Oil

Q&A: Peak Oil and Public Health

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Tim Parsons, director of Public Affairs, discussed the “peak oil” theory, or the point at which the maximum production rate for the world’s oil is reached, with Brian Schwartz, MD, professor in the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Department of Environmental Health Sciences and co-director of the School’s Program on Global Sustainability and Health. Once the peak is passed, oil production is expected to decline continuously. …Schwartz explains how future demand for energy could impact on our society and our health.

Largely about access

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Abstract: It is sometimes held that U.S. motivations in Iraq and the Persian Gulf, while indeed “largely about oil” (in the well-publicized words of Alan Greenspan), are not (or at least not much) “about access” to the region’s oil per se. This essay critically examines that claim, arguing that the current U.S. resort to force cannot really be understood without regard to the current precariousness of U.S. energy supplies.

Peak oil, prices – Jan 14

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Slight majority Of U.S. energy CFOs disagree that world has reached peak oil
60 Minutes on oil: did anyone verify anything?
What 60 Minutes missed on oil speculation
Jim Rogers sees oil at US$200 as world is running out of reserves

Review: Not One Drop by Riki Ott

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Riki Ott’s book Not One Drop is a history of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, told from the perspective of those most affected by it. Cutting through the cloak of willful deception, public relations campaigns and skewed, corporate-sponsored science, it finally exposes the truth about Exxon Valdez‘s devastating effects on the city of Cordova, Alaska, the fishing community where the spill struck.

Will energy show us that inflation and deflation can occur at the same time?

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At the beginning of this decade investment advisor Marc Faber told incredulous investors that rising economic prosperity in Asia signalled the beginning of a new bull market in commodities, but would also have deflationary consequences for consumer prices. How could these inflationary and deflationary effects coincide? The answer has important implications for what is currently unfolding in the financial and commodity markets, and, in particular, the energy markets.