tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63187194603025154642011-11-27T16:09:48.509-08:00In a world of limited resources, the virtuous man will be he who dies with the <i>fewest</i> toys.Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.comBlogger1011100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-64979154310237335112011-04-15T12:56:00.000-07:002011-04-15T13:44:44.381-07:00

If you are reading this blog you have already figured out that I am a peak oil advocate.  I'm not a fanatic, you understand, but I have come to the conclusion that we are going to reach a point of diminishing returns with our hydrocarbon supply very soon and we are going to have to learn to live on much less of everything than we have now.  I have talked about this before.  I am not going to

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-83842115410203562592011-02-07T12:26:00.000-08:002011-02-07T12:36:07.114-08:00

As a statement of society’s plight at this time in history, this article is about as succinct as you can get.  Damned if you do and damned if you don’t (squared).  I believe the human race will survive this dilemma but I don’t think we will solve it.  The trajectory of human society has reached its apex and we should all now relax and enjoy the ride down to the third act which, I fear, will be

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-12517176834895466412010-12-13T11:04:00.000-08:002010-12-13T12:41:33.689-08:00

"Diet for a Hot Planet:  The climate crisis at the end of your fork and what you can do about it," by Anna Lappe, is a shot across the bow of the industrial farming interests that currently control, not only almost all of today's food production but, all of the dialogue we hear regarding food production.  In this highly researched book Ms. Lappe pits the large industrial farms against todays

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-64257453002412378372010-10-18T20:10:00.001-07:002010-10-18T20:30:09.822-07:00

I accept peak oil as a fact. Having done that, I am forced to concede many other consequences that must surely follow. One of those consequences is a future of significantly reduced consumption for everyone. That follows both because the production of consumer goods will be limited directly by energy constraints and also because we will be spending a greater share of our resources in acquiring

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-31542103629415007842010-07-01T10:53:00.001-07:002010-07-01T10:53:50.486-07:00

  Population, consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions will continue to grow until we either face up to the fact that there are limits on our finite Earth or we are confronted by a catastrophe large enough to turn us from our current course. I have written about population before.  Most mainstream media sources still won’t touch the subject but it finally appears to be a subject worth

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-11240911148654453292010-06-06T10:26:00.001-07:002010-06-06T10:26:51.949-07:00

  New government and BP documents, interviews with experts and testimony by witnesses provide the clearest indication to date that a hodgepodge of oversight agencies granted exceptions to rules, allowed risks to accumulate and made a disaster more likely on the rig, particularly with a mix of different companies operating on the Deepwater whose interests were not always in sync. In Gulf, It Was

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-48594879844258081892010-03-27T10:41:00.000-07:002010-03-27T10:42:27.247-07:00

Economist Debates: Green jobs - According to this post, a majority of readers support a government effort to develop green jobs. This is a good thing. It is important to keep the effect that we have on the environment in mind as we go about our daily business. But it is not enough. We must also find a way to reduce our consumption....period.We have entered into a period in our history that will

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-85489373565688294652010-03-01T13:01:00.001-08:002010-03-01T13:08:37.865-08:00

William Kovacs, the US Chamber of Commerce's vice president of environment, technology and regulatory affairs, last year famously called for a "Scopes monkey trial of the 21st century" on climate change.As much as we need to find a way to curtail our use of hydrocarbons, this article points out why we probably will never solve our energy/climate problems. Our economy is based on the free flow of

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-91585197801987347782010-02-01T20:30:00.001-08:002010-02-01T20:30:00.233-08:00

The cultural taboo on discussing overpopulation renders politicians, scientists and other opinion leaders reluctant to mention population when discussing both causes and solutions of modern challenges. This is a good thought but I don’t think I give it much of chance for success.  Population control is very much like abortion.  There is absolutely no middle ground.  If the scientists speak

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-87197303793949653432010-02-01T20:13:00.001-08:002010-02-01T20:16:53.015-08:00

But the second number, buried deeper in the budget’s projections, is the one that really commands attention: By President Obama’s own optimistic projections, American deficits will not return to what are widely considered sustainable levels over the next 10 years. In fact, in 2019 and 2020 — years after Mr. Obama has left the political scene, even if he serves two terms — they start rising again

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-48368392136450235682010-01-10T21:27:00.001-08:002010-01-10T21:27:25.886-08:00

Banks Brace for Bonus Fury - WSJ.com – I read these kind of headlines with a heavy heart.  America’s largest financial institutions are playing with our country.  If there was any sense of patriotism or nationalism in the hearts of Wall Street’s leaders, most of the money that is going into those bonuses would be focused, instead, on the parts of the economy that are still struggling to maintain

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-77045646837214310222009-12-07T20:29:00.001-08:002009-12-07T20:35:34.190-08:00

I just discovered I can post to blogs directly from Microsoft word. This is a test post to test that possibility.Well, it looks like it works. Amazing. This is my first upgrade to MS Office in many years. They have definately moved it into modern times. It actually seems to be integrated with the web in many ways.

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-29144299835797253212009-11-11T15:48:00.001-08:002009-11-11T15:48:16.043-08:00

This is a test of the Writer feature in Windows Live to see how it works with the Blogger system.  Please disregard.

