Oil

Skills and Materials for Post-Petroleum Economies

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Margot McDowell is a sail maker and seamstress in Anacortes, Washington. She has a counterpart here and there in the region, such as a woman in Port Townsend and a woman in Bellingham. Considering the number of sailboats and ongoing demand for more sails and sail repair, these sail makers barely comprise a local industry. This is because the great majority of sails are made in Taiwan — made out of Dacron, a petroleum product.

There and Back Again – The Opening of Cornucopia LLC

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Dear theoildrum.com readers. Many of you may have wondered about my absence here over the last 6 months or so. Suffice it to say that I’ve had a sea change of understanding about both our situation and on the opportunities it presents. As such, I’ve made some career change decisions, which Kyle and Gail are allowing me to share with you here (based on my prior efforts at TOD). Starting May 1, I have accepted an offer from Goldman Sachs to become a Managing Partner in a new energy and resource hedge fund where I’ll be one of three people responsible for security selection and risk management. Details, and the story of how I came to ‘see the light’ on resource depletion opportunities are below the fold. Basically I feel like a kid in a candy store.

China’s global shopping spree

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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.

 

Peak oil & supplies – March 30

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– Falkland Islands drilling disappoints for Desire
– Books about oil: FT says we’ll be slower, more local
– How the majors see ‘business as usual’ on oil and climate
– Postponing peak oil with Fatih Birol, chief economist of the IEA
– Highlights from the first year of the FT Energy Source blog

World energy briefing hears of peak oil by 2020

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The world’s energy ministers are currently discussing a forecast of global oil supplies “peaking between 2020-2025.” The International Energy Forum is the world’s largest gathering of Energy Ministers, who collectively represent “more than 90 per cent of global oil and gas supply and demand.” It is meeting March 29 –31 at the Mexican resort of Cancun. It will be considering peak oil with a document titled Unpacking Uncertainty: Investment Issues in the Petroleum Sector, written by “strategic advisors” PFC Energy, chosen to give an impartial overview of the various oil supply claims.

That Which May Be Gained: A Return to Scale, Community, and Morality

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Bound by the tangled cord of its own sins, Industrial Civilization sits immobilized — with the gun of reality pressed to its temple. Monumental changes are imminent – probably (hopefully) a swirling mix of both bad and good. In order to maintain our present sanity and maximize chances for the best possible futures, we need to both envision and embody the positive change we wish to see in the coming post-carbon era. As such, I suggest this: a return to life at a proper ‘human’ scale, the reclamation of functional human communities, and the widespread internalization and application of a true morality.

Peak Moment 169: The Sacred Demise of Industrial Civilization (transcript added)

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As a historian, Carolyn Baker has a keen eye for current events that are indicators of the collapse we’re seeing all around us. But she’s also a psychologist concerned about how we personally navigate the turbulence and find meaning within it. The author of Sacred Demise: Walking the Spiritual Path of Industrial Civilization’s Collapse, she describes the old story that isn’t working anymore (humans are separate from nature), and the new story we must live by for real sustainability.