Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
This week we are taking a break from the usual format to publish a new piece by ODAC trustee Chris Skrebowski. In the article Chris argues that the long running debate over peak oil between geologists and economists is a distraction. There is a price at which oil becomes unaffordble to consume and therefore to produce. The affects of this are already beginning to play out in the global economy.
I love the way John Michael Greer’s latest book, The Wealth of Nature, opens, with a good skewering of the premise on which the modern pseudo-science of economics depends. Exposing 18th century philosopher Adam Smith’s thinking in The Wealth of Nations as flawed, Greer goes on to explain what Smith missed, why it’s important, and how we can turn the error in history around. (book review)
A weekly update of peak oil news, including:
-Developments this week
-OPEC and the IEA’s Oil Market Report
America and Oil. It’s like bacon and eggs, Batman and Robin. As the old song lyric went, you can’t have one without the other. Once upon a time, it was also a surefire formula for national greatness and global preeminence. Now, it’s a guarantee of a trip to hell in a hand basket. The Chinese know it. Does Washington?
A water crisis is unfolding in Saudi Arabia that could have profound implications for both the Saudi people and for the rest of the world.
The release of the International Energy Agency’s Oil Market Report for September is a good time to review the status of our ongoing crisis for the report updates the IEA’s latest thinking on the prospects for global oil.
What China is teaching us is that the western economic model—the fossil-fuel-based, automobile-centered, throwaway economy—will not work for the world. If it does not work for China, it will not work for India, which by 2035 is projected to have an even larger population than China. Nor will it work for the other 3 billion people in developing countries who are also dreaming the “American dream.” And in an increasingly integrated global economy, where we all depend on the same grain, oil, and steel, the western economic model will no longer work for the industrial countries either.
How can we adapt mentally, and socially to Peak Oil, climate change and an economic bust at the same time? 3 interviews with solutions: interviews: “Peak Oil Shrink” Kathy McMahon from Vermont on unexpected lessons from Hurricane Irene. Urban homesteader Jules Dervaes – food self-sufficiency on a city lot. Richard Heinberg on coping with the End of Growth – will fertilizer shortages mean “Peak Food”? What are Common Security Clubs and “Resilience Circles”?
The coming energy crunch will lead to volatile prices and an overall long-term economic contraction…A new type of institution is needed to handle non-debt finance. It should help promoters plan their projects and then find outside investor-partners in return for a share of each project’s income rather than its profits.
-As Texas Withers, Gas Industry Guzzles
-Saudi Arabia’s water needs eating into oil wealth
-Sandra Postel: Water World, Uncut
The 1,700-mile Keystone XL pipeline would carry heavy crude oil from Alberta to America’s Gulf Coast refineries. In this Climate One debate, a panel of experts argues for and against the controversial pipeline.
If you are an energy policymaker (or layperson interested in energy) and you are NOT perplexed by the last decade, read no further. You have little to gain from what I write below. However, if you are a perplexed energy policymaker (or perplexed layperson interested in energy), please continue and learn why poor quality data, lack of transparency, broad uncertainty and flawed thinking about risk have made it difficult for many experts and the public alike to think sensibly about our energy future.
