Media & Communications

Saudi Aramco Loses Count, Drills Too Many Wells In Ghawar

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The Haradh III development at the southern tip of the Ghawar oil field in Saudi Arabia, completed in 2006, has been portrayed by the national oil company Saudi Aramco as the turning point in the battle between geological adversity and engineering prowess…Aided by 3D Seismic images showing fracture locations, well sites were optimized and drills were guided by remote control from Dhahran….Lots of glowing articles were published, and the man in charge eventually rode off in glory to solve the rest of the world’s oil production problems.

Want the Good Life? Your Neighbors Need It, Too

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We live in a world of deep inequality, and the gap between the rich and the poor is widening. We in the rich world generally agree that this is a problem we ought to help fix—but that the real beneficiaries will be the billions of people living in poverty. After all, inequality has little impact on the lives of those who find themselves on top of the pile. Right?

Why Is this Apocalypse Different than All Other Apocalypses?

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A lot of what I write works from the assumption that we all agree that peak oil and climate change are happening and going to be life-changing events. And yet, some people who read this blog don’t necessarily agree on this subject, or they don’t see the effects has being as profound as I do, or perhaps the idea of peak oil or climate change is fairly new to them, and they don’t know what to believe.

Washington, You Have Been Warned

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Two Brits are duking it out over the fate of the United States. Harvard historian Niall Ferguson, a Scot who believes that America’s Imperial Magnificence is fading fast, fired the opening salvo in A Greek Crisis Is Coming To America…Financial Times editor Martin Wolf weighed in to counter what he calls Ferguson’s “hysteria” in How to walk the fiscal tightrope that lies before us.

Thinking About the Unthinkable: A U.S.-Iranian Deal

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The United States apparently has reached the point where it must either accept that Iran will develop nuclear weapons at some point if it wishes, or take military action to prevent this. There is a third strategy, however: Washington can seek to redefine the Iranian question. As we have no idea what leaders on either side are thinking, exploring this represents an exercise in geopolitical theory. Let’s begin with the two apparent stark choices.

Climate Change and Environmental Education

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Probably many of the scenarios presented in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) most recent reports on the natural and social impacts of global warming will take place not in the year 2100 or even 2050…Therefore, it is critically urgent to adopt policies which truly address the environmental problems we face. Environmental education is a vital part of this call to action. As an intellectual mechanism, environmental education serves both as a means of persuasion and a way to bring about behavioral change.

The last days of economic growth

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Björn Forsberg writes about the fundamental and unavoidable conflict between the environment and the (growth-based) economy in “The last days of economic growth: Green clash over worldviews” (2007). His basic tenet is simple – it is impossible to win legitimacy for any measures that threaten economic growth, are financially burdensome, require sacrifices or are perceived as troublesome for the individual.