Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Jeff Rubin on oil prices: another spike on the horizon
World Bank specialist: The 2008 oil price spike and the airline industry
New taxes for oil and gas companies: where does this lead us?
The final shape of the European energy market is emerging: an oligopoly
Wendell Berry and Bill McKibben call for mass civil disobedience against coal
A global Green Deal
Labour – These fossil fools
With superb insight, wisdom and erudition—one is almost tempted to say omniscience—Alexis Zeigler’s Culture Change charts an ambitious course for the future of our civilization. The book calls for a revolution to bring about what Zeigler terms a “conscious culture” capable of responding intelligently to our ecological crisis. (Full book title: Culture Change: Civil Liberty, Peak Oil, and the End of Empire)
A weekly review from a UK perspective.
Oil: How Low Can It Go?
‘Next oil shock will be far worse than $147 a barrel’
TOD’s Khebab: Analysis of Decline Rates
A Few Thoughts on US Petroleum Demand, Inventories, and Prices
U.S. Congress Begins Talks On Energy Bill
Let the Clean Energy Revolution Begin
The Climate Change Lobby Explosion
Administration blocks more Bush-era oil shale development leases
Economic-growth-constraining “peak oil” and the financial crisis are two sides of the same coin. Both signal limits to growth. Recognizing this is not imminent; it slips through the grasp of conventional economics.
[Peak oil prophets] are national heroes for sounding the alarm before anyone believed them. They have often been right, and any solar-powered Mayberrys of 2100 should have statues of them in the town square. But their long-held note of dread is useful only to the extent that it inspires people to do something more practical. The world we create will be, up to a point, whatever we were preparing for, and as we enter the opening years of the crisis, it is time we all take a deep breath and talk about what we realistically expect from the future.
Weekly round up from a UK perspective.
A mid-week review, including:
– Prices and production
– The Automakers
If the report that OPEC exports are really down by 4.3 million b/d is true, we are likely to be seeing some sort of reaction in the form of higher prices shortly. All the evidence suggests that while oil demand dropped last fall, reports from the major agencies, the IEA and EIA, do not suggest that the drop in consumption is as much as the 4.3 million b/d that OPEC is trying to cut.
What matters now more than ever, and what is getting lost in all the immediate economic turmoil, is the unprecedented scope of the problems we face in the 21st century. Great change is inevitable. Trying to hang on to the way things have been—seemingly endless exponential GDP growth— is a mistake. Focusing exclusively on fixing the economy to get back on the business-as-usual growth track obscures much bigger problems coming down the road.
