Coal

Review: The KunstlerCast by Duncan Crary

Frank Kaminski, Mud City Press

Outrageous, snarky, “madly engaging,” bileful—these are a few of the terms that have been used to describe author and social critic James Howard Kunstler. But he’s actually a great deal more than these things, as anyone who's really come to know him, even if only through his books and Internet postings, can tell you. His most personal writings reveal a human, vulnerable, wonderfully versatile, cheerful side that few people know exists.

archived February 12, 2012

Energy and presidential politics

Lindsay Curren, Transition Voice

Va. Governor Bob. McDonnell is on a GOP VP short list and recently threw his endorsement to candidate Mitt "corporations are people, my friend" Romney. But in an era of energy decline it's worth learning how heavily Big Coal funds McDonnell, who calls himself a "friend of coal," and how uncommitted he is to clean energy.

archived February 7, 2012

Peak oil bashing - Feb 7

Staff, Energy Bulletin

- Peak Oil Scare Fades as Shale, Deepwater Wells Gush Crude
- Oil, Food, Water: Is Everything Past Its Peak?
- Fulsome Fossil Fuels And The 'Peak Oil' Myth
- Peak Oil--No Longer the Right Question
(Note: several of these articles actually concede most of the points made by peak oilers.)

archived February 7, 2012

Energy - Feb 7

Staff, Energy Bulletin

- Kunstler interviews Arthur E. Berman, Petroleum Geologist: Magical Thinking and Fracking (audio)
- Coal Lobby Warns Wind Farms May Blow Earth Off Orbit (video from The Onion)
- Energy.gov: Where information goes to die

archived February 7, 2012

Computing in the Long Emergency

Barath Raghavan, contraposition

Where will computing go in the coming years? I thought I should find out, so I watched a roundtable and other talks and interviews on the subject (warning: it's pretty dry stuff). I came away underwhelmed. I struggled to figure out what these guys were seeing that I wasn't. I'm not sure I've figured it out. Eventually I came back to the one key issue that's missing from their roundtable conversation---and that of most conversations among engineers in the computing world---limits, both ecological and material.

archived February 1, 2012

US Energy - Jan 26

Staff, Energy Bulletin

-DOE slashes gas estimate for Marcellus Shale
-DOE report projects greater coal production drop
-Obama makes strong call for clean energy — oh, and drilling and fracking too
-Obama sets out 'all-of-the-above' clean energy policy
-Obama's speech and some sober talk about the oil patch

archived January 26, 2012

Energy & economy - Jan 25

Staff, Energy Bulletin

-Fossil fuels are sub-prime assets, Bank of England governor warned
-The real beneficiaries of energy subsidies
-Podcast: How Equity and Economics Will Drive Climate and Energy Stories in 2012
-Companies and tax authorities can all benefit if they work together

archived January 25, 2012

Fossil fuels vs. renewables: the key argument that environmentalists are missing

Kurt Cobb, ASPO-USA

Mark Twain is reported to have said: “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” What most environmentalists think they know for sure is that oil, coal and natural gas are all abundant-so abundant, in fact, that many environmentalists believe they are forced to make a Hobson’s choice of natural gas as a so-called “bridge fuel” to a renewable energy future.

archived January 23, 2012

Australian Peaky Leaks goes mainstream

Matt Mushalik, Crude Oil Peak

The Australian Daily Telegraph published today a story on a leaked government report (BITRE 117) which (optimistically) calculated peak oil around 2017, followed by permanent decline. The report raises questions to be answered by the Federal Government.

archived January 21, 2012

Energy - Jan 20

Staff, Energy Bulletin

- Fossil fuel subsidies: a tour of the data
- Natural gas galore?
- US Thirst for Fossil Fuels is Decimating Nature's Wildlife: Report
- Fracking the World: Energy Companies Set Their Sights Globally

archived January 20, 2012

ODAC Newsletter - Jan 13

Staff, Oil Depletion Analysis Centre

Fears of an EU recession gained ground this week with news that the German economy shrank in Q4. In oil markets this dunked oil prices to a New Year low – though they quickly recovered on Thursday in response to renewed concerns of supply disruption. In Nigeria unions threatened to escalate nationwide strikes to the oil production sector at the weekend if the government fails to reverse recent cuts in fuel subsidies.

archived January 13, 2012

Heinberg, Kunstler, Foss, Orlov & Chomsky on A Public AffairAudioVideo

Staff, WORT-FM

Richard Heinberg joins James Howard Kunstler, Nicole Foss, Dmitri Orlov and Noam Chomsky in a panel discussion. Reviewer: "These extraordinary clearseers analyse precisely the catastrophic crises which -- amongst many other things -- are bringing on the steady, relentless collapse of the US empire. "

(Transcript and audio)

archived January 6, 2012

There Is More to It than Oil

Chris Clugston, Energy Bulletin

The end of our industrial lifestyle paradigm will be dictated by Liebig's Law, and by humanity's response to its consequences. Unfortunately, it is impossible to know at this point which increasingly scarce nonrenewable natural resource (NNR) or NNR combination will ultimately prove to be industrialized humanity's limiting factor.

Consequently, humanity's global societal collapse may be triggered by scarcity associated with one or more NNRs other than those commonly considered "most critical" to the perpetuation of our industrial lifestyle paradigm—fossil fuels, or oil specifically. After all, the space shuttle Challenger disaster was caused by a faulty o-ring.

archived January 4, 2012

Heinberg, Kunstler, Foss, Orlov & Chomsky on A Public Affair - Transcript

A Public Affair, WORT-FM (Wisconsin)

Richard Heinberg joins James Howard Kunstler, Nicole Foss, Dmitri Orlov and Noam Chomsky in a panel discussion. Reviewer: "These extraordinary clearseers analyse precisely the catastrophic crises which -- amongst many other things -- are bringing on the steady, relentless collapse of the US empire. "

archived January 2, 2012

As economic growth fails, how do we live? Part II: Out with the old

Craig A. Severance, Energy Economy Online

We cannot "set things right" in the sense of restoring things to the way they once were, but we must begin now to adapt to the new realities if we are to reduce suffering and continue an advanced culture. Today's article, "Out With the Old", discusses ending seven unsustainable practices.

archived December 27, 2011