Peak Oil A Reality

05 January, 2009

Peak Oil And The Century Of Famine
By Peter Goodchild

Around the beginning of the twenty-first century, there began a clash of two gigantic forces: overpopulation and oil depletion. The event went unnoticed by all but a few people, but it was quite real. As a result of that clash, the number of human beings on Earth must one day decline in order to match the decline in oil production

18 December, 2008

Peak Oil: At Last, A Date
By George Monbiot

For the first time, the International Energy Agency has produced a date for peak oil. International Energy Agency (IEA) in its World Energy Outlook report for 2007 says World oil resources are judged to be sufficient to meet the projected growth in demand to 2030 ; though it says nothing about what happens at that point, or whether they will continue to be sufficient after 2030

06 December, 2008

Oman In Winter: Watching The Oil Run Out
By Peter Goodchild

Oman has oil reserves of about 5 billion barrels, although recoverable reserves may be more like 3 billion. In a world that uses 30 billion barrels a year, 3 billion is not much. What will happen when the oil is gone?

13 November, 2008

The Five Stages Of Collapse
By Dmitry Orlov

Five stages of collapse as delineated by the Russian social scientist Dmitry Orlov who closely observed the collapse of Soviet Union. He says, "I watched the Soviet Union collapse, and, since I am also familiar with the details of the situation in the United States, I can make comparisons between these two failed superpowers."

04 November, 2008

"Personal Survival Skills:
Life At The Twlight Of Empire"
By Michelle Fealk, Adriana Guillen, Colin Peacock,
Sarah Rios, and two anonymous contributors

This report is intended to serve as a guide along the path we have, thankfully, already trodden and worn down, along with several thousand scientists, conspiracy-theory crackpots, and average frustrated chumps as we have come up against a world in turmoil. Specifically, we face an ambiguous future in a world that grows increasingly dependent on oil even as global supplies fall

28 October, 2008

Peak Oil And The Systemic Collapse Of
Modern Civilization
By Peter Goodchild

Systemic collapse has ten principal parts, each with a somewhat causal relationship to the next. Fuel, metals, and electricity are a tightly-knit group, since no industrial civilization can have one without the others. As those three disappear, food and fresh water become scarce. Matters of infrastructure then follow: transportation and communication. Social structure fails: government, finance, and education. After these ten, there is psychic breakdown: madness and chaos

29 September, 2008

"Peak Oil Preparation: Educating
Family, Loved Ones, And Friends"
By Clifford J. Wirth

Families that have a common understanding of Peak Oil problems can provide mutual support and group problem-solving, and they are more likely enjoy life and survive the Peak Oil catastrophe. Young people who understand Peak Oil are more likely to study what makes sense for the future. Informed people who are unemployed can work collectively for their future and use their resources for contingency planning, instead of looking to panaceas and technological fixes

After The Oil Crash: Evolution Of The Hill Folk
By Peter Goodchild

The decline in the world's oil suply is only one aspect of the fact that the civilized world is in a decline that will last for eternity. Politicians have no wish to address all the unpopular issues, and the voters are told nothing by the mainstream news media. Salvation therefore can only be on the level of the individual or the small group. What exactly is one to do? The most obvious proposal might be to walk away from that civilized world, to head for the hills, build a log cabin, plant corn, raise chickens, weave blankets, whatever

23 August, 2008

Peak Oil And Future History
By Peter Goodchild

Yes, there are other factors beside oil to consider in the Great Crash. We live in a morass of bad politics, bad economics, and bad education (and bad news media that spoon-feed us with half-truths), and we elect thieves and liars to guide us. But the loss of oil, which is almost the only support of our unique industrial society, will be the factor that brings all the rest down

18 August, 2008

Sailing To Araby
By Peter Goodchild

It’s odd that the Arabs are aware that oil is running out, whereas North Americans and Europeans keep up the daily chant that "high oil prices are due to hoarding and price-fixing." We live in our dreams of the past

16 June, 2008

The Oil Era Reaches Its Desperate Endgame
By The Independent

An increase in Saudi oil pumping might well have the desired effect of bringing down the price somewhat. But what if it does not fall low enough to ease the pain of the world economy? How long before our political leaders return to Saudi and its Opec allies to plead for more? And what will be the political price extracted for this? What we are seeing in this desperate horse-trading is the endgame of the oil age

12 June, 2008

Our ‘Cheap Oil Fiesta’ Is Over
By Joyce Marcel

There are no cheap or easy solutions in our future. But the first thing to think about, Kunstler said, is rebuilding the public transportation system. We should demand that rebuilding the railroads become a serious issue in the current presidential election. That’s a good place to start

23 May, 2008

Is The world About To Be Running On Empty?
By Stephen Foley

In France, fishermen are blockading oil refineries. In Britain, lorry drivers are planning a day of action. In the US, the car maker Ford is to cut production of gas-guzzling sports utility vehicles and airlines are jacking up ticket prices. Global concerns about fuel prices are reaching fever pitch and the world's leading energy monitor has issued a disturbing downward revision of the oil industry's ability to keep pace with soaring demand

09 May, 2008
Portrait Of An Oil-Addicted Former Superpower
By Michael T. Klare
How Rising Oil Prices Are Obliterating America's Superpower Status

16 April, 2008

The End Of The World As You Know It
By Michael T. Klare

Oil at $110 a barrel. Gasoline at $3.35 (or more) per gallon. Diesel fuel at $4 per gallon. Independent truckers forced off the road. Home heating oil rising to unconscionable price levels. Jet fuel so expensive that three low-cost airlines stopped flying in the past few weeks. This is just a taste of the latest energy news, signaling a profound change in how all of us, in this country and around the world, are going to live — trends that, so far as anyone can predict, will only become more pronounced as energy supplies dwindle and the global struggle over their allocation intensifies

15 April, 2008

Yankee Ticket Prices And Fossil Fuels
By James Hansen

Fossil fuel reserves are overstated. Government “energy information” departments parrot industry. Partly because of this disinformation, the major efforts needed to develop energies “beyond fossil fuels” have not been made. The reality of limited supply forces prices higher. Eventually, sales volume will begin to decline, but fossil fuel moguls will make more money than ever. They will continue to assert that there is plenty more to be found, aiming to keep the suckers (that’s us) on the hook

