Peak Oil News

The World Energy Outlook (WEO) is a yearly energy forecast published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and the International Energy Agency (IEA). The 2006 report urges the international community to invest heavily in energy efficiency in order to avoid a global economic crisis. Governments will need to invest at least $20 billion into the energy infrastructure over the next 25 years to meet the growing worldwide demand for electronic technologies and gadgets. Demand for oil and energy resources from industrialized nations like China are expected ...

Every other year, the World Wildlife Fund publishes the Living Planet Report, which charts trends in the world's ecosystem biodiversity and the human ecological footprint. The most recent report update released Oct 24th, 2006 warns of a worldwide ecosystem collapse within 50 years. The WWF report urges that we must reduce global consumption by at least half of current trends in order to avoid a serious global catastrophe. The world's natural resource depletion is currently escalating "at a rate unprecedented in human history". Growth in demand for raw materials, food and energy is having a devastating impact on the earth's ability to sustain natural biodiversity and clean air. The ...

The first direct evidence linking human activity to the collapse of Antarctic ice shelves is published this week in the Journal of Climate. Scientists from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), the Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling, University College London, and the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, (Belgium) reveal that stronger westerly winds in the northern Antarctic Peninsula, driven principally by human-induced climate change, are responsible for the marked regional summer warming that led to the retreat and collapse of the northern Larsen Ice Shelf. » Source: Science Daily The Larsen ice shelf at the ...

As the global population problem increases, serious problems seem likely to occur. All sectors of the economy will experience price increase and demand due to resource shortages. Overcrowding brings out the worst in people, as we have seen thanks to the "road rage" phenomenon. Add to these stresses looming climate change challenges and energy supply crisis and we seem doomed for disaster. The current social situation in America doesn't leave much hope for a co-operative solution to the population issue. More innovative program initiatives at the governmental level are needed. » Source: Augusta Free Press Sometime during October, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, America will add its 300 millionth resident. While profiling the candidate may be a quirky exercise in fiction writing - it will ...

Oil supplies from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) fell 400,000 barrels a day on the month to 30.2 million bpd in September, according to preliminary figures from tanker tracker Petrologistics. Saudi Arabia and Iran led the fall in output. Petrologistics head Conrad Gerber said the kingdom produced 9.05 million bpd in September compared with 9.27 million bpd in August. » Source: Bahrain Tribute Saudi Oil Minister Ali Al Nuaimi said in June that Opec’s biggest producer had reined in output to 9.1 million b/d in April from 9.5 million bpd on lower demand. “Saudi Arabia could be producing more, but some of it could be going into storage,” Gerber said. Iran’s output, which peaked in July at 4.2 million bpd when the Islamic Republic sold oil from floating storage, is at 3.9 million bpd in September, Gerber said. Iran supplied 4.0 million bpd ...

Crude oil makes Kjell Aleklett think about wild strawberries. Aleklett, a Swedish professor of physics, sees inescapable similarities between the steady depletion of the world's most coveted energy source and the foraging habits of berry afficionados. "In Sweden we have strawberry fields where you can go out and pick for yourself. If you go out there in the morning there is a possibility that you can pick a big volume of strawberries. But the first picker picks the big ones. The last one is left with the small ones. It's very much the same thing when it comes to the production of gas and oil. » Source: The Vancouver Sun "The goodies, the big ones, have been picked. It's true all over the world. Now we have to stick to the small ones. That means it's harder to fill the ...

As a petroleum industry analyst who gave up material security for a career as an activist against petroleum industry expansion, I've developed a unique understanding of the global peak in oil extraction. Questioning society's energy needs has always been my tendency. But I gained further understanding of our culture by giving up affluence and many conveniences. This was an attempt to get closer to nature and live by my wits with the support of activists and my growing community of friends far and wide. » Source: Gristmill In 2004 I hit the road (the rails, usually) to spread the word about the plastic plague, petrocollapse, and the positive future that culture change will present. It was fitting that the nonprofit organization I founded in 1988, Fossil Fuels Policy Action, eventually ...

Last fall Australia’s Senate, concerned about the future of the country’s oil supply, directed a standing committee to conduct an inquiry. The Committee was charged with investigating projections for the production and demand for oil inside Australia and globally, and the implications for the availability and price of transportation fuel. In essence, the Committee was asked to investigate peak oil. To gather information, the Committee advertised hearings and wrote to many organizations inviting submissions. In response came 192 written replies from all over the world. The Committee also held nine public hearings. Two weeks ago the preliminary findings were issued as an interim report. A final report is to be released next month. » Source: Falls Church News-Press This report to the Australian Senate is important in that an independent public body, after reviewing a wide range of evidence ...

The global sea level rise caused by climate change, severely threatening many of the world's coastal and low-lying areas from Bangladesh to East Anglia, is proceeding faster than UN scientists predicted only five years ago, Professor Chris Rapley, director of the British Antarctic Survey, said yesterday. Climate change is causing sea levels to rise around the world because water expands in volume as it warms, and because land-based ice, such as that contained in the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, adds to the volume when it melts and slips into the sea. » Source: The Independent The present prediction of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, from its third assessment report in 2001, is that global sea levels will rise by between 9cm and 88cm by 2100, depending on a number of factors including how far emissions are controlled, with a best guess of about 50cm over the century. Rises ...

We tend to see urban pollution as a modern problem. But did you know that urban pollution was a serious problem for Western world cities as far back as 200 years ago? The greatest source of pollution for 19th-century cities was, believe it or not, the horse. Horses were ubiquitous back then. They drew pretty much anything that was heavy and had to move. Horse-drawn carriages, trains, wagons, supply carts...you name it. Of course, there were no horse toilets, so these animals had to relieve themselves in the streets. This might seem like a quaint issue until one realises that the average city horse could produce up to 35 pounds of manure and 2 pints of urine a day. Yuck! » Source: Daily Reckoning Today, we have to deal with global warming and Peak Oil – back then, they were dealing with global stench ...