peak oil

Into an Unknown Country

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Was it just my imagination, or was the New Year’s celebration just past even more halfhearted than those of the last few years? My wife and I welcomed 2013 with a toast, and breakfasted the next morning on the traditional good-luck foods—rice and beans, corn bread, greens and bacon—that I learned to enjoy back when I was studying old-fashioned Southern folk magic. Outside our little house, though, the midnight air seemed remarkably quiet; the whoops, horns, and firecrackers of New Years past were notable mostly by their absence, and the next day’s hush seemed less a matter of hangovers than a not unreasonable dread of what 2013 might have in store for us all.

EU must drastically reduce its oil imports

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The Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet has now, 2012 December 23, published my article "EU must drastically reduce its oil imports". In Swedish, "EU måste skära ner sin oljeimport drastiskt". Michael Lardelli has made a great translation of the article and I have added some relevant photos and graphs. Every week you are around 1000 persons that read my blog and I which you all Merry Christmas and a happy new year.

Conservation Not Technology will be our Saviour – Chris Martenson – Part 2

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We are in the midst of an amazing energy boom, but by sweeping the idea of peak oil under the rug we are ignoring a significant fact: the relationship between hydrocarbon reserves and flow rates are not the same as they used to be—reserves have increased but flow rates are not as high or sustainable.

The Great Oil Swindle: why the new black gold rush leads off a fiscal cliff

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A recent spate of official reports from energy agencies are predicting a rosy future of economic growth underpinned by cheap oil abundance. However, as Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed shows, scientific evidence largely ignored by mainstream media confirms that while we have enough oil and gas to burn our way to climate catastrophe, the age of cheap oil abundance is a myth.

ODAC Newsletter Dec 21

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Welcome to the last ODAC Newsletter, the final news roundup from the Oil Depletion Analysis Centre…2012 saw US oil production grow to its highest level in 15 years, largely because of surging tight oil production by fracking, and many pundits such as Ed Morse of Citi are claiming “peak oil is dead”. So has ODAC been worrying its silly little head entirely unnecessarily for the last five years, and could all our energy troubles soon be over? We continue to think not…

Future production from U.S. shale or tight oil

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I attended the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco two weeks ago at which I heard a very interesting presentation by David Hughes of the Post Carbon Institute. He is more pessimistic about future production potential from U.S. shale gas and tight oil formations than some other analysts. Here I report some of the data on tight oil production that led to his conclusion. 

Recognising Reality

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It is now all but impossible to limit global warming to less than +2°C from pre-industrial temperatures. The hope offered by fossil fuel limitations and ecnomic slowdown is fading. We now have to consider life in a 4 °C warmer world.

A tribute to Roscoe Bartlett

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Here in the Washington DC area and around the nation, election day was a constant stream of poll results, election updates, and pundit analysis. But missed by many was the contest in Maryland’s 6th district, where Roscoe Bartlett — the second-oldest serving member of the US House of Representatives – was denied his bid to serve his district for an 11th term.

Peak Oil Postponed? – Global Challenge Seminar in Stockholm, Sweden

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Global Challenge: Recently, new data on available oil reserves, new deep-water deposits, oil sands and especially "shale gas" has given rise to concerns about what these resources means from a climate perspective. The seminar "Peak Oil Postponed?" Aims to analyze the importance of these tasks.