07 March , 2008

Peak Oil? Peak Soil!
By Roger Doiron

Reasonable people can disagree on the causes and the implications of rising oil prices, but there seems to be a gathering consensus that the era of easy and cheap oil is over. If you don’t want to take my word on that, then take it from an oil executive

06 March , 2008

Peak Oil - True Or False
By Stephen Lendman

The arguments are so one-sided, it's practically a given that "peak oil" is real and threatening. Or is it? This article examines both sides. It lets readers decide and deals only with supply issues, not crucial environmental ones and the need to develop alternative energy sources

29 January , 2008

Saying Goodbye To The Oil Age
By Peter Goodchild

What matters is not to wait unthinkingly for the onslaught of hunger and cold, but to form communities that can build houses and plant crops. Like the phoenix, we must rise from the ashes — the ashes of the Age of Excess. We must learn to step outside our plastic-and-metal cocoons and see what is happening with our neighbors, and with all the rest of dirty, sweaty humanity

24 January , 2008

Peak Oil As Obsessional Neurosis
By Peter Goodchild

When writing about peak oil and related matters in the category of doom and gloom, one encounters Nietzsche’s paradox: There are only two kinds of readers, those who already know, and those who will never know, so why bother? Isn’t it the case that to be caught in such a circle is solid evidence of an obsessional neurosis?

21 January , 2008

Systemic Collapse
By Peter Goodchild

The reason why we live in the Age of Peak Everything is that everything is connected: oil, electricity, metals, food, water, money. Everything depends on everything. And there is no redundancy. It is more cost-effective to have everything balanced on the head of a pin than to have ten pins for ten things. Redundancy is not cost-effective. That is why redundant people are laid off. Redundancy is sometimes permissible for warfare or other emergencies, but we live at the center of the civilized world, where emergencies can never happen

11 January , 2008

How Peak Oil Changed My Life
By Aaron Wissner

Peak oil drives me to share what I know, and to go further, to illuminate the fundamental failure of our global culture to plan and prepare for its own future. The bleak reality is this: peak oil is not really about the decline of our most precious energy resource. Peak oil is one symptom of our civilization’s inability to find and follow a cultural vision of sustainability

10 January , 2008

Tar Sands vs. Clean Water:
Eating The Earth For Cars
By Mark Robinowitz

The tar sands production center in northern Alberta in Canada is one of the clearest signs that the easy-to-get oil is on the wane. Tar sands are a low grade hydrocarbon deposit that requires enormous energy input to process and convert it into something resembling petroleum

09 January , 2008

Don’t Worry The Price Per Barrel Is $100!
By Dr Marwan Asmar

Don’t worry the price of oil—currently hovering at around $100 per barrel—‘is not very high’—but is likely to go higher if we take into account the oil demand, production costs and inflationary pressures. These are not the expressed views of the man-in-the-street, but that of the current rotating president of OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) Chakib Khelil

05 January , 2008

Toward A Post-Oil Community
By Peter Goodchild

Benumbed and benighted, these recent graduates are certainly not ready for the bizarre future that now awaits them, a world unlike anything their parents encountered. Any twenty-year-old who has never gone to bed hungry is precisely the sort of person who will be unlikely to find a meal in the year 2030. It is the young people who have previously had to fight for survival who will have the stamina — both physically and psychologically — to fight for survival in the future. The soft will not live long. It’s the wolves that will eat well, not the lap dogs

29 December , 2007

Peak Oil And Dunbar's Number
By Peter Goodchild

Within modern capitalism there is no solution to the problem of oil depletion. Oil energy cannot be replaced with the equivalent amount of "alternative" energy in the required time, so the consequences of oil depletion will be disastrous. Those disastrous consequences are beyond the range of the normal or acceptable issues of political debate. No political contender can win votes by saying that the world is coming to an end. The "end" may be real, but there is no political mechanism to deal with it in the over-crowded and overly complex modern state

22 December , 2007

The Post-Oil Economy: After The Techno-Fix
By Peter Goodchild

The path beyond petroleum begins by considering five principles: that alternative sources of energy are insufficient; that hydrocarbons, metals, and electricity are inseparable; that advanced technology is part of the problem, not part of the solution; that post-oil agriculture means a smaller population; and that the basis of the problem is psychological, not technological

21 December , 2007

Hydrocarbons And Funny Money
By Peter Goodchild

One can say that the future will be one of diminishing fossil fuels, and hence diminishing gasoline, plastic, paint, asphalt, fertilizer, and electricity. Or one can say that it will be a period of stagflation: rising prices and falling wages — since rising oil prices "drag up" all other prices. Eventually faith in the dollar will collapse, and money will be replaced by barter

17 December , 2007

Dealing With Peak Oil Depression
By Peter Goodchild

For many who have experienced the epiphany of the petroleum bell-curve, a sense of despair is the common after-effect. How does one accommodate oneself to that realization of dwindling material resources? And oddly enough, it is often the most astute, those who have the most to offer, who are in that very position of having to navigate the darkness

Why Peak Guarantees Conservation
By Jeff Berg

The Peak Energy thesis clearly demonstrates that the massive energy conservation efforts that our ecology, and climate, so dearly and clearly need, are guaranteed to happen. Whether or not they will happen in time to be of any good to us is still very much up in the air

12 December , 2007

Growing Food When The Oil Runs out
By Peter Goodchild

Most people in modern industrial society get their food mainly from supermarkets. As a result of declining hydrocarbon resources, however, it is unlikely that such food will always be available. The present world population is nearly 7 billion, but food supplies per capita have been shrinking for years. Food production will have to become more localized, and it will be necessary to reconsider less-advanced forms of technology that might be called "subsistence gardening."