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-48730318322512718912009-11-05T09:32:00.000-08:002009-11-05T09:35:39.444-08:00

[Link: The Oil Drum: Campfire | What "Lower Consumption" Means] "The fevered frenzy of Industrial Civilization’s resource consumption appears to have finally reached its apex and begun its decline in this, the first decade of the twenty-first century. A closer look at the physical realities of resource extraction reveals that the resource situation is, in fact, terminal for our high-consumin’

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-72849692002541093812009-10-26T20:41:00.000-07:002009-10-26T20:44:44.990-07:00

[Link: McClatchy] "But the bigger picture, many say, is one of unnecessary stress on the nation's electricity supply for years to come."I read articles like this and I have to chuckle. If we are aware of the stress an appliance like flat screen TV's will place on our power grid, and actually think it will be enough to strain it, how in the world can we be contemplating replacing our auto fleet

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-80301300484365776562009-10-05T16:12:00.000-07:002009-10-05T16:14:30.163-07:00

[Link: Environmental Capital - WSJ] "Deutsche Bank expects the electric car to become a truly “disruptive technology” which takes off around the world, sending demand for gasoline into an “inexorable and accelerating decline.”Five years ago I bought a new car. I had just retired and I wanted to have a car I could depend on in my retirement years. I told my wife that this could possible be the

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-71156290199311667292009-09-30T21:48:00.000-07:002009-09-30T21:50:13.673-07:00

[Link: New Scientist] "Not so, says James Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies. He argues that past episodes are a poor guide to what will happen in the future, for the simple reason that the sun is brighter now than it was then. Add that to the mix and the release of methane hydrates could lead to catastrophic, unstoppable global warming - a so-called 'Venus syndrome'

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-21893707999020985252009-09-12T21:15:00.000-07:002009-09-12T21:19:31.368-07:00

[Link: Reuters] Birth control and new technologies -- not lifestyle change alone -- may be needed to head off a combined climate, food and energy crunch later this century, said the head of Britain's science academy Martin Rees.It is amazing how we can't talk about population control. I really don't think we will ever find a way to do it either. We are programmed to reproduce just like we are

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-66539199166036219642009-08-16T11:37:00.000-07:002009-08-16T11:37:35.768-07:00

Solar industry's promises bring environmental challenges for Tennessee: "As the state tries to reap the benefits of a growing solar industry that could bring thousands of new jobs and billions in new investment, the massive projects also bring with them environmental challenges in the form of intensive manufacturing operations that will draw a tremendous amount of electricity from the state's

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-40576698467432068012009-05-14T10:39:00.000-07:002009-05-14T10:41:34.583-07:00

[Link: The Oil Drum] "As the historically abundant and cheap resources upon which our American way of life depends become increasingly scarce and expensive, a scenario that is already in process, the total level of natural resources and derived goods and services available for our consumption will decline dramatically, as must some combination of our population level and material living

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-38778678678366663322009-05-08T16:03:00.000-07:002009-05-08T16:07:00.798-07:00

[Link: WSJ] "non-OPEC oil production apparently peaked in the first quarter of 2007, and given precipitous falls in oil output from Russia to Mexico, there’s not much hope for a recovery. OPEC production—and thus global output—peaked a little later, in the first quarter of 2008."We are growing complacent about the resource situation, particularly oil. The disastrous economic situation and

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-7294971213026717642009-03-09T11:52:00.000-07:002009-03-09T11:53:56.187-07:00

[Link: Rolling Stone : National Affairs Daily] "I am also signing a Presidential Memorandum directing the head of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy to develop a strategy for restoring scientific integrity to government decision making. To ensure that in this new Administration, we base our public policies on the soundest science; that we appoint scientific advisors based on

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-78666566324663631862009-02-25T10:34:00.000-08:002009-02-25T10:38:47.087-08:00

[Link: McClatchy Washington Bureau] "Ultimately, the amount of fossil fuel available could be enough to raise the atmospheric CO2 concentration higher than it has been in millions of years,"Most of us are still thinking of climate change like we think of other natural disasters such as earthquakes, tornados and floods. They come, we recover and adjust, then things return to normal. As this

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-38212531412338137092009-01-28T13:28:00.000-08:002009-01-28T13:30:06.554-08:00

[Link: NYTimes.com] "For centuries, people have worried that economic growth had limits — that the only way for one group to prosper was at the expense of another. The pessimists, from Malthus and the Luddites and on, have been proved wrong again and again. Growth is not finite. But it is also not inevitable. It requires a strategy."The MSM carries the "infinite growth" ball onto an uncertain

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-768649609723348302009-01-11T10:04:00.000-08:002009-01-11T10:06:25.366-08:00

[Link: Energy Bulletin] "Our economic system is entirely based on the creation of materials. Material wealth comes out of the earth and the level of our lifestyle is entirely based on our consumption of resources. The thing that has allowed that to accelerate so there is even a middle class in many countries, including our own, is cheap energy. Petroleum. If that becomes less available, less

