Oil

Review: Tar Sands by Andrew Nikiforuk

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If you’ve been following energy news with a discerning eye, then you already know better than to buy into all the hype about the Canadian tar sands…Far from being a panacea for declining supplies of conventional oil, the sands could…leave Alberta resembling “a third-rate golf course in the Sudan”…The quote comes from Andrew Nikiforuk’s new book Tar Sands, a powerful, eloquent litany of horrors associated with North America’s frenzied dash toward tar sands bitumen.

Aviation fuel and future oil production scenarios – “Peak Aviation”

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The industry has put ambitious goals on increases in fuel efficiency for the aviation fleet. Traffic is predicted to grow by 5% per year to 2026, fuel demand by about 3% per year. At the same time aviation fuel production is predicted to decrease by several percent each year after the crude oil production peak is reached resulting in a substantial shortage of jet fuel by 2026. The aviation industry will have a hard time replacing this with fuel from other sources, even if air traffic remains at current levels.

Peak oil and mass communication

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The most important task of the entity charged with coordinating and executing any mass communication strategy will be to boil down the peak oil message into a few slogans and visual illustrations. That won’t be easy. And, once that’s done, having the discipline to repeat those slogans and spread those illustrations often and everywhere will be even harder. But with what’s at stake, the peak oil movement must find that discipline or continue to limp along on the edges of the mainstream media and public consciousness.