11 December , 2007

The Danse Macabre Of Success And Hubris
By Case Wagenvoord

America sits atop an industrial and financial behemoth made possible by a geological flicker known as the “Age of Oil.” In our heart of hearts we believe it will last forever because we represent the end point of history. The sweet irony of it all is that when the dust finally settles, the Age of Oil, and the Industrial Age it spawned, will barely register as cosmic farts in the grand scheme of things

08 December , 2007

Peak Oil And The Vision In The Mirror
By Aaron Wissner

Peak oil is not simply an issue of learning to conserve or finding ways to do more with less. It isn't simply about the possibility of economic collapse, war, starvation or global pandemic. It isn't just about changing our behaviors or our beliefs. It is about turning ourselves inside-out, and not only surviving the transformation, but also being and living equal and in harmony with all the rest

06 December , 2007

Peak Oil And Musical Chairs
By Jon Loux

We are all playing a game of musical chairs with the world’s oil supply. Every time the price of oil goes up five dollars or so, one chair gets moved away and someone, or some entire country, is politely escorted out of the oil game. Just kidding about the politely part

05 December , 2007

Alternative Energy And The Pollyanna Principle
By Peter Goodchild

The problem of explaining "peak oil" does not hinge on the issue of peak oil as such, but rather on that of "alternative energy." Most people now have some idea of the concept of peak oil, but it tends to be brushed aside in conversation because of the common incantation: "It doesn’t matter if oil runs out, because by then everything will be converted to [whatever] power." Humanity’s faith in what might be called the Pollyanna Principle — everything will work out right in the end — is eternal.The critical missing information in such a dialogue, of course, is that "alternative energy" will do little to solve the peak-oil problem, although very few people are aware of the fact

30 November , 2007

The First Days Of Petro Collapse
By Peter Goodchild

Without hydrocarbons, the darkness closes in, literally and metaphorically. Yet instead of dealing with the issue in a realistic manner, we sit around and hope that magic and superstition will solve the problems

22 November , 2007

Handy Hints For Post-Petroleum
By Peter Goodchild

The priority of these "hints" will vary as the years go by, but most of them will remain relevant over the course of the century. The slight bias toward northern North America is partly due to the fact that the area meets most of the criteria

16 November , 2007

Peak Oil And Silence
By Peter Goodchild

Perhaps the silence will never end. Most people will never personally see the oil wells running dry, so they will never really know who or what to blame. Modern surveillance techniques will ensure that no protester gets more than half a mile down a street. The process of erosion will be so slow at first that people will wonder if they are imagining the whole thing: higher costs for food and fuel, lower quality of goods and services, a general third-world ambience to what were supposed to be first-world cities. One day, however, there will be a realization that the Grand Plan is not forthcoming, and that staying alive will depend on the Small Plan, person by person, family by family

15 November , 2007

Gwyn Don't Know Dyer
By Jeff Berg

Richard Gwyn’s November 13, 2007 article “Pessimistic Fuel Report too Bright” comes tantalizingly close to understanding the full peril that the energy question presents to development, our collective wealth and the planet’s health. For this he deserves kudos. Though at this point in the energy and emissions narrative it is hardly news to say that if India and China were to consume like North America we would fry the planet

14 November , 2007

Peak Oil Doomsday:Ahead Of Schedule
By Peter Goodchild

When we try to predict the effects of oil decline, we may assume that human "die-off" will follow a gradual but steady curve from about the year 2000 or 2010 to about 2030, which will then flatten out toward about 2050. But such events will probably happen much more quickly than that, because there is a "synergistic" effect due to the fact that the two forces of oil depletion and human population are now heading in opposite directions

01November , 2007

Peak Oil: Time's Up
By Jeff Berg

The fact of peaking oil and peaking energy clinches the argument for conservation and speeding up the timetable on renewables . It is past time environmentalists and socialists use its reality at least as effectively as has the military industrial class

30 October , 2007

Why Did We Invade Iraq Anyway?
By Michael Schwartz

As worldwide demand for hydrocarbons soared, the United States was left with three policy choices: It could try to combine alternative energy sources with rigorous conservation to reduce or eliminate a significant portion of energy imports; it could accept the leverage conferred on OPEC by the energy crunch and attempt to negotiate for an adequate share of what might soon enough become an inadequate supply; or it could use its military power in an effort to coerce Middle East suppliers into satisfying American requirements at the expense of everyone else. Beginning with Jimmy Carter, five U.S. presidents chose the coercive strategy, with George W. Bush finally deciding that violent, preemptive regime change was needed to make it work. The other options remain unexplored

29 October , 2007

Peak Oil And Famine:Four Billion Deaths
By Peter Goodchild

Population growth is soaring, whereas oil production is plunging. If, at the start of any year, the world’s population is greater than its carrying capacity, only simple arithmetic is needed to see that the difference between the two numbers means that mortality will be above the normal by the end of that year. In fact, over the course of the 21st century there will be about 4 billion deaths (probably about 3.6, to be more precise) above normal

16 October , 2007

Peak Moment For Peak Oil In Queensland
By Stuart McCarthy

Until recently the peak oil debate in Australia has been largely confined to internet forums. Those who have dared elsewhere make the obvious point that production of the finite resource upon which our entire economy is based will soon peak and decline, have usually been labeled as doomsayers, conspiracy theorists, socialists or rabid greenies. That situation has changed dramatically in recent weeks with the release of the Queensland Government’s long-awaited Oil Vulnerability Taskforce Report. World oil production is peaking – it’s official, at least here in Queensland

15 October , 2007

A Three Way For The Real Third Way
By Jeff Berg

If we fail again and let consumption manage us and not us it, I’m guaranteeing here and now that energy fascism is the jackboot that we will all be ground under. Most of the rest of the world gets this already. They do not hate us for our freedoms they hate us for the insane recklessness and abuse of freedom that our everyday fossil fuel lifestyle screams at them. And who can blame them?

08 October , 2007

We Are In A Bad Fix
By Mathew Maavak

What began as sub-prime woes in the US housing sector may ripple into something we cannot yet imagine. Will there be a severe global recession, or worse? If wars are yet contained, bidding wars will yet emerge over wheat, water, fish, medicines and oil. What will the future hold in this ecology of crises?

