The Real Climate Debate

“That lump in your throat you feel listening to someone laying down hard truth in a poetic way is actually the one piece of the human genome most likely to rescue us.“ Climate came up only briefly in the first two Democratic debates. In the first, Rachel Maddow asked whether the candidates had a plan […]

Things aren’t so bad

In last week’s column I raised an issue that had hit home a bit personally — the increasing number of mass murders committed in our country’s public places by madmen who, armed with high-powered rifles and abundant ammunition, kill as many as they can. It had become a bit more personal because our company underwent […]

The Oil Crisis Saudi Arabia Can’t Solve

Saudi Arabia’s CEO Amin Nasr’s message to the press that oil flows to the market are guaranteed, should be taken with a pinch of salt. Looking at the current volatility in the Persian/Arabian Gulf and the possibility of a temporary closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the Aramco CEO’s message might be a bit overoptimistic. […]

Planetary salvation; science or by committee?

The proverb goes a camel is a horse designed by a committee. The analogy is group decision making leads to ineffectiveness due to the incorporation of too many conflicting opinions into a single project through compromise. As noted a few days ago by the BBC, UN delegates, after two weeks of talks in Bonn, Germany, […]

Deep science: what it is, and how it will shape our future

It is well known that the World Wide Web was developed at CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, the large scientific experiment based in France and Switzerland. Less well-known is the long list of other important innovations to have emerged from an organization whose aim is to understand the fundamental physics of the Big Bang. […]

‘We only want to sell our oil,’ Iran official says before nuclear talks

Iran’s main demand in talks aimed at saving its nuclear deal is to be able to sell its oil at the same levels that it did before Washington withdrew from the accord a year ago, an Iranian official said on Thursday. FILE PHOTO: Oil tankers pass through the Strait of Hormuz, December 21, 2018. REUTERS/Hamad […]

Chris Martenson: Extreme Frugality

We didn’t have a lot growing up, as my mom had to single-parent three kids. Most anything I wanted required disciplined frugality. I bought my first fly rod from Orvis at the age of 13, which took the better part of a year to save up for. I hand-tied the first flies drifted from its […]

Buying Into the Energy Transition

New energy’s time has come. It’s less than four years since the Paris Agreement set the long-term goal to limit the rise in global temperature to well below 2°C. Back then, the oil and gas industry had zero appetite to invest in decarbonization. Paris lit the fuse. I caught up with Valentina Kretzschmar, Research Director, […]

Is ExxonMobil Making a Strategic Mistake?

Integrated energy giants Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE:RDS-B) and Total (NYSE:TOT) have both made significant investments in the electric- and renewable-power spaces, preparing for a future with less carbon-based fuels. ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM) isn’t following them down this road, instead redoubling its efforts on oil, natural gas, and the products they are turned into. Why is Exxon […]

How to Survive Doomsday

Let’s be optimistic and assume that we manage to avoid a self-inflicted nuclear holocaust, an extinction-sized asteroid, or deadly irradiation from a nearby supernova. That leaves about 6 billion years until the sun turns into a red giant, swelling to the orbit of Earth and melting our planet. Sounds like a lot of time. But […]

How To Destroy A Civilization

There are lots of ways to kill off a civilization. Wars, politics, economic collapse. But what are the actual mechanics? It might be a useful thing to know whether or not we are killing ourselves off. Ancient Rome is a good place to start. They had an advanced civilization. They had running water, sewers, flush toilets, […]

“Climate Apartheid” Is Imminent. Only the Rich Will Survive.

If our global climate change catastrophe continues unchecked, vast swaths of the world will likely become harsher and far less hospitable for humanity. When that happens, an even greater rift will appear between the global haves and have-nots, as many people will be left without the means to escape the worst effects of the climate […]

Global oil reserves data is muddled, but does it really matter?

Proved oil reserves, historically a proxy for geopolitical clout and energy security, may be losing their currency in a world set on ushering in the end of the fossil fuel era. The growing acceptance of the climate threat from carbon-rich energy is focusing minds on producing cleaner fuels rather than stockpiling sources of old, dirty […]

TROUBLE AT THE BAKKEN: Oil Production Finally Peaking?

Is the mighty Bakken Shale Oil Field finally peaking?  Well, according to the data from the folks at the North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources, oil production in the Bakken has been flat for the past six months.  And, to make matters worse, production has been flat even though oil prices increased from a low […]

The Dead Cow Finally Produces Oil, a Century After Its Discovery

Along the western edge of Argentina’s Patagonia, on an arid steppe nestled against the Andes mountains, lies a shale formation known as the Vaca Muerta. And ever since engineers confirmed what an American geologist suspected a century ago — that the Vaca Muerta, or dead cow, contains massive amounts of oil and gas — the […]

Aramco Can Keep Crude Flowing if Hormuz Hit

Saudi Arabian Oil Co. has the experience and infrastructure it needs to keep crude flowing should supply through the Strait of Hormuz be disrupted, according to the chief executive officer of the state-run producer. “We are increasing our readiness,” Amin Nasser said in an interview in Seoul on Tuesday. “We can supply through the Red […]

