Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Richard Heinberg identifies the essential axioms of sustainability and ties them to current economic trends such as the high and volatile prices of oil and other commodities. Species survival will require more than “Sustainability Lite,” a vague commitment to more environmentally benign practices, but instead an all-encompassing effort to live within the ultimate resource limits of the planet.
Roubini on peak oil
Canadian farm energy study acknowledges peak oil
Oil Rises, Oil Falls – The History of Oil Meets the Perfect Energy Trifecta
Global energy investment hit by financial crisis
Deflation, Reflation and Our Oil Future
Drawing parallels with the current financial meltdown, Matthew Simmons, the CEO of Simmons & Company International, expresses his alarm about gasoline stocks being the lowest in several decades and refinery production down following recent hurricanes. He warns that if there were a run on the “energy bank” by everyone topping off their gasoline tanks, the U.S. would be out of fuel in three days, and grocery shelves largely emptied in a week.
This overview of our economic future relates to the “peak oil” issue in a very straightforward way. Oil demand and prices will remain depressed during the deflationary period (2008 Quarter III–?) and then rebound as they did in recent years when inflation takes hold again.
A weekly update including:
– Prices
– Curbing emissions and consumption
The issue of planning for and administering fuel emergencies is complex and multi-layered, involving a range of commercial interests, government agencies and a tangle of legislation, policies and jurisdictions, one of the largest and most influential of which is the International Energy Agency, an autonomous body within the framework of the OECD.
Price Trends: Gasoline and CPI Are Twins
Davos confronted by peak of distrust
Putin and Wen, ‘Cocky’ No More, Pay Davos Price for Recession
It is clear that oil depletion will overwhelm our economies and global warming may overwhelm much more But for people who are newly unemployed, impoverished, homeless and don’t have enough to eat, the President and Congress must hold out the promise of near-term help.
Prospects for constructing a pipeline that would make Europe less dependent on Russian gas and Gazprom’s disputes with Ukraine seem only marginally better after the conference.
Russian oil production reaches its peak
EU spending spree brings carbon capture closer to reality
UK gets biofuels research centre
Britain’s energy industry is nosediving into a dark, uncertain future
Wind power set to decline under Obama?
Reactivating Nuclear Reactors for the Fight against Climate Change
Advice to Pres. Obama (#6): Beware the Hungry Ghosts
These four presentations were taped at the ASPO-USA 2008 conference. Morey Wolfson’s GoogleEarth presentation zooms into global Choke Points, primarily in the middle east. Jeff Vail discusses geopolitical elements to energy limitations. Tom Whipple describes ASPO resources and current energy strains. Terry Backer explains how to get a peak oil resolution through a legislative body.
