Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Natural gas woes bigger than crude oil /
Business braces for dramatic hikes in NG bills /
Drive less, if you can /
Food security limits China’s biofuels /
French grain & beets for ethanol surging /
China to spend $17B on 6 hyrdro plants /
Nuclear plants planned for US Gulf states /
China: Reactors? We’ll take thirty, please /
Tim Flannery on a nuclear future /
Flannery on geothermal
No one knows how much is left, but humankind can’t wait any longer before coming up with alternatives…I have now read 4,000 pages of reports on global oil supply, and I know less about it than I did before I started. The only firm conclusion I have reached is that the people sitting on the world’s reserves are liars.
Good discussion of the dominant worldview in America and some sobering ideas of where we might be headed, and how it may be the best thing for us.
Peak Oil conferences in Yellow Springs Ohio (Sept 23-25), Frederick, Maryland (Sept 26) and New York City (Oct 5).
“Oil is like a girlfriend, you know from the beginning that one day she’s going to leave you,” is how Mr Birol sums up the situation. “If you don’t want your heart broken, you’d better leave her before she leaves you.”
Hurricane Rita coverage from The Oil Drum / On Low Quality Hydrocarbons / For Oil Companies, Less Is More / How US can cope when gas prices surge / Push to build new US refineries / Richard Branson, Oil Tycoon?
Kenneth Deffeyes, former colleague of M. king Hubbert, frequently tells the story of how he knew Hubbert was right about his US oil peak prediction when he read the headline “Texas Railroad Commission announces 100% allowable” in 1971. The American cartel was pumping full blast.
I wonder what he thought when he read this headline…
MYTH NO. 3: We’re running out of oil.
REALITY: This one is true. Sort of. Unlike wind or water, oil is not a renewable resource. So by definition we’re using it up, in the same way that we are all dying all the time. …
The real problem with the peak-oil argument has less to do with engineering than with philosophy. It lacks imagination.
Can global civilization adapt successfully to degradation of the biosphere and depletion of fossil fuels? I argue that it cannot. …
I conclude that those who seek to preserve civilization should plan for its survival in restricted regions.
Mass Rally Paralyses Lagos / French anger grows at fuel prices / Plastics industry reeling from oil, gas hikes – Can’t pass on costs / Aus. Minister admits cluelessness on oil solutions / Why China is not backing Bush on Iran / Guzzling Resale Value / Soaring oil prices fuel smuggling in Cambodia / McDonald’s feels petrol pain
Across Central America, where a quarter of the people live on less than $1 a day, the cost of filling gas tanks and generating electricity have soared in recent months in line with world oil prices.
Not all-bad story, some signs of hope.
US Oil shale – 20 years before reach 1mil/b/day / At Time of Epic Storms, Oil Industry Thinks Anew / US Dept Interior says onshore damage ‘major hindrance’ to Gulf oil recovery / Matt Simmons steps down as CEO of Simmons & Co. International
