Deepwater what?
The Deepwater Horizon was all about peak oil. And climate change. And economic collapse. How soon we forget.
Deepwater Oil
The politics of drilling in the dark zone
The Northbelt Thrust falls into a curious category on the global oil patch. Like dark matter in the universe, it is a blank spot, one of a few places with big proven and potential reserves that are wholly ignored in official forecasts. For it is offshore from Cuba, a political pariah in the U.S.
Arctic Opening: Opportunity and Risk in the High North (report)
Lloyd’s of London, the world’s biggest insurance market, has become the first major business organisation to raise its voice about huge potential environmental damage from oil drilling in the Arctic.
The City institution estimates that $100bn (£63bn) of new investment is heading for the far north over the next decade, but believes cleaning up any oil spill in the Arctic, particularly in ice-covered areas, would present “multiple obstacles, which together constitute a unique and hard-to-manage risk”.
How you can tell that the peak oil debate is (almost) over
Far from being discouraged by the rash of peak oil denunciations in the media lately, I am invigorated by it. Remember: we’re now on offense; they’re on defense. The opposition has to explain why oil production has been flat since 2005 despite high prices. And, the twisted logic and demonstrably false assertions they offer will provide ever better opportunities to trump them again and again.
Energy and presidential politics
Va. Governor Bob. McDonnell is on a GOP VP short list and recently threw his endorsement to candidate Mitt “corporations are people, my friend” Romney. But in an era of energy decline it’s worth learning how heavily Big Coal funds McDonnell, who calls himself a “friend of coal,” and how uncommitted he is to clean energy.
Deepwater Horizon: Lessons from Petroleum Engineering and the Roman Empire
Why did the Deepwater Horizon blow up last year, kill 11 workers, and cause the massive oil eruption into the Gulf of Mexico? You’re likely to get different answers if you talk separately to a petroleum engineer or an anthropologist. When they team up, it gets really interesting. Anthropologist Joseph Tainter (author of The Collapse of Complex Societies) and petroleum engineer Tad Patzek talk about the new book they’ve co-authored: Drilling Down: The Gulf oil debacle and our energy dilemma.
Peak oil gets pepper sprayed
Big Oil’s campaign for energy complacency is picking up steam. They say tar sands and fracking are bringing a new era of plenty. But whatever happened to peak oil?
Review: Songs of Petroleum by Jan Lundberg and Diamonds in my Pocket by Amanda Kovattana
At first glance, Jan Lundberg and Amanda Kovattana seem like unlikely kindred spirits. He’s a former oil analyst turned whistleblower and rock musician, while she’s a British-educated Thai émigré who makes her living helping people become organized. Yet their similarities run deep, beginning with a profound concern for the planet and a flair for writing. Indeed, both are indispensable contributors to one of the top news sites on energy and the environment, Energy Bulletin. Both also happen to be accomplished memoirists, and their memoirs offer rare insights into family relationships, the vicissitudes of wealth and the quandary of being an environmentalist in an environmentally apathetic age.
Preparing to drill in Arctic waters – Oct 23
– New York Times: The Arctic and the Lessons of the Gulf
– Sen. Murkowski: U.S. Must be a Leader in Offshore Oil Production
– Putin’s Russia will lead a ‘new era of Arctic industrialisation’
The ecocide trial
The UK Supreme Court hears appeal cases of huge constitutional significance, the outcomes of which often ricochet through the political arena, challenging the status quo, and shifting societal perceptions. It is fitting then, that on 30th September 2011 this grand building in Parliament Square provided a stage for the hearing of Regina v Bannerman & Tench. In this mock trial, two CEO’s stood accused of aiding and abetting the crime of ‘ecocide’. Currently just a conceptual crime, ecocide has been submitted to the UN for consideration as the fifth crime against peace (alongside genocide, war crimes, crimes of aggression and crimes against humanity).
“Drilling Down”: Tainter and Patzek tell the energy-complexity story
Joseph Tainter and Tadeusz Patzek are authors of a soon-to-be-released book called”Drilling Down: The Gulf Oil Debacle and Our Energy Dilemma.” This book is not simply the story of the Gulf oil spill (although it does tell this story, quite well). Tainter and Patzek use the story of Gulf oil spill as the background for discussing the energy-complexity spiral, and its relationship to this accident.
Review: The End of Growth by Richard Heinberg
In the several years or so since peak oil began generating significant literature and debate, it has attracted a diverse array of thinkers. To name a few, there are insiders like Colin Campbell and Ken Deffeyes who sounded the first warnings; a clinical psychologist in the field of “peak oil blues,” Kathy McMahon; an archdruid practiced in nature’s less readily perceptible energies, John Michael Greer; and a couple of highly engaging social critics, Jim Kunstler and Dmitry Orlov. Richard Heinberg’s distinction is that he’s hands-down the most prolific peak oil author, now having written half a dozen books on the subject and a few others touching on it tangentially. His latest, The End of Growth, is yet another grand performance.