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-10003329884570462542009-01-03T20:28:00.000-08:002009-01-03T20:30:11.619-08:00

[Link: Newsweek Issues 2009: Rules for a New World | Newsweek.com] "Around this cheap and versatile fuel, the United States built an impressive civilization—one featuring universal car ownership, highways stretching to the horizon, endless suburban tracts, affordable airline travel, malls, Disneyland and other aspects of the American Dream. But the United States no longer produces enough oil to

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-64467417300479094782008-12-04T10:27:00.000-08:002008-12-04T10:29:40.744-08:00

[Link: ajc.com] "What is to be done? As economists have long recognized, the most economically efficient way to alter the behavior of consumers — to use less oil — and businesses — to develop products that allow consumers to use less oil — is to raise the cost. And if the market can’t be counted on to send reliable price signals, then a tax can be used to ensure that the cost remains high enough

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-6247487753902286062008-11-16T11:34:00.000-08:002008-11-16T11:36:48.805-08:00

[Link: Have You Driven a Bus or a Train Lately? - NYTimes.com] "The Obama administration should ask the companies, as a condition of financial assistance, to begin shifting from being just automakers to becoming innovative “transportmakers.” As Barack Obama’s new chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, recently said: “You don’t ever want a crisis to go to waste. It’s an opportunity to do important things

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-64001338965939394522008-11-16T11:18:00.000-08:002008-11-16T11:38:25.799-08:00

[Link: The (Not So) Invincible Society - Scitizen] "He reasons that if a significant portion of the complex, interdependent systems that make up our society fail, society will collapse. And, if that happens, it would be all but impossible to restart industrial society. He argues that industrial society relies on the continuous operation of these systems to obtain essential minerals from very lean

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-75150626994453982852008-05-08T17:38:00.000-07:002008-05-08T17:39:16.755-07:00

WSJ.com: "The global surge in food and energy prices is being driven primarily by fundamental market conditions, rather than an investment bubble, say the majority of economists in the latest Wall Street Journal forecasting survey."If you spend a little time trying to understand the dynamics of our population and the mechanics of our consumer culture you will have no trouble accepting this

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-84995640822695855792008-05-08T11:30:00.000-07:002008-05-08T11:31:07.662-07:00

[BBC NEWS | Science/Nature]: "Paul Hawken, author of Blessed Unrest - How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being, writes that 'there are over one - maybe even two - million organisations (worldwide) working toward ecological sustainability and social justice'.And yet... and yet... there is no real climate change movement. There is no organised effort leading society towards a

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-4399639521580716522008-04-20T13:04:00.000-07:002008-04-20T13:05:12.586-07:00

[New York Times By MICHAEL POLLAN] "There are so many stories we can tell ourselves to justify doing nothing, but perhaps the most insidious is that, whatever we do manage to do, it will be too little too late. Climate change is upon us, and it has arrived well ahead of schedule. Scientists’ projections that seemed dire a decade ago turn out to have been unduly optimistic: the warming and the

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-17877417853665001172008-04-18T15:28:00.000-07:002008-04-18T15:28:32.320-07:00

McClatchy Washington Bureau | 04/18/2008 | "Middle Eastern oil-producing nations are behind today's record high oil prices, but not for the reason you might think. Taken together, oil-rich nations represent a bloc of fast-growing economies that are now sucking up new energy supplies almost as fast as they're coming to market." This goes along with what I was saying in the last post. For now the

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-59450705178217939352008-04-16T16:49:00.000-07:002008-04-16T16:50:14.667-07:00

Asia Times Online :: Asian news and current affairs: "The combination of rising demand, the emergence of powerful new energy consumers, and the contraction of the global energy supply is demolishing the energy-abundant world we are familiar with and creating in its place a new world order. Think of it as rising powers/shrinking planet."I am waiting for the other shoe to hit the floor. At some

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-37262221502483351382008-04-15T11:04:00.000-07:002008-04-15T11:08:01.954-07:00

New York Times: "The idea of turning farms into fuel plants seemed, for a time, like one of the answers to high global oil prices and supply worries. That strategy seemed to reach a high point last year when Congress mandated a fivefold increase in the use of biofuels."Even though we are seeing a lot of these kind of stories in the news lately, it is really just the beginning. Until we find a

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-45070351605404745032008-03-02T08:33:00.000-08:002008-03-02T15:18:41.355-08:00

"All the familiar signs of impending disaster are here, and in spades. Across the developing world already hungry people are now having to eat even less. Food stocks have plunged to record lows. Food prices have scaled new heights. Food riots are spreading around the globe. Yet the world is still harvesting record amounts of grain."[Link: Independent.co.uk]This is exactly what over-population

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-3592438448885585612008-01-15T09:04:00.000-08:002008-01-15T09:48:52.535-08:00

Haven't posted recently but I have been thinking about our predicament just the same. Oil has nearly reached $100/barrel and gas is creeping up towards $4/gallen hereabouts. I am still convinced that we are heading inexorably towards a showdown with finite Earth. We don't seem to be aware except on the fringes. Really big things happen slowly enough, and so overwhelmingly, that we don't

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-3966273518016341562007-11-10T10:39:00.001-08:002007-11-10T13:34:24.177-08:00

