Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
-Oil Demand Has Peaked in Developed Nations, Never to Return — Report
-Why Oil Is Much More Plentiful Than “Peak Oil” Advocates Claim
-Russia 2010 oil output to fall -Bernstein analysts
-Crude Oil Jumps Above $75 to One-Year High on Demand Optimism
-SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling (and some other stuff)?
-Edward Burtynsky’s Oil
-Is Michelle Obama about to take on Big Food?
-Carolyn Steel on How Food Shapes Our Cities
I mourn because the solution is right in front of us, yet we run from it. We fail to recognize our salvation for what it is, believing it to be dystopia instead of utopia. Are we waiting for the last human on the planet to start the crusade?
I’m happy to have the opportunity to spend the next few minutes sharing some personal thoughts on the subjects that bring us together for this excellent event—thoughts based on my experience, during the past few years, of trying to get the message of Peak Oil out to an ever-wider audience.
-Transforming Clean-Energy Industry Into a Local One
-National Grid plan for local waste-to-biogas plants
-Saving energy may generate billions, study says
At the end of the first day of the ASPO conference in Denver, we were treated to a fantastic presentation on the oil potential of the sub-salt basins on the margins of the South Atlantic Ocean given by Dr Marcio Mello who presented the evidence for a half trillion barrels of reserves in this new frontier province. So has a new Saudi Arabia been found?
-World’s airlines pledge to cut emissions by 2050
-Cars must be electric, says climate tsar
-Climate Change: Four Degrees of Devastation
A weekly review including:
– Production and prices
– An independent assessment
– The Bangkok climate talks
– Quote of the Week
– Briefs
This interview with Dr. Sadad al Husseini was filmed and produced in London on September 21 by ASPO-USA’s Dave Bowden, with Steve Andrews along on his own time and dime to ask some questions. Sadad is a geologist by training and a reservoir engineer—production engineer—by actual work experience. He started with Saudi Aramco back in 1970 and retired in 2004. Most of his time was spent with exploration and production activities but also in project management. Since he left, Sadad has worked as a consultant.
It’s been a fascinating few days. Early in the week, Nate Hagens and Sharon Astyk were suggesting that perhaps the term ‘peak oil’ has outlived its usefulness, given that we have almost certainly peaked, and that the peak oil movement needs to shift its focus. It echoed something I wrote a while ago, likening ASPO and the wider peak oil movement to a Loch Ness Monster Society, dedicated to establishing the existence of this fabled creature. They organise conferences, scientific searches of the loch, write papers and journals, and then one day, an entire, intact Loch Ness Monster washes up on the shore. Then what? They have no reason to exist any longer, their whole raison d’etre vanishes overnight.
-Dollar exit for oil trade?
-A financial revolution with profound political implications
-Maverick economist says markets will lead us to be greener
What if Obama told us the truth about our civilization? …In one illuminating sense, our civilization’s future is a probability distribution. Unfortunately, a host of not-so-nice futures are more probable than others at this point. …So trouble’s a-comin’ in what will likely be a many-act play headed downward over the next few decades — it just remains to be seen what costume it’ll be wearing in each scene. At some point the general public may be told the truth about our predicament — but maybe not. I suspect the revealing of the truth would be a sort of last-resort for those in power to try to keep things together. This speech is my take on “telling the truth.”
