ODAC Newsletter – Sep 24

Energy Secretary Chris Huhne has given the strongest indication yet that the coalition government is actually considering the possible impacts of peak oil. “We will have a world where there may be lots of shocks, we may well have oil price rises which are similar to the ones that we had in the 1970s, a doubling”, he told a fringe meeting of the Lib Dem conference…

Will resource production networks warn us before failing?

1) There is a theoretical limit to how long a networked resource system can continue to function.
2) This limit is reached with little warning.
3) Even after the limit is approached and the squeeze on networked resources starts, the nature of the problem is not apparent to the resource producers, who are likely to say “there is still plenty of our resource available – we just need more inputs and better price signals”

Twenty-first century energy superpower

If you want to know which way the global wind is blowing (or the sun shining or the coal burning), watch China. That’s the news for our energy future and for the future of great-power politics on planet Earth. Washington is already watching — with anxiety.