[Link: World Energy and Population]This article is the first of two articles on global availability of energy through the first half of this century. This article discusses the actual energy likely to be available and the second article delves more deeply into the consequences of these trends and is shown here. This is not the only attempt to approach this subject in the popular press. Several

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-70010452497707009012007-10-28T16:51:00.000-07:002007-10-28T17:45:21.143-07:00

Thirty per cent of amphibians, 23 per cent of mammals and 12 per cent of birds are under threat of extinction, while one in ten of the world’s major rivers runs dry every year before it reaches the sea.[Link:Times Online]When I read an article like this I realize that all life on earth, including humanity itself, is in anywhere from serious to fatal trouble. It isn't what is in the article

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-39958423421929949022007-10-25T12:01:00.000-07:002007-11-10T13:28:30.496-08:00

"The UN last year revised its forecasts upwards, predicting that there will be 9.2 billion people by 2050, and I simply cannot understand why no one discusses this impending calamity, and why no world statesmen have the guts to treat the issue with the seriousness it deserves."[Link: Telegraph]I have actually seen a few articles in the media recently on the subject of population. It is about

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-81005089518301604902007-10-22T08:58:00.000-07:002007-10-22T09:00:44.190-07:00

"The study, carried out for the Tyndall Centre, suggests that counting carbon emissions within national borders, as is currently the case under the Kyoto Protocol, may be inadequate in deciding who is responsible for emissions reduction. Fair, globalized trade might imply that a nation’s entire carbon footprint should also include imported goods and services manufactured elsewhere, the

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-73084618238347274312007-10-09T10:45:00.000-07:002007-10-09T10:46:58.487-07:00

"We also look at the question of whether the impact of Hurricane Katrina may have hidden the real peak in world oil production. We find that if an adjustment is made for hurricane impacts, the peak month of production seems to be December 2005 on a crude and condensate basis, and September 2005 on an all liquids basis. The higher adjusted peaks, and greater declines since the adjusted peaks,

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-5746880714419310462007-09-20T11:30:00.000-07:002007-09-20T11:31:49.865-07:00

...On another level, though, Fermi’s Paradox can be restated in another and far more threatening way. The logic of the paradox depends on the assumption that unlimited technological progress is possible, and it can be turned without too much difficulty into a logical refutation of the assumption. If unlimited technological progress is possible, then there should be clear evidence of

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-36549645878437094152007-09-17T22:17:00.000-07:002007-09-17T22:21:31.789-07:00

[Link: David Strahan | An interview with Dr. James Schlesinger]Wow. The big boys are coming out of the Peak Oil Closet now, aren't they. The papers and airwaves have been filled with Alan Greenspan's claim, from his new book, that Iraq was indeed about oil. Of course he is backing down in the heat of day. Now this linked interview with former US Energy Secretary Dr. James Schlesinger in which

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-3825125109038735392007-09-06T16:54:00.000-07:002007-09-06T16:54:54.710-07:00

By American estimates, 25 percent of the world's oil and mineral deposits are locked beneath the northern ice cap, but will become available if the world warms enough. It would not be the first time that the Arctic has been free of ice. Analysis of soil samples drilled beneath the mile-thick ice cover have shown that Greenland was in the past rich in forests, vegetation and animal life.[Link: The

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-63235849032746291052007-08-09T08:22:00.000-07:002007-08-09T09:08:43.438-07:00

There is a new novel out called Last Light by London author Alex Scarrow. This video is a promo for the book. The novel deals with a breakdown in society when oil supply is disrupted by terrorist activity all over the world. I haven't read the novel yet but I have corresponded with the author and I have seen reviews (see video) and it sounds like a good thriller built on a Peak Oil premise.

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-22043877941656751932007-07-20T00:09:00.000-07:002007-07-21T22:41:46.877-07:00

"Washington apparently didn't note the recent statement of Saudi oil executive Sadad Al-Husseini: 'There has been a paradigm shift in the energy world whereby oil producers are no longer inclined to rapidly exhaust their resource for the sake of accelerating the misuse of a precious and finite commodity."[Link: St. Cloud Times Opinion:]It is hard to fault the logic of the Saudis on this one. If

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-5919736746879616892007-07-05T21:45:00.000-07:002007-07-06T22:33:05.998-07:00

The world is not running out of crude oil and natural gas but there are "accumulating risks" to securing global supplies through 2030, a high-level board of U.S. oil company executives found in a report obtained by Reuters on Thursday. Those risks include "political hurdles, infrastructure requirements and availability of trained work force," according to the study by the U.S. National Petroleum

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-75553583256045027082007-06-24T18:22:00.000-07:002007-06-25T00:28:40.651-07:00

The world is blinding itself to the reality of its energy problems, ignoring the scale of growth in demand from developing countries and placing too much faith in renewable sources of power, according to two leaders of the global energy industry[Link: Times Online]This is very serious talk from the heads of major oil. Most of the things they are talking about are not news to anyone who has been

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-90209908343233544612007-06-17T23:18:00.000-07:002007-06-17T23:33:03.450-07:00