Oil demand won’t peak until 2035

“At some point in the next 20 years, it’s likely we’re going to see oil demand peak. Our own view at Wood Mackenzie, is around 2035, 2036,” Wood Mackenzie chairman Simon Flowers said in an interview with CNN Business. The International Energy Agency, which monitors energy supply for the world’s richest countries, said earlier this […]

Too Many People, Too Much Junk—Enter the Land of Confusion

Consider this extraordinary item for a moment: The population of the planet is greater than at any other time in human history. Chances are you already know this, but it is not on your mind every day. The rock band, Genesis, was thinking about it back in 1986 with their hit single, Land of Confusion.* […]

Boomers Ruined America

The Baby Boomers ruined America. That sounds like a hyperbolic claim, but it’s one way to state what I found as I tried to solve a riddle. American society is going through a strange set of shifts: Even as cultural values are in rapid flux, political institutions seem frozen in time. The average U.S. state […]

Global Population Could Peak Sooner Than We Think

Since the days of Thomas Malthus, we’ve worried that overpopulation is about to overwhelm our planet. Those fears haven’t gone away. A further two billion people will be added to the current world population of 7.7 billion by 2050, the United Nations Population Division said in a report this week. Numbers will still be rising […]

Do androids dream of fusion generators?

It’s been called a fantasy, a pipe dream, a quixotic quest whose goal is always ten years away. And yet, there are those convinced that scalable fusion power generation could become a reality, allowing humanity to harness the energy of mini-suns, dramatically changing how we produce power. As CEO of TAE Technologies, the world’s largest […]

Elon Musk forecasts grim future of human race

San Francisco, June 22 Tesla CEO Elon Musk”s grim forecast of humanity suggests that a “population bomb” would lead to a worldwide collapse in humans in the coming decades and everybody would start to see the evident effects by 2050. Musk”s prediction was triggered by a tweet from a page called World of Engineering that […]

US Tight Oil Estimate and Projection to Dec 2019

New tight oil estimates were recently released by the EIA. The chart below compares estimates from Dec 2018 to May 2019, where the Dec 2018 estimate is that estimate with the most recent month estimated being Dec 2018 and likewise the May 2019 estimate has May 2019 as the most recent month estimated. The May […]

Robert Rapier: The US Accounted For 98% Of Global Oil Production Growth In 2018

Earlier this month BP released its Statistical Review of World Energy 2019. The Review provides a comprehensive picture of supply and demand for major energy sources on a country-level basis. Each year, I do a series of articles covering the Review’s findings. In the first article of the series, I discussed the trends in global carbon dioxide emissions. […]

In The Face of Climate Collapse, We Need The Wisdom Of Elders

I am steadily on the lookout for leveraging forces that can lift us out of heavy stuck loops, onto new ground. Often these are less obvious elements. One that has been underestimated is the presence of “elders,” whose presence calls us back to a bedrock sense of self and right relationship to the Earth. We […]

Starvation Sanctions Are Worse Than Overt Warfare

“We are putting major additional Sanctions on Iran on Monday,” President Trump tweeted today. “I look forward to the day that Sanctions come off Iran, and they become a productive and prosperous nation again – The sooner the better!” Iran’s economy is already floundering due to the steadily mounting sanctions that the Trump administration has been […]

Propaganda for Renewables: a Critique of a Report by Oil Change International

“For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong”. H. L. Menken If you ask most of those people who acknowledge climate change as a serious problem my bet is that they would say that solving the climate crisis is all about transforming the energy system away from fossil fuels […]

Trump says Iran made ‘big mistake’ by taking down US drone

President Donald Trump declared Thursday that “Iran made a very big mistake” by shooting down a U.S. surveillance drone over the Strait of Hormuz but suggested it was a foolish error rather than an intentional escalation of the tensions that have led to rising fears of open military conflict. Asked about a U.S. response, the […]

Saudi Aramco allows sneak peek into its finances

The company’s mammoth $12bn global bond offering allowed a glimpse into its treasure chest for the first time The world’s focus, not surprisingly, has been on Saudi Aramco’s $111bn of net income recorded in 2018, making it the most profitable company in the world. But elements of the upstream story were largely ignored. For example, […]

Downing of US drone a ‘clear message’ to Washington — Iran’s IRGC commander

The head of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards says the downing of a US drone over its territory was a “clear message” to Washington, proving Tehran will react strongly to any military aggression. Just hours earlier, Iran claimed to have shot down a US RQ-4 spy drone over Hormozgan Province. This “was a clear message to […]

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LATEST NEWS HEADLINES

• Is It Time To Abandon the Idea of Phasing Out Oil and Gas?
• More than 20% of global refining capacity at risk of closure
• Charles Hugh Smith Blog: Fire, Then Ice Our Deflationary Future
• Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser says energy transition strategy ‘visibly failing’
• 100 million-degree ‘artificial sun’ sets new records in hunt for energy’s ‘Holy Grail’

• China’s peak oil demand bombshell eviscerates Danielle Smith’s energy strategy
• US seeks to buy up to 3 million bbls of oil for Strategic Petroleum Reserve
• Desertification: the world is losing healthy land at an astonishing rate
• US oil production will keep booming in 2024, setting up a possible showdown with Saudi Arabia
• Saudi Arabia piles pressure on UAE to shift COP28 focus away from oil and gas
• US Warship, Commercial Ships Under Attack In Red Sea