peak oil Archive

  • frog

    Lester Brown on Failing States: Early sign of decline - by frog



    The following YouTube clip is Part 3 from a recent lecture Lester Brown gave on Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization and will take you into the heart of the Plan B message. The presentation was to the Chemical Society of Washington on May 8, 2008. Lester, who is President of the Earth Policy [...] read more
    March 7, 2009 8:00 am - 9 Comments
  • frog

    The End of KiwiRail? - by frog



    I recently attended an ISCR seminar on the future of rail. According to the speaker, Dave Heatley, there’s basically no future for rail. Rail is unfixable in its present form, he argued, without making some “heroic assumptions” about how we measure externalities and the opportunity cost of keeping rail. Heatley’s damning report (available soon on the [...] read more
    February 19, 2009 4:49 pm - 106 Comments
  • frog

    At last, peak oil has an official date - by frog



    A frogblog fan reminded me about this lovely article from Monbiot just before the Christmas break. The Guardian’s video of the interview is here. It seems the IEA spent all of 2008 doing what it should have been doing all along – analysing all the world’s conventional oil supply to see when we are going [...] read more
    January 26, 2009 3:27 pm - 44 Comments
  • frog

    Ahoy meh hearties - by frog



    Well, you could go down the clean energy pathway, with wind and solar power, or you could take the other response to peak oil and just nick yourself a Saudi Arabian supertanker. The capture of the [Sirius Star supertanker] is one of the most spectacular strikes in maritime history. “It looks like a deliberate two [...] read more
    November 19, 2008 12:07 pm - 18 Comments
  • frog

    CoalFinger - by frog



    This summer, from the people who bought you the dairy conversion of John Key’s electorate office, comes the latest blockbuster: Here’s the CoalFinger website and its international quit coal campaign. read more
    November 2, 2008 7:16 am - 3 Comments
  • frog

    Eat the view - by frog



    It seems Michael Pollan was not alone in calling for the next US president to lead the way on self sufficient food production by growing his own food on the White House lawn. There is a whole movement at Eat the View focused on the fact that today American food travels an average of 1500 [...] read more
    October 28, 2008 12:19 pm - 12 Comments
  • frog

    OPEC struggles to control peak oil fluctuations - by frog



    As the global economy tumbles the price of oil has plunged down to about US$67 a barrel. As I’ve noted previously the dramatic falls and rises in price are indication that we are hitting peak oil. But, as importantly, peak oil is also playing its part in causing the crisis, as Energy Bulletin notes: The [...] read more
    October 23, 2008 1:45 pm - 12 Comments
  • frog

    Preparing for peak oil - by frog



    In amongst the flurry about what happens in the next three weeks this news story about what happens in the next 15 years caught me eye: Senior North Shore City transport strategist Archer Davis, speaking on behalf of Engineers for Social Responsibility, said a conservative estimate of a 4 per cent annual decline in oil [...] read more
    October 21, 2008 2:50 pm - 25 Comments
  • frog

    A diet of contemporary sunshine - by frog



    Food guru Michael Pollan has another must read article –this time an open letter to the next American president explaining why food is the political issue he will be spending most of this time in the White House on – including its integral relationship to climate change, peak oil, foreign and trade policies, health care [...] read more
    October 17, 2008 6:40 am - 11 Comments
  • frog

    Well oiled recessions - by frog



    WorldChanging has this troubling graphic. The extraordinary rise in oil prices since 2003 has sucked hundreds of billions of dollars out of the US economy (and the Cascadian economy). High oil prices have been a contributing cause of most recessions: Since 1948, “all large oil price increases but two have been followed by recessions,” as [...] read more
    October 14, 2008 3:47 pm - 5 Comments
  • frog

    Electric cars are not the answer - by frog



    Russel was in the Herald (off line) this morning saying that Labour and National were both looking at electric cars as some “sort of magic solution to the issues of climate change and depleting oil supplies.” Although they might be worth considering over time, he said the priority was to invest in the better use [...] read more
    October 14, 2008 1:57 pm - 12 Comments
  • frog

    Opening the books - by frog



    Today is opening the books day when all the parties get to see how much is in the piggy bank to spend on election promise.  The general consensus is that the latest round of tax cuts and a recession means that Dr Cullen might have left the piggy bank empty for the next government.  That [...] read more
    October 6, 2008 9:45 am - 6 Comments
  • frog

    New fangled concepts like peak oil - by frog



    Yesterday Dr Cullen announced $121m in the current fiscal year to upgrade our rail network.  Note that his reasoning for this investment included: Today we have to come to terms with a new set of circumstances – the emerging reality of Peak Oil and the impact rising fuel prices have on our economy. Rail’s energy efficiency [...] read more
    October 2, 2008 12:41 pm - 26 Comments
  • frog

    Peak Oil and Climate Change for Armchair Warriors - by frog



    I have written a lot about the twin challenges of peak oil and climate change facing humanity. So has the IPCC, our own Kiwi climate scientists and a whole host of pundits out there. Nothing however, is as compelling as live, up to the minute reporting and projections. StormPulse lets you watch as the third [...] read more
    September 10, 2008 4:23 pm - 32 Comments
  • frog

    Doomsaying David Letterman gets heated up about global warming - by frog



    David Letterman goes too negative for my hopeful outlook, but his point about leadership is well made. read more
    September 10, 2008 11:47 am - 7 Comments
  • frog

    Kiss your gas goodbye - by frog



    It was a clever name for a very serious event in Sebastopol, California. Sponsored by the Post Carbon Institute, it was a launch of their Ten Steps for Individuals programme for weaning ourselves off of our oil addiction. The key message is one familiar to kiwis and frogblog readers – localise! While the programme was [...] read more
    September 10, 2008 10:24 am - 4 Comments
  • frog

    Peak oil saves lives? - by frog



    Sadly, as we’ve been discussing in recent weeks, peak oil is threatening people’s lives in the context of international security, war and militarism in the Middle East and other fossil fuel extracting countries.  But it seems here in New Zealand there are less people dying as the cost of burning a limited resource rises: As [...] read more
    September 9, 2008 9:13 am - 5 Comments
  • frog

    The Aussie Airforce’s response to peak oil - by frog



    Courtesy of The Oil Drum read more
    September 8, 2008 10:03 am - 9 Comments
  • frog

    Key acknowledges peak oil… sort of - by frog



    From John Key’s environment policy launch on Saturday: In the years ahead, it’s likely that the rising global price of oil will nudge Kiwis towards different forms of fuel and transport. ‘Nudge’ is the understatement of the year. But his only solution is electric cars. Has he not heard of public transport? He doesn’t mention [...] read more
    September 8, 2008 9:42 am - 89 Comments
  • frog

    Oil politics backfire on the US - by frog



    Open Democracy’s Paul Rogers notes that as China looks to secure oil for it’s increasing consumption it is becoming a strategic power in the Middle East in exactly the way the US would not have intended or wanted. Three transnational oil companies – Shell, BP and Exxon Mobil – were all expected to complete deals [...] read more
    September 6, 2008 9:50 am - 6 Comments
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