Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
We are now approaching the first-year anniversary of Peak Oil Day. Where are we now? The global economy is in tatters, yet oil prices have recovered somewhat (they’re now about half what they were in July 2008). World energy consumption is down, world trade is down, the airline industry is shrinking, and most of the world’s automakers are on life support.
This post talks about a seldom-mentioned aspect of local sustainable food production: how do we get our carbs? Local and urban fruit and veg production is all very well and needs to be encouraged, but as East Anglia Food Link Coordinator Tully Wakeman says, “…fruit and veg supplies only about 10% of our calories”. How and where our grains are grown, and how they can be sustainably transported and processed form the crux of this issue.
Bugging Out
How Politics Works and Why Activism is So Important
Risk Assessments: Playing the “What If?” Game
The Future of Transport
Dopamine Returned on Energy Invested (DREI)?
Tällberg Forum 2009
One Second After: A Book Review from a Prepper’s Perspective
Ruins of a Second Gilded Age
The debate about when the world will reach peak oil production is not a new one. But recently, as the price of crude oil has been unusually volatile, the issue of peak production has received heightened attention in the media, and the tone has changed in the discussions among oil industry and energy watchdogs about the future of global oil supply.
A weekly review from a UK perspective – “The first round in the great Iraqi oil sale was an interesting affair if not a very conclusive one. In the live TV auction which took place on Tuesday, only one deal was reached as international oil companies refused to meet the terms demanded…
A weekly round-up including:
– Prices and production
– The auction
BP shuts alternative energy HQ
ExxonMobil continuing to fund climate sceptic groups, records show
Oil companies reject Iraq’s terms
…the ongoing healthcare debate in Washington is anachronistic. A future oriented analysis has to include two driving forces: first, the long-term consequences of the fiscal/economic crisis and, second, the arrival of geological peak oil…
If we are to have any chance of working our way out of this mess, we must avoid regressive thinking, stay calm, appreciate complexity, and think clearly about the right course of action. I’m going to take a proper look at speculation in the oil market to see what the problems are and what we might actually do about them.
Just a year and a half after a breakthrough Solar Grand Plan study was published in the January 2008 Scientific American, the U.S. government has begun plans to implement major elements of such a Plan.
Oil prices are inching upwards again. Just as last year, some people are starting to tell fairy tales instead of facing the reality of limited oil supplies.
Nuclear power is well-disguised fossil fuel
Nuclear power must be part of energy solution
UK regulator raises French nuclear concerns
