares
-That’s Not the News: Clinton’s “Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy”
-Greenwald Film on Afghanistan Destroys the Logic of the War, Leading the New York Times to Whine
-Book Review: ‘Mannahatta’ by Eric Sanderson
-How to Save the News
Expecting or wanting oil prices to be “low or moderate” is at best incongruous, and at worst naive in the current economic, financial and political context.
A weekly review including:
– Production and prices
– Oil and recession
– Iran
– China expands overseas
– Quote of the Week
– Briefs
-Why You Should Still Be Worried about Peak Oil
-Comments by Jean Laherrère on “Squeezing More Oil From The Ground”, Scientific American
-North Sea Petroleum Reserves
A few short years ago, in 2005 when I started contributing here, it seemed that people could generally be partitioned into 3 main groups regarding their views about Peak Oil. By far the smallest group were those calling for a near term (<2012) peak in global oil production. A larger, and definitively more vocal and deeper pocketed group (including IHS, CERA, most Wall St. firms and energy agencies) were in the “peak oil is not real” or “peak oil is post 2020 at a minimum” camps. But by far the largest % of the population were oblivious to these debates on oils peak, unaware of the possibility and/or importance of a potential peak and decline in our socioeconomic hemoglobin.
There’s a fascinating essay by Nate Hagens over at The Oil Drum about the future of peak oil analysis and the future of The Oil Drum. In it, Hagens argues that an oil peak will almost certainly turn out to be past us, given the lack of incentive for further investment (this is, of course, the same analysis as the IEA’s recent case), and that perhaps our preoccupation with it as a defining factor is a mistake…
The human role in extinction of species and degradation of ecosystems is well documented. Since European settlement in North America, and especially after the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, we have witnessed a substantial decline in biological diversity of native taxa and profound changes in assemblages of the remaining species…We have, to the maximum possible extent allowed by our intellect and never-ending desire, consumed the planet.
What follows is four questions from an interview recently filmed in London by ASPO-USA’s Dave Bowden and Steve Andrews…“So I worry about peak oil. I worry about climate change. And I need no persuasion of the power of the alternatives to do something about both problems.”
As the fossil fuel age winds down, will the public be so amenable to setting aside additional landscapes, keeping them out-of-bounds to extractive industries? Will it even be willing to defend the national parks we already have?
A recently conducted survey of members of the global ‘Peak Oil Community’ has revealed wide-ranging negative expectations for the world in the twenty first century but also optimism on an individual basis. The findings show a view of the world drastically affected by declining global supplies of oil, expected to occur from 2007 to 2013. The effects of peak oil suggested will be wide ranging, with increases in crime, war and nationalism, and decreases in urban working, health and global population levels.
-Communist China celebrates 60th anniversary with instruments of war and words of peace
-China vows to crack down on industrial overcapacity
-China, U.S. risk rifts in Middle East: former Chinese envoy
-Nigeria and China’s oil deal still a secret
-Parades and protests mark China’s National Day
The this week was largely on a downward trajectory despite tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, until Wednesday, when the US posted lower than anticipated stockpile figures…
