Solutions & sustainability – Jan 29
-Oil Is Too Important To Burn In Cars
-Beyond rhetoric
-three paths to a low-car city
-Saving Sub-Sahara Africa a Drip at a Time
-How Can Haiti Be Sustainable?
-Straw Homes That Would Have Foiled the Wolf
Oil
The Peak Oil Crisis: A Meeting in California
Absent from the meeting was any representation from our political leadership who are currently busy: 1) denying there is a problem; 2) trying to spend our way out of the recession; or 3) simply overcome by the pace of events and do not want to rock the boat by speaking publically on such matters before the next election.
Peak oil, prices, and supplies – Jan 28
-Shell forced into oil sands U-turn
-IEA to Meet CFTC, OPEC, Banks on Curbing Speculation
-Clueless about oil prices
-Team of Rivals
Peak oil notes – Jan 28
A midweek roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Prices and production
-Venezuela
Oil talk at Davos – Jan 28
-Davos – Global Energy Outlook
-Davos 2010: a new peak in oil production is needed, energy leaders argue
-Conflicting views over ‘peak oil’
January 2010 US Natural Gas Update
Natural gas prices continue their recovery. Cold weather has caused high levels of space heating that have resulted in reduced gas storage inventories. Henry Hub spot prices have recovered from their September $2.18 low to an average price of $5.56/MMbtu in the week ending January 22, 2010 (Figure 1). The average daily spot price for 2009 was $3.95/MMbtu…
A short history of peak oil preparation
Frankly, when I first learned about peak oil, I was a bit freaked out. But after time, a little too much wine, a lot of research, and some productive action, I recovered, and went on to slowly change my attitude, expectations, and lifestyle to accommodate a radically different reality from the one I previously knew.
Growth Isn’t Possible (report excerpt)
As economist Herman Daly once commented, he would accept the possibility of infinite growth in the economy on the day that one of his economist colleagues could demonstrate that Earth itself could grow at a commensurate rate.
Web & media – Jan 26
-Past Peak Oil Travelling towards Transition
-Why Transition? Creating a Brighter Future
-The Future of our Food Supply
-‘Peak water’ could flush civilisation
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The Food System and Resilience
For something as critical as food, it is common sense that society should design for resilience. Reliability in food production in the face of change requires a system capable of rapid evolution. Resilience is therefore a core principle of sustainability.
Wanted: two miracles
First, we need a miraculous comprehensive substitute for crude oil. Then we need a miraculous removal of carbon from the atmosphere. We need the first miracle right now. We need the second within a generation.
Jeff Rubin at the The Business of Climate Change Conference 2009 (transcript added)
Jeff Rubin, the former Chief Economist of CIBC World Markets and the author of Why Your World Is About To Get A Whole Lot Smaller built his reputation as one of Canada’s top economists based on a number of successful predictions including the housing bust of the early 90s and the rise of oil prices. In his recent book, Mr. Rubin predicts $225 per barrel oil by 2012 and with it the end of globalization, a movement towards local sourcing and a need for massive scaling up of energy efficiency.
