Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Confusion around the true extent of the spare oil production capacity of Saudi Arabia increased this week following a statement by Saudi oil minister Ali al-Naimi that his country had reduced production in March by 800,000 barrels–this despite the loss of 1 million barrels/day of production from Libya. Al Naimi went on to claim that global markets are currently oversupplied.
The IEA reported this week that there are preliminary signs of oil demand destruction due to soaring prices. Goldman Sachs underlined this viewpoint on Tuesday by advising its clients to sell oil, copper, platinum and cotton. Prices fell in response, although concern over conflict in the Middle East and Saudi production saw prices nudging up again by the end of the week.
Imagine a nuclear reactor that runs on fuel that could power civilization for millennia; cannot melt down; resists weapons proliferation; can be built on a relatively small parcel of land; and produces little hazardous waste. It sounds like a good idea, and it was a well-tested reality in 1970 when it was abandoned for the current crop of reactors that subject society to the kinds of catastrophes now on display in Japan.
History is being made in the corn market and the mainstream press isn’t paying attention. Corn prices hit an all time high last week. As you pull on your boots and head for the garden or fields for spring planting, what are your plans? Are you ready for some seismic changes in food prices? Do you feel too helpless to do anything much but keep on hoeing?
Reviews of three novels set in the wake of the oil age:
– Player One by Douglas Coupland
– Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi
– Afterlight by Alex Scarrow.
Whether or not renewables can save consumer-capitalist society depends heavily on solar thermal electricity, because unlike wind and photovoltaic energy it can be coupled with large scale storage and so can deal much more effectively with the problem of the intermittency of wind and sun. But can it enable total dependence on renewables?
Full talks from speakers including Dr. Joseph Tainter, Nicole Foss (Stoneleigh), David Korowicz, Stephanie Mills, Kurt Cobb and Aaron Wissner now available for all educational uses. The YouTube playlist includes the full first day of the Conference on Sustainability: Energy, Economy and Environment, including question and answer and panel discussions.
It may seem a bit over the top to say that a book entitled Into the Cool is the coolest book I’ve ever read on energy. But energy junkies should take note of its two compelling theses: First, the eventual heat death of the universe – a supposed consequence of the Second Law of Thermodynamics – has, to borrow a phrase from Mark Twain, been greatly exaggerated. Second, life – in all its forms – is NOT an anomaly made improbable by the aforesaid Second Law, but rather a direct and likely inevitable consequence of it.
– Prime Minister of France: Oil production can only decline
– Libyan unrest sends oil prices soaring to $124 a barrel
– Barclay oil analyst Amrita Sen answers your questions
– NYT: Rush to Use Crops as Fuel Raises Food Prices and Hunger Fears
– Survey of natural gas in shale deposits
Obama’s recent speech on energy policy, which rehashed nearly every cliché uttered in forty years of empty White House rhetoric on the subject, drove home the hard fact that meaningful responses to the predicament of industrial society will not be forthcoming from the American political class. Instead, the foundations of a very different kind of energy system – localized, small-scale, and based on diffuse renewable energy – will need to be laid by individuals, families, and community groups. Passive solar technologies offer one useful example of how the ecotechnic energy system of the future can begin to evolve.
Professor Emeritus of Agricultural Economics of the University of Missouri at Columbia John Ikerd argues that humans cannot wait much longer to address the reality that economic growth is unsustainable—because the world is running out of energy resources. “We simply can’t continue to grow at the rate we’ve been growing in the past.”
In 2004 I was an idealistic young college graduate who hoped to change the world. I was convinced that the prospect of declining worldwide oil production loomed, and that people must heed my calls for energy conservation and radically-relocalized living. The world didn’t seem to change, but to my surprise, something else did—my hometown.