22 September , 2007

Agriculture In A Post-Oil Economy
By Peter Goodchild

The future will be just like today, only tougher. Oil depletion is basically just a matter of overpopulation — too many people and not enough resources. The most serious consequence will be a lack of food. The problem of oil therefore leads, in an apparently mundane fashion, to the problem of farming

08 September , 2007

Peak-Oil Awareness And The Larger Community
By Peter Goodchild

Is it possible to deal with peak oil on a broad demographic scale?

19 August , 2007

Entering The Tough Oil Era
By Michael T. Klare

A spate of high-level government and industry reports have begun to suggest that the original peak-oil theorists were far closer to the grim reality of global-oil availability than industry analysts were willing to admit. Industry optimism regarding long-term energy-supply prospects, these official reports indicate, has now given way to a deep-seated pessimism, even in the biggest of Big Oil corporate headquarters

16 August , 2007

Why ‘Peak Oil’ May Soon Pique Your Interest
By David R. Francis

World oil production peaked in 2005, says one expert, and that presents serious problems in the future

03 August , 2007

Demand Destruction - Market Failure
By Bill Henderson

Demand destruction will occur in those countries that can't afford oil.Demand destruction will occur in farmers fields and Third World slums. America will eat turkey, watch football and give thanks to the Lord while millions starve, while millions starve outside a privileged world where oil is still fungible

22 July , 2007

Oil And Gas May Run Short By 2015
By Geoffrey Lean

Humanity is approaching an unprecedented crisis when not enough oil and gas will be produced to keep industrial civilisation running, the world's top oilmen warned last week. The warning – which is being hailed as a "tipping point" – marks the first time that the industry has accepted that it may soon no longer be able to meet demand for its products

30 June , 2007

A Pipeline Into The Heart Of Europe
By M K Bhadrakumar

Russian President Vladimir Putin, a published expert in judo, has used his skills to throw the US off balance in the competition for energy. In the past few weeks he has defeated all Western-backed projects to bring gas from Central Asia into Europe, and now he is aiming at the Balkans. As any judo expert can confirm, brute force is not required. The bigger they are, the harder they fall

16 June , 2007

The Pentagon v. Peak Oil
By Michael Klare

How Wars of the Future May Be Fought Just to Run the Machines That Fight Them

15 June , 2007

A World Without Oil
By Daniel Howden

Scientists challenge major review of global reserves and warn that supplies will start to run out in four years' time

01 May , 2007

True Costs Of Fossil Fuels
By Rand Clifford

when we pump that $3-a-gallon gasoline into our tanks, we should keep in mind that gasoline is in reality the most expensive fuel imaginable—the most heavily-subsidized commodity in history

25 April , 2007

Summer, 2017
By Stephen Hren

It would have been impossible to convince anyone ten years ago that such would be the case, but the sprawling tract housing that surrounds most of America's cities has been almost completely abandoned and the reason might be peak oil

23 December , 2006

New German Community Models Car-Free Living
By Isabelle de Pommereau

Welcome to Germany's best-known environmentally friendly neighborhood and a successful experiment in green urban living. The Vauban development - 2,000 new homes on a former military base 10 minutes by bike from the heart of Freiburg - has put into practice many ideas that were once dismissed as eco-fantasy but which are now moving to the center of public policy

30 October , 2006

The Oil Crisis Started 30 Years Ago
By Peter Goodchild

It is customary to look for the critical year of oil production in absolute terms, but in the year 1970 or thereabouts there was another important "conjunction," to use an astrological metaphor

25 October , 2006

The Path Beyond Petroleum: Twelve Theses
By Peter Goodchild

Oil production in the year 2025 will be half that of the year 2000. If we combine those figures with those of world population, we find a ratio of 5 barrels of oil per person per year in 2000, but only 2 barrels of oil per person per year in 2025

18 October , 2006

Peak Oil: The Clock Is Ticking
By Peter Goodchild

All civilizations grow too large to support themselves, and their leaders have little foresight. These civilizations then collapse and are buried in the mud. The same will happen to America, but human shortsightedness prevents us from seeing America as only one among many civilizations

Major Problems Of Surviving Peak Oil
By Norman

I do not believe that we can stop the crash but I believe that we can, to a degree, prepare ourselves and those close to us for the aftermath

14 October , 2006

Reflections On The Oil Wars
By Peter Goodchild

Modern warfare is mainly about oil, in spite of all the pious and hypocritical rhetoric about "the forces of good" and "the forces of evil." The real "forces" are those trying to control the oil wells and the fragile pipelines that carry that oil. A map of American military ventures is a map of petroleum

06 October , 2006

Peak Oil And The Myth Of Sustainability
By Peter Goodchild

If we have already established the premise that "the human race faces unsolvable problems," the answer is not to waste further amounts of time and energy in asking whether those problems exist. The best response is to find ways to survive within that problematic world

29 September , 2006

Peak Oil And The Problem Of Infrastructure
By Peter Goodchild

Fossil fuels, metals, and electricity are all intricately connected. Each is inaccessible - on the modern scale - without the other two. Any two will vanish without the third. If we imagine a world without fossil fuels, we must imagine a world without metals or electricity. What we imagine, at that point, is a society far more primitive than the one to which we are accustomed

25 September , 2006

Russia Sets The Pace In Energy Race
By M K Bhadrakumar

Next week's meeting in Beijing on energy security involving the United States, China, Japan, India and South Korea is a dramatic manifestation of the new battle plans and war doctrines that Washington is conceptualizing. The conclave in Beijing, significantly, leaves out Western Europe

24 September , 2006

The Myth Of Alternative Energy
By Peter Goodchild

Alternative sources of energy will never be very useful, for several reasons, but mainly because of a problem of "net energy": the amount of energy output is not sufficiently greater than the amount of energy input. Alternative sources simply don't have enough "bang" to replace 30 billion annual barrels of oil

22 September, 2006

Surviving The Oil Crash:
Leadership And Social Structure
By Peter Goodchild

The biggest news story of modern times rarely appears in the conventional news media, or it appears only in distorted forms. Ironically, the modern world is plagued by a lack of serious information. What is most apparent is the larger problem that there is no leadership, no sense of organization, for dealing with peak-oil issues

18 September, 2006

Pragmatists And Heretics - Peak Oil
And Runaway Global Warming
By Bill Henderson

But considering the growing evidence pointing to imminent peak oil dislocation and runaway global warming especially, I still ask why is there no informed consideration and debate about needed governance innovation beyond incremental change within the market economy?

