Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Based on geology, many analysts have forecast the onset of the decline of world oil production in the next 2-5 years. Legitimate national interests, mismanagement, and political upheaval can only hasten that onset.
In a war zone, you have your vanguard. Then you have your tanks, your main body of troops, and your artillery. If all that fails, and you are being overrun, there is your rear guard. If they fail, and you cannot retreat, all is lost.
– Record gas prices blamed on peak oil (David Hughes interview)
– US incomes rise, but disposable income drops. Blame oil prices.
– New Scientist: Fukushima radioactive fallout nears Chernobyl levels
– Obama administration announces massive coal mining expansion
– Leading German climatologist on Fukushima
– How to Boil a Frog video excerpt – “Exponential Curves”
– Carolyn Baker interview (audio and transcript)
Bombing raids began on Libya this week as western powers combined to enforce the UN mandated no fly zone. The offensive has succeeded in its initial aim of slowing down Gaddafi’s forces, but the precise remit is unclear and a protracted conflict in the country is still highly likely.
Instead of waiting for a crisis to force these changes upon us, kicking and screaming, could we use social force multipliers – new attitudes, expectations, and behaviors – to transform these “unthinkable drastic measures” of conservation and efficiency into positive social ideals?
A midweekly roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Developments this week
-Falklands
While riveted to Fukushima, we should remember that good old fashioned coal kills 4,000 times more people per kWh than nuclear power. As George Monbiot puts it, “While nuclear causes calamities when it goes wrong, coal causes calamities when it goes right, and coal goes right a lot more often than nuclear goes wrong. The only safe coal-fired plant is one which has broken down past the point of repair.”
– Science magazine: Peak Oil Production May Already Be Here
– Japan’s nuclear crisis has silver lining (NEW)
– Bulletin of Atomic Scientists: In this nuclear world, what is the meaning of ‘safe’?
– A global energy war looms
– International Crises Boost Russia’s Energy Posture
On the surface, the nuclear crisis in Japan and the political crisis in Libya (along with at least five other countries in the region) might seem unrelated. But when it comes to our self interest here in the United States, there’s one thing that binds them together: our unquenchable need for energy and the price we pay for that addiction. And there are a few lessons I think would behoove us to learn from this month in hell…
While efficiency, substitution are key to our efforts to adapt to resource limits, they are incapable of removing those limits, and are themselves subject to the law of diminishing returns>
– Bill McKibben: Japan’s Horror Reveals How Thin is the Edge We Live On
– Nicholas Stern: Climate inaction risks a new world war
– Monbiot: We won’t trouble Saudi’s tyrants with calls to reform while we crave their oil
– Learning from Japan about Resilience
