Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
One of the worldās foremost educators on Peak Oil, Richard Heinberg, in an exclusive interview for MMNews: āWe are currently seeing the end of economic growth as we have known it.ā Further on, he talks about the financial / economic crisis, monetary changes vis-Ć -vis a shrinking energy supply, and the Century of Declines: āPeak Everything.ā
This is a case study in which you are invited to answer the question, “What did the Easter Islander who cut down the last palm tree say while he was doing it?”
Now, if you are wondering why a falling water level in the Venezuelan highlands should be if interest to Americans, the answer is easy. Despite years of political tensions between the Chavez government and Washington, the U.S. is still importing some 800,000 barrels a day of crude from Venezuela.
– Blood on the streets in Kyrgyzstan revolt
– Upheaval in Kyrgyzstan as leader flees
– Kyrgyzstan at the hub of superpowersā plans
– Bloodshed on streets of Kyrgyzstan as government cracks down on protesters
– The Pentagon also expects an imminent oil shock
– Peak oil man [Colin Campbell] shifts focus to peak price, demand
– DECC start to āgetā peak oilā¦ or maybe not
– Saudi Arabiaās crucial role in the crude price outlook
-Dash for Polandās gas could end Russian stranglehold
-Natural-Gas Data Overstated
-BP fights to limit controls on shale gas drilling
A weekly review including:
– Production and prices
– China shifts on Iran
– A busy week in Washington
– World Energy Conference
– Quote of the Week
– Energy Stat of the Week
– Briefs
– From Lithuania, a view of austerityās costs
– Israel’s “green” strategy to defeat enemies
– How to visit a socialist country (Cuba)
– Post-peak oil reality trumps right wing trend
World Energy ministers met this week in Cancun for the latest session of the International Energy Forum. The meeting resulted in a declaration committing its 66 signatories to an “enhanced global producer-consumer energy dialogue”. As if on cue, the oil price reached its highest point in 2010 on Wednesday at over $83/barrel…
Think of it as a tale of two countries. When it comes to procuring the resources that make industrial societies run, China is now the shopaholic of planet Earth, while the United States is staying at home. Hard-hit by the global recession, the United States has experienced a marked decline in the consumption of oil and other key industrial materials. Not so China.
One aspect of the predicament of industrial society too rarely grasped is the impact of the end of the age of cheap abundant energy on labor costs, wages, and standards of living. In a world where everything is scarce but people, many of the most deeply rooted economic assumptions bid fair to be stood on their heads, with results few of us are prepared to face.
Gazprom, the largest natural gas company in the world, is experiencing a moment of truth. And so, by extension, is Russia, which has relied on the behemoth for a large part of its tax revenue, and as a spearpoint of its foreign policy. The main ramifications are a shakeup in security presumptions in Europe and on the Caspian Sea, both of which until recently have seemed to be under Gazpromās thumb.