16 September, 2006

Peak Oil Preparations: Money And Labor
By Peter Goodchild

The answer, in part, is to give up the use of money well ahead of time, instead of letting the money economy claim more victims. Barter would allow people to provide for their daily needs on a local basis, without the dubious assistance of governments or corporations

04 September, 2006

Planning For A Post-Oil Economy
By Peter Goodchild

The most basic principle of post-oil survival is that one has to start thinking in terms of a smaller radius of activity. The globalized economy has to be replaced by the localized economy

01 August, 2006

Energy Dependence And Why we War-War
By Jeff Berg

Now more than ever America is dependent on other people’s oil and this is what the wars in the Middle East are about everything else by contrast is mere pretext. The one exception being water issues which are still a very distant second

18 July, 2006

Demand Destruction - Stadium
By Bill Henderson

So far rising gas prices have had little effect on North American consumption patterns. But high fuel prices are seriously exacerbating basic survival problems in those many developing countries with limited oil reserves. Some countries are already having a very hard time keeping their economies from drowning in the rising tide of fuel prices

17 July, 2006

Thinking The Unthinkable
By Norman Church

Oil depletion is just the first of a series of resource crisis humanity is about to face because there are just too many of us! This century we will face peak resources, period

08 July, 2006

End Of Cheap Oil, The Global Energy Crisis
And Climate Change
By Vandana Shiva

While the political parties protest against the hike in oil prices, society also needs to start taking a long-term view of the ecological, economic and social costs of our growing oil addition

28 April, 2006

Big-Mouth Bush Told Clinton How To Handle OPEC
By Evelyn Pringle

The high energy costs are affecting everyone, from commuters and consumers, to public and private programs. The damage is devastating everywhere

21 April, 2006

Peak Oil And The Political Economy Of Terrorism
By Mathew Maavak

Crude oil has breached the $70 psychological barrier again. It is high noon for those prospecting for maximum oil returns. This time, however, it will not be a one-day seduction by the stormy Katrina. The causative culprits are aplenty. Peak Oil is forming a strategic fit with Peak Terrorism

10 April, 2006

Energy Philosophy For Entropic Times
By Andrew McKillop

Waking up to basic facts of nature and existence should be a part of the education process, but the state and religion got there first and filled the schoolbooks with cranky logic and half-baked slogans. Change has to come and will come, Peak Oil means we are going somewhere else where we could or might do better. Be sure of it !

06 April, 2006

Europe’s Energy Crisis Sharpens
Antagonisms With Russia
By Fergus Michaels

The European Union is largely dependent upon external sources for its energy supplies, particularly Russia, but also Norway and Algeria. That dependency is set to accelerate substantially in the coming period

25 March, 2006

Russia Plays China Energy Card
By Vladimir Radyuhin

Russia has made a new move to assert itself as a global energy broker and make other countries play by its rules. On a visit to China this week, President Vladimir Putin pledged to build two natural gas pipelines to China, as well as jointly develop Russian offshore gas fields

Christian Country With Huge Aggressive Military?
By Bill Henderson

The peak of oil production should also be the peak of globalization and almost certainly the once expanding ethical framework will contract or relocalize, probably to sub-nation state locality

23 February, 2006

India Spreads Its Net For Gas,Any Gas
By Siddharth Srivastava

While efforts are under way to seal nuclear deals with the US and France to generate electricity, India's efforts to tie up gas resources as another alternative to fossil fuels have gathered momentum

18 February, 2006

Peak Oil - The Great Tsunami
By Michael Payne

Peak Oil- the giant wave that will change our lifestyles forever

11 February, 2006

The Permanent Energy Crisis
By Michael T. Klare

President Bush's State of the Union comment that the United States is "addicted to oil" can be read as pure political opportunism. But there is another, more ominous way to read his comments: that top officials have come to realize that the United States and the rest of the world face a new and growing danger – a permanent energy crisis that imperils the health and well-being of every society on earth

08February, 2006

How Can Humanity Best Regulate Itself
By Stephen Hren

The peak in fossil energy extraction will expose the fallacy of limitless growth. This realization can lead to two paths. The first is the violent theft of the last remaining resources. The second is a fuller understanding of the right to property that makes it truly accessible to all

31 January, 2006

Trading Oil In Euros – Does It Matter?
By Cóilín Nunan

Is the threat of an Iranian oil bourse trading oil in euros the real reason for the possible military attack of Iran? First, we must understand exactly why central banks keep foreign exchange reserves

27 January, 2006

Osama's Secret Weapon
By Neal Brandvik

Osama says he is patient and willing to wait for USA's demise as long as it takes. Is he crazy? Where does he get the idea that a group of rag tag thugs who live in caves is going to defeat the greatest superpower nation in history?

26 January, 2006

Peak America – Is Our Time Up?
By Pat Murphy

Is the American Century over? When the impact of Peak Oil really hits, how will we deal with it? Will we cooperate with the rest of the world in sharing scarce resources, or will we rely on our status as the only Superpower to try to bully the world? And if the latter, would we survive?

India, China, And The Asian Axis Of Oil
By Siddharth Varadarajan

In less than a year, India and China have managed to confound analysts around the world by turning their much-vaunted rivalry for the acquisition of oil and gas assets in third countries into a nascent partnership that could alter the basic dynamics of the global energy market

23 January, 2006

Oil, Conflict And The Future Of
Global Energy Supplies
By Courtenay Barnett

The Bush administration has chosen the path of unending war (not so much against terrorism) but by pursuing a path of energy acquisition reliant on aggression that stirs global reactions that lead to terrorism

21 January, 2006

What They Don't Want You To Know
About The Coming Oil Crisis
By Jeremy Leggett

Soaring fuel prices, rumours of winter power cuts, panic over the gas supply from Russia, abrupt changes to forecasts of crude output... Is something sinister going on?

