Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
– The Nature of Oil: Reconsidering American Power in the Middle East
– The Expert’s Report that Damns the Northern Gateway Pipeline (David Hughes)
– Plentiful Energy – the book on the Integral Fast Reactor
– Fidel Castro on fracking and climate change (cites Yergin)
The Northern Gateway Pipeline will explosively increase the scale of oil sands production at a level not in the national interest, says David Hughes, one of Canada’s foremost energy analysts.
Fears of an EU recession gained ground this week with news that the German economy shrank in Q4. In oil markets this dunked oil prices to a New Year low – though they quickly recovered on Thursday in response to renewed concerns of supply disruption. In Nigeria unions threatened to escalate nationwide strikes to the oil production sector at the weekend if the government fails to reverse recent cuts in fuel subsidies.
New Zealand will inevitably make a transition to a steady-state economy. The onset of energy descent — having less and less energy to use with each passing decade — will push it to do so sooner rather than later. The critical question is whether the transition to a steady-state economy will be by design or disaster.
– Revolving Door: From Top Futures Regulator to Top Futures Lobbyist
– Pew Research Center: Rising Share of Americans See Conflict Between Rich and Poor
– Bill Moyers: Back With a New Series
– Bill Moyers: “They are occupying Wall Street because Wall Street has occupied America.”
A weekly roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Developments this week
Given industrial food’s dependence on petroleum, it’s easy to conclude that peak oil poses a serious threat to our food supply. And it’s likewise easy, given the importance of food in our lives, to conclude that making food peak-oil-resilient is one of the first things to worry about. So it’s a nice surprise to hear permaculturist extraordinaire Toby Hemenway argue that food is in fact the last thing to worry about.
– New documentary: “The Crisis of Civilization” with Dr. Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed
– Peak Oil, Energy Descent, and the Fate of Consumerism
– Coming to terms with Nature, (Spanish and Italian)
– Boom and doom: Revisiting prophecies of collapse (New Scientist)
Heinberg’s overarching message is that the current economic downturn is not temporary and that, because we have now reached fundamental, unalterable ecological limits, economic growth is gone for good. In other words, the world is in for a permanent economic depression, as currently defined.
Short of a supply disruption, it is hard to imagine U.S. gasoline prices going to $5 a gallon this year, although $4 looks like a good bet. The economic and political turmoil that would ensue as gasoline climbed beyond $4 without any obvious cause would be unprecedented. With the US in the midst of federal elections, pressure on the administration to do something as more and more people were forced out of work would be unprecedented.
– Biofuels become a victim of own success – but not for long
– Brazil, short of biofuel, can’t open spigot to US
– Keystone XL pipeline: Oil chief issues threat to Obama over decision
– Oil sands pipeline battle turns ugly
– Arab News: Renewables making inroads in emerging global energy mix
What about the Faustian bargain? It remains deeply hidden from view because its exposure by the high priests of modern economics would force us to rethink how we live and why we live this way, as well as what we’re planning to leave for future generations. The Faustian bargain goes something like this: Thanks to the discovery and exploitation of fossil fuels, humans (really just a small minority of them) are able to live richer lives today than even the queens and kings of yore could have dreamed of.