To turn coal into liquid fuel it must be fired up to 1,000 degrees and mixed with water. Then the gas that's created is transformed into fuel that can be used in cars and jets. Unfortunately, creating CTL, as it is known, is a very intensive process requiring coal, water and cash. To wean the United States off of just 1 million barrels of the 21 million barrels of crude oil consumed daily, an

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-2011584831634735912007-06-15T00:07:00.000-07:002007-06-15T00:14:28.983-07:00

Even if the peakists are wrong, we would still be better off taking these actions. And if they're right, major efforts right now may be the only way to avert a new Dark Age in an overheated world.[Link: Business Week]I will have to say that I am surprised at this reasonable opinion under the banner of a publication like Business Week. Like many recent Peak Oil discussions in the media, this

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-680990076780295272007-05-27T10:21:00.000-07:002007-05-27T11:43:28.285-07:00

Resource limitations and climate change are on the tongues of everyone nowadays. Most of us have a vague idea that we are facing some big change in our lifestyle sometime in the future. Almost nobody, however, has stepped up to the reality of that impending change. Consider the conversations we all have about reducing our environmental footprint. How many of us really understand why we should do

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-23988072928772873182007-05-21T09:31:00.000-07:002007-05-21T09:37:38.610-07:00

Climate change and global warming has become part of our everyday life, and central to this debate is the emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2). The fossil fuels that we use contain carbon and hydrocarbons, and in the combustion of these fuels, carbon dioxide is released along with energy.In the present climate debate, however, the amount of available fossil fuels does not appear to be an issue. The

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-7889468421876043692007-05-19T10:19:00.000-07:002007-05-21T09:37:05.213-07:00

In a study released earlier this month, the scientists claim the world's 52,000 dams contribute more than 4 percent of the warming impact linked to human activities. The study even suggests that dams and reservoirs are the single largest source of human-cased methane, a gas that traps heat in the atmosphere.[Link: Shaun McKinnon - AZCentral.com]Well, that pretty much does it. All of this time I

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-75594590558733725832007-04-22T21:18:00.000-07:002007-04-22T21:24:31.187-07:00

When the OPEC oil embargo hit in October 1973, Rosenfeld did a little math. He discovered that if Americans used energy as efficiently as the Europeans or Japanese, the United States could have been exporting oil in 1973, rather than sitting in rationing lines at gas stations. The solution, he realized, was not to bend the Arab oil regimes to America's will but to end America's thralldom to them

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-49563975584161345272007-04-19T11:44:00.000-07:002007-04-22T21:30:58.858-07:00

A USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds that more Americans than ever — 60%, up from 48% a decade ago — believe that global warming has begun to affect the climate. A slightly larger percentage think it will cause major or extreme changes in climate and weather during the next 50 years.And in a reflection of the impact the environmental movement has had on Americans' attitudes in the nearly four decades

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-49877152058131946822007-04-14T11:42:00.000-07:002007-04-14T12:53:36.639-07:00

The author looks ahead to post-petroleum living with considered conclusions: "Biofuels have yet to be proven viable, and mechanization may not be a great strategy in a world of declining energy." And, "…only a small amount of biomass (is) unspoken for" by today’s essential economic and ecological activities. To top it off, she points out, "Crop production is reduced when residues are removed from

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-87582980550041294132007-03-31T09:25:00.000-07:002007-03-31T09:27:34.653-07:00

[Link = GAO Report(pdf)]This is a link to the recently released report from the United States Government Accountability Office titled "CRUDE OIL - Uncertainty about Future Oil Supply Makes It Important to Develop a Strategy for Addressing a Peak and Decline in Oil Production." I have not read through it yet and there is a lot of commentary out there to sort through so I will not add my comments

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-58587309645704429982007-03-22T16:16:00.000-07:002007-03-22T16:20:08.237-07:00

“We are not going to reach energy independence in this nation and have better control over our national security as long as we remain dependent on the internal combustion engine and air traffic to move people and goods,” Schlesinger said.With $5 billion worth of oil being used daily and the world’s existing oil fields in a decline of about 4% a year, Schlesinger detailed three relatively

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-7901048150220571232007-03-04T09:36:00.000-08:002007-03-04T14:34:18.130-08:00

Looming just over the horizon are four great storms that soon will have a major impact on nearly all the world’s peoples and their descendents for decades to come. We know these storms are coming, for we can clearly see their outlines and some are already beginning to feel the winds. We don’t know the exact timing nor the order of these storms’ arrival. We do know that the order in which they

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-55163113506408533102007-02-27T16:16:00.000-08:002007-02-27T16:18:39.319-08:00

Toyota Motor Corp.'s Highlander sport utility vehicle should start rolling off the assembly line at a new, $1.3 billion plant in northeast Mississippi by 2010, company and state officials said Tuesday.Toyota disclosed the site for its eighth vehicle assembly plant in North America, saying it will be built on a 1,700-acre site at Blue Springs, about 10 miles northwest of Tupelo. It also considered

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-6809257274663919282007-02-24T16:17:00.000-08:002007-02-24T19:12:49.872-08:00