19 January, 2006

Peak Oil: Aids, Addiction And Opportune Infections
By Bill Henderson

We need justice in Iraq - acknowledgement that war in Iraq was a criminal mistake - in order to get back off the resource war path so that a cooperative, peaceful solution to the end of cheap oil is possible

06 January, 2006

Peak Oil And The Politics Of Global Solutions
By Gareth Doutch

As people become aware of sustainability issues (and especially with peak oil) they almost immediately begin to look at reducing the fossil fuel dependence in their lives, learning to grow their own food, creating forward-looking networks etc. For all of the good work being done by folk, the fact cannot be escaped that government action needs to be taken at the nation state and, more importantly, global levels

03 January, 2006

Oil Market Analysts Issue Dire Warnings
By Humberto Márquez

While this year's record high oil prices are unlikely to come down in the near future, analysts are warning the world's traditional and emerging economic powers to curb consumption, saying that at the current rate, proven reserves will only meet demand up to 2030

21 December, 2005

Climate Change Expert’s New Book On Oil Depletion
By Shepherd Bliss

British geologist Jeremy Leggett’s first book “The Carbon War” was described by the influential Sunday Times as “the best book yet on the politics of global warming.” His latest “Half Gone” endeavors “to prove the case for two big arguments.” Leggett contends that “the oil topping point, otherwise known as the peak of production, will be reached in the 2006-2010 window and when the market realizes this, severe economic trauma will ensue. Second, global warming is a real, present, and fast-growing danger.”

19 December, 2005

The End Of Cheap Oil
By Daniel Leeming

The depletion of cheap energy is giving rise to ideas of how to reduce demand, encourage alternative energy sources, rank the success of innovative approaches and educate the public so that they can make more informed choices and ask for appropriate action

05 December, 2005

Neoreality: Peak Oil And Iraq
By Bill Henderson

Peak oil is the looming reality and the Bush Admin couldn't resist the temptation to seize Iraq and American soldiers aren't leaving

On The Prospects Of Using AAA Type Batteries
As Peak Oil Mitigation Devices
By Dmitry Podborits

Furthermore, I would like to point out to all of the esteemed energy economists out there that even today, during the time of relatively cheap energy, with the economy merrily humming along, and consumer holiday shopping season being in full swing, we already have exactly the type of an energy form that fits Peter Huber's criteria: alkaline batteries

24 November, 2005

Oil: Too Valuable To Burn
By Stephen E. Fleischman

War is the greatest despoiler of the environment and depletor of petroleum products. Imagine how much hi-octane aviation gasoline it takes to fly one bomber to drop one bomb on Baghdad, say from a base in Diego Garcia in the Indian ocean; then multiply that by “shock and awe” and take the square root of the thousands of Humvees and Abrams and Sherman tanks and troop carriers that need to be supplied each day times 365 days times 3 years

24 November, 2005

U.S. Racing The Clock To Find Alternate Fuels
By Greg Gordon

Former CIA Director James Woolsey paints a dire scenario: A terrorist attack causes a months-long, 6 million-barrel reduction in Saudi Arabia's daily petroleum output, sending the price of oil skyrocketing past $100 a barrel

30 September, 2005

Fossil Fuels Set To Become Relics
By Abid Aslam

Energy drawn from the wind, tide, sun, Earth's heat, and farm waste is poised to begin replacing oil and other fossil fuels, a prominent research group said Wednesday in a wake-up call to industry executives and government officials worldwide

28 September, 2005

Are Global Oil Supplies About To Peak?
By George Monbiot

Are global oil supplies about to peak? Are they, in other words, about to reach their maximum and then go into decline? There is a simple answer to this question: no one has the faintest idea

05 September, 2005

The Silent Oil Crisis
By James Howard

The oil crisis gets louder – listen to it, talk about it, prepare for it – it is out there, the tide is rising and rushing towards us

Peak oil, Business As Usual,And Katrina
By Bill Henderson

Most oil producing countries have peaked: America, Norway, Venezuela, UK, Indonesia, Iran, etc.Most of the major oil companies have peaked: Chevron's production in the second quarter of 05 is down 6% from last year, for example; Exxon 5%; Shell 3%; Conoco 3%; and total 1%

22 August, 2005

Twilight For The Age Of Oil
By Jeff Berg

Of all the points that swirl around the peak oil debate perhaps two of the most telling are made by Matt Simmons author of “Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Oil Shock and the World Economy” and CEO of Simmons International, one of the world's largest investment banks in the energy sector

20 August, 2005

Oil Drives The Genocide In Darfur
By David Morse

This is a resource war, fought by surrogates, involving great powers whose economies are predicated on growth, contending for a finite pool of resources. It is a war straight out of the pages of Michael Klare's book, Blood and Oil

14 August, 2005

Is Iraq War Fuelling GCC's Economic Boom?
By Emilie Rutledge

Since the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq, the price of oil has steadily climbed upwards. A barrel of oil today costs twice as much as it did on the eve of combat, back in March 2003.At the same time all six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states have experienced levels of economic growth not witnessed since the 1970’s

01 June, 2005

Oil Pipeline Completed
By Peter Symonds

The completion of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, which has taken a decade to construct, will inevitably accelerate the scramble for oil and gas in the Caspian Basin region and heighten the potential for conflict among rival major powers

25 April, 2005

Peak Oil: The Twilight Zone
By Jeremy Leggett

We've been warned about 'peak oil'- the day that heralds the end of cheap energy. It's the biggest threat to our lives and livelihoods, but no one is listening. Former industry insider Jeremy Leggett outlines the six reasons why we need to act now

15 April, 2005

End Of Cheap Oil Is A Blessing
By Mitchell Anderson

Artificially low gas prices have long stifled conservation efforts and alternative technologies, while fuelling a boom in vehicles so grotesquely inefficient that I suspect our children will someday marvel at them in a museum

Saudi's Top Field In Decline?
By Adam Porter

Speculation over the actual size of Saudi Arabia's oil reserves is reaching fever pitch after the analyst of Bank of Montreal warned that the kingdom's - and the world's - biggest field, Gharwar, is in irreversible decline

12 April, 2005

India Joins The Scramble For Oil
By Parwini Zora and Daniel Woreck

Through diplomatic manoeuvres aimed at securing transnational pipeline routes and overseas crude oil and natural gas production deals, India is seeking to lay claim to a larger share of the world’s energy resources

