Oil – Feb 21

•Keystone XL pipeline takes centre stage at Washington protest •Some Environmental Issues Surrounding Keystone XL •Ten Reasons to Take Peak Oil Seriously •Arctic needs protection from resource rush as ice melts, says UN •Shale oil fails to dent Middle East shipments

Book Review: Not The Future We Ordered: Peak Oil, Psychology, and the Myth of Progress

If you visit John Michael Greer’s Amazon Page you are likely to be incredulous when you discover how many books he has written, and you’ll soon discover that collecting all of his articles online is nearly an impossible task. A voracious reader, a prolific writer, a brilliant thinker whose work is intermittently sprinkled with delightful humor, Greer has become one of the most prominent and credible voices among those articulating the collapse of industrial civilization.

Shale gas, tight oil, and fracking – Feb 12

•The Myth of “Saudi America”•Colorado Communities Take On Fight Against Energy Land Leases•Romania reverses course on shale gas•German environment minister: ‘we want to limit fracking’•Shale oil is no threat to oil producers•Shale gas distracts EU “action heroes” from saving the climate•Tech Talk – Future Bakken Production and Hydrofracking

The Twilight of Petroleum

 In this post, Antonio Turiel examines the perspectives of oil production in light of some often neglected parameters: the energy density, the energy yield (EROEI), and realistic estimates of new discoveries. As expected, the result are far from supporting the optimism that seems to be prevalent today.

IMF and resource scarcity

During the past week the future of the world economy has been discussed in Davos, Switzerland. Below, I think it is appropriate to quote Christine Lagarde, the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In her speech of 23 January she presented the following viewpoint: "The burning question is this: how we can make sure that all regions grow strongly, converge rapidly, and succeed in meeting the aspirations of their people? To answer this question, we need to reflect upon some of the megatrends shaping the future."

Peak oil – Jan 18

•Exxon, Shell, BP, Total: Do the oil emporers have no clothes? •Peak oil theories ‘increasingly groundless’, says BP chief •At Algerian Oil and Gas Fields Once Thought Safe, New Fears and Precautions •Oil markets tighten on Saudi cut, China demand-IEA

The really, really big picture: There isn’t going to be enough net energy for the economic growth we want

[Many longtime followers of the Crash Course have asked Chris to update his forecasts for Peak Oil in light of the production increases in shale oil and gas over recent years. What started out as a modest effort at clarification morphed into a much more massive 3-report treatise as Chris sifted through mountains of new data that ultimately left him more convinced than ever we are facing a global net energy crisis–despite misguided media efforts intended to convince us otherwise. His reports are being released in series over the next several weeks; the first installment is below.]