A report from Wood Mackenzie, the Edinburgh-based consultancy, calculates that the world holds 3,600bn barrels of unconventional oil and gas that need a lot of energy to extract.So far only 8 per cent of that has begun to be developed, because the world has relied on easier sources of oil and gas. Only 15 per cent of the 3,600bn is heavy and extra-heavy oil, with the rest being even more

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-15718596656443502132007-02-15T19:35:00.000-08:002007-02-15T19:38:44.346-08:00

Watson said other above-ground risks include higher costs of finding oil that could chill production and the lack of enough engineers and other professionals to replace the industry's aging work force."Above-ground peak oil will trump below-ground peak oil every time," Watson said.[link: Chron.com - Houston Chronicle]The shorter version of this article is "there is plenty of oil, we just won't be

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-4608570503893357542007-02-12T22:08:00.001-08:002007-02-12T22:08:47.267-08:00

Watch an interview of Matt Simmons on the Bloomberg Report. This is the interview where he predicts $300/barrel oil and declares peak oil is here.

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-76994182069751995612007-02-12T13:06:00.000-08:002007-02-12T13:06:09.051-08:00

"To see where corn production can go, it is helpful to see how far it has come. In 1945, U.S. farmers harvested about 40 bushels of grain per acre. Today, thanks to elite hybrids, new technologies and growers' management practices, the U.S. average is 160 bushels per acre. Many growers consistently produce 250 bushels, up to a record of 400-plus bushels."[Link: DesMoinesRegister.com]It is

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-34605261440208323502007-02-10T23:00:00.000-08:002007-02-10T23:05:32.818-08:00

Richard Duncan has released an update to his Oldavai Theory and it is much like the others. He has looked at recent data and it doesn't really change anything. In a previous post I explained my recent epiphany regarding the essence of his idea which is that the collapse of per capita energy availability (which can be considered a measure of civilization's prosperity) is not dependent on a

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-32288177827224116902007-02-05T13:53:00.000-08:002007-02-05T13:58:01.554-08:00

[Link: WSJ.com]The IPCC report predicts sea levels will rise by between one to two feet over the next 100 years. Mr. Delworth said there remains "much more uncertainty" over how much accelerated melting of glaciers might add to that.A second area of continuing uncertainty has to do with the impact of clouds on climate change. Warming the ocean sends more water vapor into the air, and the

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-81756284805753018552007-02-01T21:27:00.000-08:002007-02-01T21:33:08.898-08:00

Link: MiamiHerald.com | 02/01/2007 "That means the world's scientists are 90 to 99 percent certain that the burning of fossil fuels is responsible.Worse, the study reportedly describes global warming as a runaway climatological train that already is racing down the track and will ``continue for centuries . . . even if greenhouse gas concentrations were to be stabilized."You know it really takes a

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-15097590145639458472007-01-31T16:40:00.000-08:002007-01-31T20:08:29.528-08:00

Link: New York Times Rising demand for palm oil in Europe brought about the clearing of huge tracts of Southeast Asian rainforest and the overuse of chemical fertilizer there.Worse still, the scientists said, space for the expanding palm plantations was often created by draining and burning peatland, which sent huge amounts of carbon emissions into the atmosphere. As we desperately try to replace

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-30867236222761362762007-01-24T22:23:00.000-08:002007-01-25T09:50:58.430-08:00

Those of us who are convinced that hydrocarbon resources are in finite supply, and that we might be challenging the limits of its availability, are often reminded of the many flaws in our logic. For instance, we are encouraged to remember the power of the market. When the price of scarce hydrocarbons gets high enough more will appear. The invisible hand of Supply and Demand will guarantee that

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-80770601193382289562007-01-24T17:24:00.000-08:002007-01-25T09:46:53.355-08:00

In Federal Way, Washington state, a suburb of Seattle, a controversy rages on the propriety of showing Al Gore's film on Global Warming, "An Inconvenient Truth," in the classroom. The "controversy" is that some parent's have complained that the school district has not presented alternative viewpoints to that presented in the film. Specifically, these parents would like to see counter arguments,

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-73417050859254077932007-01-23T10:52:00.000-08:002007-01-23T10:56:37.547-08:00

You get a sense that the Post senses the oversell of this hydrogen car when you see the word hype used in the headline. The story, however, is less skeptical.The Ford Edge gliding along the George Washington Memorial Parkway doesn't have spinning rims or a booming sound system. The bling in this SUV is the technology. The vehicle runs almost silently. It needs no gas and releases no polluting

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-2887578479723703722007-01-17T00:14:00.001-08:002007-01-17T00:14:37.551-08:00

Check it out!