07 April, 2005

Why Our Food Is So Dependent On Oil
By Norman Church

The fuel crises of 1973 disrupted the distribution of food and industry leaders warned that their stores would be out of food within days. The lessons of 1973 have not been heeded.Today the food system is even more reliant on cheap crude oil. Virtually all of the processes in the modern food system are now dependent upon this finite resource, which is nearing its depletion phase

The Great Phase Transition: The Post-Oil Era
By Jorge Figueiredo

The beginning of the end of oil contributes to exacerbating imperialist drive and underlying rivalries, to lay hands upon the remaining oil resources of the planet

04 April, 2005

Superspike Report Deconstructed
By Adam Porter

A widely reported briefing by US investment house Goldman Sachs alerted markets to the possibility of an oil price superspike - a spike as high as $105 per barrel. Yet the full report, paints a more complex and volatile picture

01 April, 2005

Rocketing Oil Price Predicted
By Tom Incantalupo

Analysts at Goldman Sachs predict that there is a good chance crude oil would nearly double in price in the next two years, topping $100 a barrel

31March, 2005

IEA Proposes Brakes On Fuel Consumption
By Adam Porter

The International Energy Agency (IEA) is to propose drastic cutbacks in car use to halt continuing oil-supply problems. Those cutbacks include anything from car-pooling to outright police-enforced driving bans for citizens

29 March, 2005

The Dawn Of A New Oil Era?
By Robert J. Samuelson

Anything could now happen to oil. Prices could drop, if the immediate fears behind today's buying don't materialize. But the long-term trends are unpromising. Global demand is rising inexorably; global supply seems less expansive

28 March, 2005

The Long Emergency
By James Howard Kunster

Carl Jung, one of the fathers of psychology, famously remarked that "people cannot stand too much reality." What you're about to read may challenge your assumptions about the kind of world we live in, and especially the kind of world into which events are propelling us. We are in for a rough ride through uncharted territory

22 March, 2005

Opec Loses Control
By Adam Porter

This week Opec repeatedly assured the world they would pump more oil to bring prices down.Yet immediately the 11-country group closed the doors on its 135th conference in Isfahan, Iran, prices surged to new all-time record highs

18 March, 2005

Oil Prices To Reach Record Highs
By Bloomberg

Crude oil prices in New York, which rose above $57 a barrel for the first time yesterday, are likely to increase on speculation demand will expand faster than supply

14 March, 2005

US Report Acknowledges Peak-oil Threat
By Adam Porter

It has long been denied that the US government bases any policy around the idea that global oil production may be in terminal decline.But a new US government-sponsored report does exactly that!

04 March, 2005

Oil Prices Confound Experts
By Adam Porter

One quote from Shihab-Eldin,secretary-general of Opec , is the most pertinent for the man in the street in 2005. A quote we may hope does not bare true."When we look at the future," he said "we find ourselves facing a wall of uncertainty."

21 February, 2005

Saudi Oil May Have Peaked
By Adam Porter

Energy investment banker Matthew Simmons, of Simmons & Co International, has been outspoken in his warnings about peak oil before. His new statement is his strongest yet, "we may have already passed peak oil"

31 January, 2005

Oil Market Looks Volatile Through 2005
By Adam Porter

A combination of events seem destined to maintain high prices and market volatility throughout 2005

12 January, 2005

"The End Of Suburbia"
By Adam Porter

One of the surprises in the oil world in 2004 was the success of an underground documentary on the perilous state of world energy."The End of Suburbia" has sold more than 10,000 DVDs and has been aired on TV around the world

09 November, 2004

Peak Oil - A Seismic Shift
By Jeff Berg

WIth the advent of peak oil the world is about to change radically. Most of us on the continent of North America are set to become much poorer monetarily. What 'staying the course' will mean for China and India I can only shudder to think

22 October, 2004

Global-Scale Problems
By Bill Henderson

Amuch better functioning and strengthened version of the emerging global multilateral framework for cooperation - the international rule of law, a global governance capacity, open networked global science, etc. - is a precondition for innovation to solve global-scale problems such as severe resource depletion (peak oil), global warming and species extinction

12 October, 2004

Oil Rides On All Time Highs
By Jonathan Leff

Oil prices held near historic highs over $53 a barrel on Tuesday, with global supplies hounded by outages that were thwarting efforts to build U.S. heating oil inventories ahead of the winter

Producers Cash In On Record-high Oil Prices
By Adam Porter

According to US Energy Information Administration gas and oil heating prices are set to rise by anywhere from 11.2% to 28.8%. If they are right, it is boom time for the oil barons and banks, but bad times ahead for the consumer

10 October, 2004

Oil Wars
By Michael T. Klare

American military has taken up the responsibility of protecting the flow of petroleum around the world

08 October, 2004

Oil Near Highs, Nigeria Threat Eases
By Reuters

"Demand growth is outstripping supply growth and there's very little prospect for that to change. Prospects of maintaining supply growth at current levels are extremely limited "

06 October, 2004

Oil's Devastating Run Continues
By Richard Mably

Oil prices extended record-setting highs above $51 for U.S. crude on Wednesday raising serious questions about the oil industry's claims on supply and demand

03 October, 2004

Peak Oil 15 Months Away?
By Adam Porter

Iranian oil and energy analyst and expert Ali Bakhtiari predicts that peak oil will arrive around 2006, 2007." At that point, no one can say what is going to happen. Except the price is going to go up. And no one will be able to stop it."

