Shale Gas Represents ‘Low Risk’ to Public Health

The UK Onshore Operators Group (UKOOG) announced Thursday that it welcomes a report by Public Health England that has concluded that shale gas extraction emissions represent a “low” risk to public health. The report, published Thursday, focuses on the potential impact of chemicals and radioactive material from all stages of shale gas extraction, including hydraulic fracturing. […]

China pushes coal-to-gas power despite doubts

Beijing has acted with unusual speed to approve several coal-to-gas (CTG) projects recently. The expedited approvals indicate a shift in official thinking, with past perceptions of CTG as costly and dirty yielding to more favourable impressions prompted by low-priced coal, restricted gas supplies, and the introduction of technologies said to minimise CTG’s environmental impact. Carbon […]

Zombie Cannibalism: Why We Should Be Concerned if There’s a Business Case for Eating People

I ate a few of bites of a particularly bad cut of meat last night for dinner before I had to throw the rest of it out, I’m sorry to say. I don’t know what made it taste so bad, but as I was lying awake waiting for an expected case of food poisoning, I […]

Nicole Foss – End of The Fix: Facing the Limits to Growth

Nicole Foss of the Automatic Earth presenting in Madison, WI. The talk was recorded on October 27, 2013.

US will always remain a crude oil importer

US shale oil has so far replaced 2 mb/d of its crude oil imports which peaked at around 10 mb/d in 2005. If this effort can be doubled the US would still need to import around 6 mb/d. US crude oil imports vs production History: US crude imports skyrocketed in the early 1970s after the […]

U.S. Asks China to Team Up on Oil

Over the past five years, China has amassed hundreds of millions of barrels in strategic petroleum reserves. Now the U.S. wants China to work with it to coordinate releases of those barrels when needed to help ensure oil market stability. U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz said Wednesday during a trip to Beijing that China […]

Big Bets in Energy Technology From “Beyond Petroleum”

As an energy industry observer with a long memory, I was somewhat bemused by a recent interview aired on Platts Energy Week. Bill Loveless sat down with David Eyton, BP’s head of technology, to talk about the exciting new technologies that his company is developing. The company is making substantial investments; in June 2013, BP […]

The Government Says That The Inflation You See Is Just Your Imagination

If you believe that there is high inflation in the United States, you are just imagining things.  That is the message that the U.S. government and the Federal Reserve would have us to believe.  You might have noticed that the government announced on Wednesday that the cost of living increase for Social Security beneficiaries will only […]

How low will oil go?

  Oil is in a downtrend Maybe it’s my inner Malthus, but I think there’s something to the idea of ‘peak oil’ – the theory that we have already used more than half the world’s oil reserves and that supply is in decline. But I don’t know how much oil there is under the oceans, […]

Pakistan food security: Increase production, not population

Linking food security with peace and war-free world, agriculture scientists and experts here on Wednesday stressed the need for taking immediate measures to cater to increasing demand for food, keeping in view the fast growing population. They were speaking at a function organised to mark the World Food Day, celebrations of which were delayed due […]

Electricity commons: Towards a new industrial society

This article would not have been possible without the efforts of Sebastian Gallehr. I am very grateful to him as well as to Stefan Ulreich, Hans-Joachim Ziesing, Thomas Meister, Helmuth Groscurth, Daniel Dahm and Marian Bichler for the many valuable insights I received from them when preparing this contribution. From the beginning the modern energy […]

An oil crash is on its way and we should be ready

FIVE years ago the world was in the grip of a financial crisis that is still reverberating around the globe. Much of the blame for that can be attributed to weaknesses in human psychology: we have a collective tendency to be blind to the kind of risks that can crash economies and imperil civilisations. Today, […]

Moscow Conducts Large-Scale Nuclear Attack Drill

Russian strategic forces carried out a large-scale surprise military drill on Wednesday, launching four nuclear missiles that were closely monitored by U.S. intelligence agencies, U.S. officials said. The drill began around 9:00 am ET and included the test launch of two land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and two submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs). The test firings […]

Fracking is Coming to California

California’s lawmakers have ensured the state will remain a major oil and gas producer by approving new legislation allowing hydraulic fracturing and acid treatments to rejuvenate its ageing wells in exchange for strict controls and tougher enforcement. Senate Bill No 4 (SB 4), which Governor Jerry Brown signed into law on Sept. 20, directs the […]

Forget peak oil; peak trash is the world’s real concern

Forget about peak oil. An Ontario researcher says the real concern facing the planet should be peak trash. “Solid waste is an incredibly useful proxy for total global impact,” said Daniel Hoornweg of the University of Ontario Institute of Technology, who published a commentary on the issue in Wednesday’s edition of the science journal Nature. […]

