The quest for connection
Daniel Yergin has succeeded as a historian of energy, but failed as envisioner of a tolerable future.
Fossil Fuels
Fracking and coalbed methane: Unconventional gas in the UK
When gas fracking and other “unconventional” energy resources are discussed in the media the focus is usually on the technology used to produced the energy, or the impact this might have on the environment. In fact, the significant feature of the exploitation of unconventional energy resources is that our present energy situation is so precarious that companies and governments consider these valid energy sources; public interest demands that this aspect of the problem be examined.
How I prepared my family for peak oil – Nicole Foss (video and text)
Nicole Foss is senior editor of The Automatic Earth web site, and an international speaker integrating topics of peak oil, economics and personal preparation. In 2001, Foss moved her family from England to rural Ontario, in order to prepare her family for peak oil and economic uncertainty. Local Future nonprofit has published to YouTube the entire 40-minute presentation by Foss on her considerations for personal preparation, in advance of her keynote presentation at the International Conference on Sustainability, Transition and Culture Change: Vision, Action, Leadership.
Where did the President’s mojo go?
Increasingly, those of us who were ready to move with President Obama four years ago are deciding to leave normal channels and find new forms of action. Here’s an example: by year’s end the president has said he will make a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry crude oil from the tar sands of northern Alberta to the Gulf of Mexico.
The nation’s top climate scientists sent the administration a letter indicating that such a development would be disastrous for the climate. … But every indication from this administration suggests that it is prepared to grant the necessary permission for a project that has the enthusiastic backing of the Chamber of Commerce, and in which the Koch Brothers have a “direct and substantial interest.”
Jeremy Rifkin: The Third Industrial Revolution
The world is doomed to repeat four-year cycles of booms followed by crashes if we don’t get off oil, Jeremy Rifkin warned a Climate One audience in San Francisco on October 3. The solution, what he calls the Third Industrial Revolution, is the “Energy Internet,” a nervous system linking millions of small renewable energy producers.
Peak oil review – October 10
A weekly roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Oil and the global economy
-The EU’s financial crisis
-The Middle East
-The sands of Alberta
-Quote of the week
-Briefs
Commentary: Weak world GDP growth & “peak oil”
As we previously forecast, the decline in world oil production is likely to occur in the next 1-4 years, a year having passed since we forecast 2-5 years. Some believe that weak worldwide economic conditions will significantly extend the onset of decline. We believe that the delay will be essentially negligible.
Destroying dreams the peak oil way
It is with some trepidation that I prepare for a trip that includes an appearance before college students who generally find the idea of peak oil so disturbing that they do not want to even hear about it. And, I can’t blame them. They must think that I have come to destroy their dreams, dreams premised on a future of ever expanding material prosperity and career advancement.
Peak oil and influence – Oct 9
– WaPo: Was Wall Street to blame for high oil prices?
– Yergin: The perils, prizes and pitfalls of the post-Gaddafi era of oil
– U.S. and Saudi Relations on Oil
– McKibben: The Cronyism Behind a Pipeline for Crude
Daly’s steady-state economics
In this post I’d like to begin to review Herman Daly’s notion of how to build a steady-state economy (which were ahead of their time—the first edition was written in 1977). His ideas are both deep and simple at the same time, and should be a foundation for any future economic system.
The energy expert you shouldn’t trust
Daniel Yergin has written The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World, designed to provide information that policy-makers can rely upon in shaping energy policy for the decades ahead.
This could be a dangerous reliance, for Yergin is an advocate for the fossil fuel community, not an honest broker of information. Nearly all the data cited in the book is from his company and is proprietary and non-public, so it can’t be verified or challenged. He doesn’t appear to take seriously the views of people he doesn’t agree with, and they are not included in his extensive bibliography or interviewee list.
Peak oil – Oct 8
– Jeffrey Brown: Yergin cut his projected rate of increase in total liquids “Capacity” by 70%
– WaPo: What is ‘peak oil,’ anyway?
– Oil’s Most Accurate See No Reverse of Worst Run Since 2008: Energy Markets
– Al-Naimi Says World Oil Market Is Not Oversupplied as Demand Fluctuating
– CSM: Post oil: Glimpses of life after fossil fuel
