Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
The ASPO conference was back to the old continent with a joint organization by ASPO-Belgium and ASPO-Netherlands. Set at the political heart of Europe with an ambitious programme that called in many speakers outside the ASPO circle, even outside the ASPO view of the world, the expectation was high.
The dramatic story of oil drilling in Texas: “On January 10, [1901] at around 10:30 a.m. the Lucas Gusher at Spindletop blew. The oil spray, which could be seen for ten miles, was fully six inches across and rose to over 200 ft above the derrick . . . . Nine days and 800,000 barrels later, they cut the gusher off.”
– Protests Against Forced Eviction from US-Backed Coal Mine Continue in Bangladesh
– Shell and Cairn Energy Announce ‘Risky’ Drilling Plans in Arctic
– Why is the UK backing biomass power?
Barbastro seemed to be willing to tackle wider questions and to ask unmentionable questions; for instance, do we really own everything in this planet? If we are justified in poisoning people in order to produce combustible liquids and gas, why don’t we jump to the ultimate consequence and turn human corpses into oil? Some talks in Brussels were frankly scary, but in Barbastro some presentations made you feel like running away screaming.
– Alaska’s Peak Oil Realities
– Iraq halves oil output (target) as reality replaces ambition
– Peak oil appears in NPR blog
– EU Plans Measures to Tackle Resource Crunch
– Neue DERA-Kurzstudie zu schweren Seltenen Erden: Entwicklung “Grüner Technologien” durch kritische Versorgungslage gefährdet
– Oil’s Plunge, Dollar’s Rise Trigger Broad Selloff
– It’s Time for Obama to Spook the Oil Markets (by opening the SPR)
– Michele Bachmann is wrong about oil
According to The Times, Iraq’s oil ministry is to reset its oil production target for 2017 reducing it down from 12 million barrels per day to between 6.6-7 mb/d. The news is of no surprise to anyone (with the possible exception of Donald Trump)…
Perhaps the most dramatic example of how oil and water don’t mix can be found in the middle of the planet’s great oceans and seas in the form of litter gyres, rotating currents laden with countless bits of floating debris, mainly plastic and Styrofoam, all of which were pushed to the middle of these great bodies of water by the currents that circle them.
At some point in the future, perhaps even that soon, politicians and Administrators are going to complain “but nobody told us!!” and rush to blame the industry yet again. But the truth is that there was a group that was keeping the records, and who could tell those with the responsibility to fix it that there was a problem. And the Administration just closed it down. We will regret that lack of information and the warning messages that it would have brought.
On Tuesday 3 May The Greens and the European Free Alliance arranged a Peak Oil seminar in the EU Parliament entitled: Peak oil: Weaning Europe off its oil addiction.
– Act now on peak oil or curtail mobility, says European Commission
– The Mother Of All Price Signals Is Upon Us, Says Investor Jeremy Grantham
– Big oil price swings are here to stay (video)
– Russia halts petrol exports
Greens are portrayed in the media as profits of doom, as though a fascination with the negative impacts of our lifestyle might be some sort of psychological flaw. My own view is that we are closer to reality than the vast majority of the population, who are trapped in denial about the ecological crisis, but none the less I think it is worth re-evaluating the extraordinary achivements of the 200-year oil bloom.
