peak oil

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

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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

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•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

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 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

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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

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•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

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[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.]

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.