Peak oil review – Feb 15
A weekly roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Prices and production
-China’s Growth
-India
-Quote of the Week
-Briefs
Media & Communications
Ethics, Epistemology and “Dirty Rotten Strategies”
All those earnest health policy analysts laboring over the pros and cons of a Public Option have made an unacknowledged ethical decision about how to allocate resources –distribute medical care and, in fact, life chances. They intellectually/ethically are constrained from asking Mitroff and Silvers’ question.
Energy Transitions and the Next “Paradigmatic Image of the World”
The history of modern humankind has undergone two major energy transitions, marked by the invention and development of agriculture and the discovery and exploitation of oil. The two energy transitions partition human history into three phases: hunter-gatherer, agricultural, and industrial. Faber et al. (1996) refer to these phases as “Paradigmatic Images of the World,” because they describe the common structure of societies throughout the world. The most important question is “what is the next paradigmatic image of the world?”
Biofuels – Feb 15
-America’s Food-To-Fuel Problem
-EU biofuels significantly harming food production in developing countries
-Burn Up the Biosphere and Call It Renewable Energy
-Palm oil deal ‘a threat to the rainforest’
Climate change deniers and our human nature
The reason such sloppy critiques of climate science have gained so much traction with the public has less to do with their scientific logic–which is almost nonexistent–and more to do with human psychology.
Tales from the riverbanks
The transition to a sustainable economy requires that we lock horns with the beasts that stalk the corporate jungle, if only to replace their world of testosterone and risk with one of stability and mutuality, argues green economist Molly Scott Cato. So what can we propose as our vision for the banking system?
Leading the way to a low-energy future
My disappointment in government leaders is matched by my admiration for a new influential group of Americans, whom I call lifestyle leaders — those who take matters into their own hands, by building gardens, weatherizing their homes, getting rid of their cars… Believing this group may hold the key to the rapid dissemination of low-energy lifestyles, I conducted an online survey of 2,005 of them in late 2009.
Agricultural Commodities in Light of Peak Oil
The subject of Peak Oil seems timely this week, as it has been pointed to in a number of news-worthy articles and video interviews. It is imperative to stay informed on this issue. This article hopes to provide some of the latest pertinent information on the subject while tying together how agricultural and oil commodities may relate to Peak Oil.
More peak oil – Feb 12
-Richard Branson Gives Peak Oil Street Cred
-The next crisis: Peak oil
-Oil shortages by 2020 due to Western ‘profligacy’, says energy boss
Tracking U.S. farmers’ supply of nitrogen fertilizer
We burn through more of it per capita than any other country; and our appetite for it can only be sated with massive imports. No, not oil–I’m talking about nitrogen fertilizer. With only 5 percent of the world population, the U.S. consumes nearly 12 percent of the globe’s annual synthetic nitrogen fertilizer production. And we’re producing less and less of it at home–meaning that, as with petroleum, we’re increasingly dependent on other nations for this key crop nutrient.
Food & agriculture – Feb 12
-Children ‘believe sheep lay eggs’
-Red wigglers could be the new black gold
-The GM tomato that stays fresh for SIX WEEKS – but would you want to eat it?
-India bans planting of first GM food crop
-Another Assault on the SOLE Food Movement
-Legislation intended to help orchard companies
-Demand for food “staggering”
Methane Hydrates
I recently received an e-mail from the normally level-headed National Academy of Sciences alerting me to the great potential of methane hydrates in fixing the climate and meeting our future energy needs.