Natural Gas Waits for Its Moment

CARS and trucks powered by natural gas make up a significant portion of the vehicle fleet in many parts of the world. Iran has more than two million natural gas vehicles on the road. As of 2009, Argentina had more than 1.8 million in operation and almost 2,000 natural gas filling stations. Brazil was not […]

Heinberg: Chapter 6 – Energy Reality

This article is an excerpt from Richard Heinberg’s new book SNAKE OIL: How Fracking’s False Promise of Plenty Imperils Our Future. Read Part 6: Chapter 5 – The Economics of Fracking: Who Benefits? During the past year, article after article in the mainstream press has gushed over the prospects for American oil independence and natural gas […]

The Peak Oil Crisis: The Shale Oil Bubble

Most of us are aware by now that the introduction of widespread hydraulic fracturing into the oil and gas business has resulted in a rapid growth in U.S. production. U.S. crude output is up by nearly 2.5 million barrels a day (b/d) since mid-2007 and natural gas production is up by 25 percent. The key […]

Marathon Finds Oil in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq

Marathon Oil Corporation’s subsidiary Marathon Oil KDV B.V. made a discovery in the company-operated Harir Block in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The Mirawa-1 exploratory well discovered multiple stacked oil and natural gas producing zones, the operator said in a press release. Drilled to a total depth of 14,000 feet, the Mirawa-1 well found oil […]

Fracking Won’t Make The US A Net Oil Exporter

A group including a consultant, a sustainability advocate and an environmental scientist argued today at the Geological Society of America meeting in Denver that while the use of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling for “tight oil” is an important contributor to U.S. energy supply, it is not going to result in long-term sustainable production or allow the […]

We Break It, We Buy It

As a child, I remember walking through stores that displayed crystal, glass, pottery, and other fragile items on their display shelves. In these waiting-for-an-accident-to-happen establishments – especially to an energetic young boy – It wasn’t uncommon to see a prominently displayed sign that read “You break it, you buy it.” Of course, I knew even […]

Heinberg: America’s natural gas revolution isn’t all it’s ‘fracked’ up to be

Americans have been told that ‘fracking’ for natural gas and oil is the key to their energy independent future. The data don’t adequately support these claims. America must return its energy focus to transitioning away from fossil fuels. Americans are being subjected to a massive public relations assault attempting to persuade them that “fracking” for natural […]

Peak Oil May Keep Catastrophic Climate Change in Check

Even as governments worldwide have largely failed to limit emissions of global warming gases, the decline of fossil fuel production may reduce those emissions significantly, experts said yesterday during a panel discussion at the Geological Society of America meeting. Conventional production of oil has been on a plateau since 2005, said James Murray, a professor […]

Fukushima Is Here

  500 people assembled on October 19th on Ocean Beach in San Francisco and formed the letters with their bodies to demonstrate their growing concern about eventual fallout on the west coast. Credit and More Information: FukushimaResponse.org An ocean current called the North Pacific Gyre is bringing Japanese radiation to the West Coast of North […]

Iran outlines plan to win back Western oil interest

Iran is planning to offer international companies more lucrative contracts to attract at least $100 billion worth of investment in its oilfields over the next three years, the Financial Times reported on Monday. An adviser to Iran’s oil minister, Mehdi Hosseini, was quoted in the Financial Times article as saying the Islamic republic would scrap […]

The Curse Of Oil

Having huge oil reserves can be an economic curse for a developing country. The natural-resource curse often produces oil-rich nations that are ruled by dictators and are so reliant on petroleum that its economic growth is hindered because all other industries are neglected. The prediction of the end of fossil fuels will come true someday, […]

UAE ‘not threatened’ by US shale boom, oil minister says

The United Arab Emirates – OPEC’s fourth-largest crude oil producer – does not feel threatened by the U.S. shale boom, according to the country’s energy minister. The United States has overtaken Saudi Arabia to become the world’s biggest oil producer as the jump in output from shale has led to the second-biggest oil boom in […]

Lifeboat Hour with Mike Ruppert and Dimitry Orlov

This entry was posted in Lifeboat Hour and tagged collapse, Mike Ruppert, New White Trash, Nightclub At the End of the World, warrior wisdom on October 27

Communities that abide: Finland

[This week we continue the series with an article on Finland, by Eerik Wissenz. Few people know that before Russia came to exist as a country, and for many centuries after, communities of Finns were widely distributed over what is now Russian Federation territory, surviving mostly by hunting and fishing, and not making much of […]

Gulf of Mexico: “There is no life out there”

Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge Manager Jereme Phillips reports oil on a refuge beach in Alabama in June of 2010. Three years later, the hits just keep on coming. (Photo: Jennifer Strickland USFWS) The Gulf Oil spill is old news, right? 2010? Over and done with. The seafood industry has recovered. tourists are back, BP […]

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