30 September, 2004

Depopulating Asia
By Bill Henderson

Peak oil is upon us, but very few understand the consequences. Very few understand the importance of the signal that the US is sending about how the US is going to react to peak oil

28 September, 2004

Oil Prices Hit Record $50
By Aljazeera

US oil prices reached a record $50 a barrel on Monday as Nigeria emerged as the latest focus for worries about supply in an already tight worldwide energy market

25 September, 2004

Is OPEC Losing Control Over Oil Price?
By Adam Porter

Despite repeated pronouncements about an increase in shipments, OPEC appears to be losing its ability to influence the price of oil

23 September, 2004

Fear Of Shortages Behind High Oil Prices
By Firas Al-Atraqchi

Walid Khadduri, editor of Middle East Economic Survey (MEES), believes fear of oil shortages in the future is behind the upsurge in today's energy prices

27 August, 2004

First Signs Of Global Decline Of Oil?
By Adam Porter

New statistics are claiming that oil production in 18 producer countries has passed its peak and is declining faster than previously thought: At about 1.14 million barrels a day

26 August, 2004

Oil Price Hike Blessing in Disguise
By Gwynne Dyer

The only short-term hope of slowing the global warming is a steep drop in the use of oil and gas — and the only thing that is going to make that happen is a steep rise in price

24 August, 2004

Start Learning To Live Withoug Oil
By George Monbiot

The Age of Entropy is here. We should all now be learning how to live without oil

22 August, 2004

Oil Market Outlook Mired In Confusion
By Adam Porter

The recent announcement by Saudi Arabia that it plans to raise output by 1.3 million barrels per day , was trumpeted across the media. Seemingly this announcement was to ease market pressure and prices

09 August, 2004

Oil Eyes $50 - Where Will It End?
By Andrew Mitchell

As oil hits fresh highs, bringing $50 crude firmly into view, it will take a sea-change - a recession, an abnormally mild northern winter or perhaps a change in U.S. President - to end the rally

05 August, 2004

The Death Of Cheap Oil
By Adam Porter

What we are seeing could be that the long awaited peak in oil production is either here or about to arrive. We are seeing that nowhere has the capacity to increase production

10 June, 2004

Is The World's Oil Running Out Fast?
By Adam Porter

If you think oil prices are high at $40 a barrel then wait till they are four times that much

08 June, 2004

Riding Bicycles
By George Monbiot

Oil is running out, but the west would rather wage wars than consider other energy sources

02 June, 2004

Oil Price Strikes New High
By Reuters

The latest price rise has raised doubts about whether an expected increase in supplies from a Thursday OPEC meeting in Beirut will be enough to tame prices

30 May, 2004

Energy Crisis Looms Over China
By Eva Cheng

With the price of oil hitting almost US$42 per barrel on May 18, China's energy import bill is set to blow a major hole in the country's fiscal account. China's oil imports have soared 35.7% during the first quarter of 2004, to 30.14 million tonnes. Oil imports grew 31.2% in 2003

27 May, 2004

The View From Hubbert's Peak
By Mike Davis

The oilmen in the White House, of course, have the best view of the lush terrain on the far side of Hubbert's peak. No wonder, then, that a map of the 'war against terrorism' corresponds with such uncanny accuracy to the geography of oil fields and proposed pipelines. From Kazakhstan to Ecuador, American combat boots are sticky with oil

24 May, 2004

In Praise Of Higher Fuel Prices
By William E. Rees

Everybody complain about fuel costs. But to avoid a possibly unprecedented human crisis in coming decades, they should be urging their governments to allow the price of oil and natural gas to rise even more

13 May, 2004

International Energy Agency Warns Of Energy Crisis
By Bruce Stanley

"If you don't start going out to explore for and produce new resources, (then) 3 to 5 years from now when you need them they're not going to be there."

07 May, 2004

The Oil Crunch
By Paul Krugman

Before the start of the Iraq war his media empire did so much to promote, Rupert Murdoch explained the payoff: "The greatest thing to come out of this for the world economy, if you could put it that way, would be $20 a barrel for oil." Crude oil prices in New York rose to almost $40 a barrel yesterday, a 13-year high

Toward The Petro-Apocalypse
By Yves Cochet

In a few years, the global production of conventional oil will fall, while the global demand continues to rise. The resulting shock of this structural oil famine is inevitable.The alternative is chaos

27 April, 2004

Will The End of Oil Mean The End of America?
By Robert Freeman

When oil is gone, civilization will be stupendously different. The onset of rapid depletion will trigger convulsions on a global scale, including, likely, global pandemics and die-offs of significant portions of the world’s human population

20 April, 2004

Shell Admits It Misled Investors
By Terry Macalister

'I am becoming sick and tired of lying...' The internal email that lifted the lid on one of Britain's biggest companies

17 April, 2004

Shell Scandal Points To Exaggerated
Estimates Of Oil Reserves
By Ed Blanche

The oil industry has been gripped by scandal since Royal Dutch/Shell twice this year downgraded its proven oil reserves by 20 percent, or nearly 4 billion barrels

03 April, 2004

Do Oil Reserves Foretell Bleak Future?
By Alejandro Eggers Moreno

There may be considerably less oil in the world than the oil-producing countries and energy companies claim, and global oil production could peak far sooner than expected -- some predict as early as 2010

30 March, 2004

Peak Oil-The End Game Has Started
By Michael C. Ruppert

World's Foremost Expert on Oil and the Oil Business Confirms the Ever More Apparent Reality of Peak Oil

27 February, 2004

Hubbert's Peak: The Impending
World Oil Shortage
By Kenneth S. Deffeyes

An overview of the of the book "Hubbert's Peak: The Impending World Oil Shortage" By Kenneth S. Deffeyes

25 February, 2004

Forecast Of Rising Oil Demand
Challenges Tired Saudi Fields
By Jeff Gerth

Saudi Arabia's oil fields now are in decline, prompting industry and government officials to raise serious questions about whether the kingdom will be able to satisfy the world's thirst for oil in coming years

02 November, 2003

The World Is Running Out Of Oil
By George Monbiot

The world is running out of oil - so why do politicians refuse to talk about it?

04 October, 2003

Peak Oil A Reality
By Charles Arthur

World oil and gas supplies are heading for a "production crunch" sometime between 2010 and 2020 when they cannot meet supply, because global reserves are 80 per cent smaller than had been thought, new forecasts suggest

09 August, 2003

The End?
By Stephen James Kerr

Global oil production would peak in the first decade of the 21st century and decline forever thereafter. There is no adequate substitute for oil energy. The peaking of production means the further growth of energy demand, and thus of the global capitalist economy, is physically impossible. No energy - no economy

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