The post-oil novel: a celebration!

The post-oil novel began as a little-known aberration within the speculative fiction genre. But it’s now hitting bestseller lists, generating comment in major papers, and garnering increasing acceptance from the mainstream of speculative fiction. Frank Kaminski takes a spirited, authoritative look at this blossoming subgenre

Closing the ‘Collapse Gap’: the USSR was better prepared for collapse than the US

My talk tonight is about the lack of collapse-preparedness here in the United States. I will compare it with the situation in the Soviet Union, prior to its collapse.I watched the Soviet Union collapse, and I have tried to put my observations into a concise message. I will leave it up to you to decide just how urgent a message it is.

The “Abiotic Oil” Controversy

The abiotic theory holds that oil is from inorganic origin, and that there must be nearly limitless pools of liquid primordial hydrocarbons at great depths on Earth. If the abiotic theory does eventually prove to be partially or wholly scientifically valid (a big “if”), it might have little or no practical consequence in terms of the imminent global oil production peak.

Full text of Dick Cheney’s speech at the Institute of Petroleum Autumn lunch, 1999

Full text of a lost speech. “By 2010 we will need on the order of an additional fifty million barrels a day. So where is the oil going to come from?… Oil is unique in that it is so strategic in nature. We are not talking about soapflakes or leisurewear here. Energy is truly fundamental to the world’s economy.”