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-8346173479436068462007-01-16T09:53:00.000-08:002007-01-17T00:55:15.612-08:00

The government's ability to understand and predict hurricanes, drought and climate changes of all kinds is in danger because of deep cuts facing many Earth satellite programs and major delays in launching some of its most important new instruments, a panel of experts has concluded.Oh great! Just as the need for ever more vigilance and precision in weather and atmospheric monitoring becomes

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-13410056459613560152007-01-13T13:00:00.000-08:002007-01-13T13:02:11.546-08:00

As the world heats up, the coal industry is racing to build more than 150 new power plants before Congress decides to crack down on global warming.According to the American Heritage Dictionary, a suicidal act is one that is 'dangerous to oneself or to one's interests; self-destructive or ruinous.' By this standard, the coal boom that is currently sweeping America is the atmospheric equivalent of

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-62303600716631946052007-01-11T11:06:00.000-08:002007-01-11T12:41:12.946-08:00

By now a disturbing trend becomes clear: the two problems of Climate Change and Peak Oil together are worse than either by itself. Strategies that might help to keep lights burning and trucks moving while reducing emissions are questionable from a depletionist point of view, while most strategies to keep the economy energized as oil and gas disappear imply increasing greenhouse gas emissions. As

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-68211051436884107542007-01-10T10:42:00.000-08:002007-01-10T10:49:55.343-08:00

Royalties to Rise for Some Offshore Wells in Advance of Democrats' Plans to Roll Back Tax BreaksThe Bush administration yesterday moved to boost U.S. oil and gas supplies by lifting a long-standing moratorium on drilling in Alaska's Bristol Bay, as OPEC accelerated plans to reduce supplies in order to prop up sagging crude prices. [Link]This is not a surprise. But the reaction from Congress may

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-25689997308295170932007-01-10T10:00:00.000-08:002007-01-10T10:04:13.019-08:00

These kind of headlines are starting to show up pretty regularly now. You can see discussions like this on any given day in the news. In the United States it is still glossed over with a yawn and a comment about how the market or technology will take care of it "somehow." In the rest of the world, though, reality seems to be taken more seriously. Sometime, very soon I believe, awareness of

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-28142354534618181962006-12-31T17:29:00.000-08:002006-12-31T17:55:34.963-08:00

This is what our future will become if we don't somehow find a way to curtail our dependence on goods and services that owe their existence to high inputs of hydrocarbon energy.A GREAT coal rush is under way across China on a scale not seen anywhere since the 19th century.Its consequences have been detected half a world away in toxic clouds so big that they can seen from space, drifting across

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-42677896072836903872006-12-22T00:23:00.000-08:002006-12-22T00:43:23.731-08:00

This is a really good presentation. Mr. Moerman is definitely talking about the real future here. His discussions about wasting food producing land on bio-diesel and transportation planning are splendid. In his introduction he talks about our faulty planning which is based on our false belief in the existence of ever increasing supplies of cheap oil. That is the false present that I have

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-92183581215147544062006-12-18T12:37:00.000-08:002006-12-18T21:22:42.513-08:00

Most people haven't started thinking about the real future. That's mostly because they are still living in today's unreal present. You can't easily think about later unless you have a good grasp on now. The author of this article, however, may be planning for the real future. If you are like me and you have been raised in a suburban, shopping mall, freeway to anywhere kind of world, your

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-31184685944725515432006-12-07T18:02:00.000-08:002006-12-07T19:31:35.916-08:00

I like that term. I think the author of this article has hit upon the right name for what we are running in to. Post-abundance pretty much says it all. Abundance is a relative term. Post-abundance won't mean that anybody can't get what they want, just that maybe there won't be quite enough for everybody. In an earlier post I wrote about the Olduvai Theory which is the idea that the world is

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-75385928746232106762006-12-01T21:43:00.000-08:002006-12-03T11:01:31.124-08:00

One does hope, doesn't one? I bet that everyone that has come to believe in the reality of limited oil production saw the Democrats embrace energy independence in the run up to the elections last month and harbored a little bit of wishful thinking. I did. But I must admit I tempered it with a pretty fair amount of skepticism. Now the elections have passed, however, and here is a Democratic

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-75337513922990876512006-11-28T08:39:00.000-08:002006-11-28T09:04:12.631-08:00

This Wall Street Journal article points to a study by the IMF that seems to show that there are political implications to some of the price changes in fuel. I tend to think that it is more likely a collusion between politicians and oil producers, or even the producers alone, that are manipulating prices to effect the voting outcome rather than the politicians manipulating the oil giants. But

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-29998276692630217562006-11-27T09:52:00.000-08:002006-11-27T10:00:02.758-08:00

Let's take a look at the big picture. In the past there were no usable hydrocarbons because uses for them had not been found. In the future there will not be any usable hydrocarbons because many uses for them will have been found and all of it that could be extracted will have been consumed. In between was/is PetroWorld. PetroWorld is an artificial state of existence caused by having access

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-35397732772190914702006-11-22T09:22:00.000-08:002006-11-22T15:11:02.959-08:00

Most of us who are familiar with the Peak Oil theory have read the Olduvai Theory presented in Dieoff.org . In this theory Richard Duncan proposes that we are about to encounter a severe reduction in our global energy availability which will result in a major population decrease (the dieoff). In his presentation he shows one plot of oil production per capita and another of total energy use

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-64831693049201394962006-11-20T19:00:00.000-08:002006-11-20T19:10:12.305-08:00

This is a link to an ambitious project from Stanford University seeking to understand the environmental ramifications of sustainability. The site is divided into four sections dealing with energy and the climate, land use, oceans and fresh water. I dont' know whether they will produce any useful answers to those powerful questions but if the following excerpt from the site is any indication,

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-8323005125187342822006-11-18T14:01:00.000-08:002006-11-27T09:57:09.340-08:00

The world is trying to solve a very pressing climate problem. As a major user of fossil fuels the United States should be in the forefront of this process. Here is what one of the experts at a recent climate conference had to say."Everyone is waiting for the United States. I think the whole process will be on ice until 2009," when Bush's second term expires, said Paal Prestrud, head of the

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-61237943542062414352006-11-15T14:11:00.000-08:002006-11-27T09:56:13.520-08:00

A recent comment by Daniel Yergin of Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA)to the effect that there really isn't an oil problem and we will have plenty for many years to come encouraged this response by ASPO-USA. I like their lead paragraphs.As Yergin well knows, peak oil does not mean we are “running out.” This is a red herring. To be fair, some peak oil commentators have been equally

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-24368870554256673042006-11-14T12:30:00.000-08:002006-11-14T15:20:51.603-08:00

Some more thoughts about the past, present and the future. A couple of posts ago I wrote about my recent realization that we are living in a present that is totally unique relative to our past and our future. The reason that I believe that, is because the reality that defines a culture's existence is completely tied to its vision of the future. Since we started using hydrocarbons we have built a

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-14628270883583139262006-11-14T09:18:00.000-08:002006-11-14T15:25:58.179-08:00

James Kunstler is sometimes a rough read but his writing style is not nearly as rough as his ideas. In this piece he is lamenting that the powers that be are promoting the idea that energy dependence is merely a matter of switching from one technology to another. In fact, he says, there is another aspect to energy independence. We will have to give up a lot of our mobility and change not just

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-34074756817597000182006-11-12T19:46:00.000-08:002006-11-12T20:19:15.400-08:00

Everything has a past, a present and a future. Humankind is no exception. Lately, I have been thinking about our (for argument's sake I have included myself in humankind) past, present and future. I have come to the conclusion that our past existed from the time we separated from the evolutionary chimpanzee line (or more accurately from an extinct line that became both humans and the modern

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-47105227449881546042006-11-02T21:58:00.000-08:002006-11-02T23:21:30.524-08:00

Let's face it. "Peak Oil" is just a math problem. In the real world it doesn't mean a thing. In the real world there used to be a lot of oil. In the real world there eventually won't be much oil left at all. That is because in between those two real world end points we will be producing and using as much of it as we can. We can't help ourselves. Peak Oil is just as much oil as we ever can

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-87124648953053664132006-10-31T10:22:00.000-08:002006-11-01T10:46:51.450-08:00

This is not a surprising development. As we continue to expand our population, the resources that we depend on just don't seem to keep pace. We have not found a way to create resources yet. All we have mastered is the consumption of them. They are finite and it seems there is no way we can avoid using them up. Indubitably, when one is gone we will start using up the next one. The trouble

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-36668796099424705392006-10-30T11:52:00.000-08:002006-11-02T13:47:03.511-08:00

Now this complicates the picture somewhat. When President Bush pulled the United States out of the Koyoto protocol he gave as his reason that the solutions would be destructive of the U. S. economy. Now these British officials have concluded that not dealing with the climate changes will devastate the economy. Now we have a dilemma here. Now, it is possible that if we spend money to fight

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-46511484433751345362006-10-28T09:23:00.001-07:002006-11-01T10:47:30.057-08:00

You can watch a slightly reduced version of this classic Peak Oil video on YouTube. Give it a look. It is a good introduction to the subject.

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-38585102054790588552006-10-27T20:13:00.000-07:002006-10-27T21:09:49.973-07:00

I would like to direct you to this new site that promises to be a significant resource for all things environmental. I haven't spent much time in its dark corners yet but what I have seen looks very promising. If anyone has a more studied opinion, good or bad, please consider sharing a comment.[Link: The Encyclopedia of Earth]

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-33840282346824692162006-10-26T15:30:00.000-07:002006-11-01T17:41:51.252-08:00

Here is a very long and technical article about the global oil supply and depletion. If you read this and, more importantly, understand it, you will be well on your way towards having a rational backing for your ideas about resource depletion. It isn't an easy subject and, as always, the devil is in the details. You may not even reach the same conclusions the author has. But if we are going

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-69524309130393992402006-10-24T22:55:00.000-07:002006-11-01T17:42:18.195-08:00

What is one to believe? The Saudis announce (see Link below)they will cut the production of oil in order to shore up the falling crude prices. How do we know that they aren't having trouble producing as much oil as we think they can. They wouldn't want to say that now would they? It seems to me that, either way , we are going to see the price start back up soon. The winter demand is heating

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6318719460302515464.post-77311652373679571282006-10-24T22:26:00.000-07:002006-11-02T21:50:18.614-08:00

How do you like the name I chose for this Blog? It isn't a real word but it evokes a sense of the wasting away of the essence of the petrochemical world which is kind of what I am trying to grapple with. I like it. If you don't, of course, you can start a Blog with a better name.

Billhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12361085303443963781noreply@blogger.com0