Peak Oil, Climate Change, Economy: Unsustainable 2010 (HQ Version)

Posted by admin on December 31st, 2009 and filed under world oil production | 1 Comment »

Music by Muse, Exogenesis from the album Resistance.

http://www.facebook.com/onearth
The latest video from Sustainable Earth. Includes new reports from government, the military, intelligence agencies and major NGO’s. It ends on a positive note; the reality of consequence will finally free humanity from short-term thinking.

I looked at literally dozens of reports for this short video…in the end I picked the most credible and those that summed up the prevailing thinking of the world’s best experts. Unfortunately it was impossible to include every detail; this is just an introduction to the subject. For further reading the files which make up this video are below.

Hirsch Report Peaking of World Oil Production: Impacts, Mitigation, and Risk Management (US Dept of Energy): http://www.netl.doe.gov/publications/others/pdf/Oil_Peaking_NETL.pdf

Energy Trends and Implications for U.S. Army Installations(US Marine Corp): http://handle.dtic.mil/100.2/ADA440265

Global Oil Depletion (UK Energy Research Centre): http://www.ukerc.ac.uk/support/Global%20Oil%20Depletion

Coming Oil Supply Crunch(Chatham House): http://www.chathamhouse.org.uk/publications/papers/view/-/id/652/

Peak Oil: A Survey of Security Concerns(Center for New American Security):http://www.cnas.org/node/26

Global Trends 2025: A World Transformed(US National Intelligence Council/Director of National Intelligence):
http://www.dni.gov/nic/NIC_2025_project.html

DCDC Strategic Trends 2007-2036(UK Ministry of Defence): http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/MicroSite/DCDC/OurPublications/StrategicTrends+Programme/

Global Atmosphere Watch Strategic Plan: 2008 – 2015 (World Meteorological Programme United Nations): http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/arep/gaw/gaw_home_en.html

The Great Transition(New Economics Foundation): http://www.neweconomics.org/publications/the-great-transition

Music by Muse: Exogenesis from album Resistance http://muse.mu/

Duration : 0:10:18

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High gas prices?! And why do you think that is?

Posted by admin on December 22nd, 2009 and filed under total oil production | No Comments »

Senators Clinton and Obama, did you both sleep through Economics 101? The only way to reduce gas prices is to reduce demand? No, no, no! The best way to drive the price of gas down is to increase SUPPLY! Neither of your answers addressed our need to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

Why is it that the last oil refinery in the United States was built in 1976? And why don’t we find newer and better oil and gas resources here in our own country?

The United States consumes 20 million barrels of oil a day. The demand for oil will not be going down anytime soon. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) is known to contain huge oil and gas deposits, but because of environmental lock-up restrictions on oil production on America’s offshore Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), we have to import 65% of our oil from foreign sources.

More than 75% of Alaskans favor exploration and production in ANWR, so why not more support from the pinheads in Washington, D.C.?

Only 8% (1.5 million acres) of the northern coast of ANWR is being considered for research & development, and the remaining 92% (17.5 million acres) of ANWR will remain permanently closed to any kind of development. If oil is discovered, then less than 2000 acres of the over 1.5 million acres of the Coastal Plain would be affected. That’s less than half of one percent of ANWR that would be affected by production activity. How much is 2000 acres? To put this in perspective, nearly 370,000 total acres were burned in San Diego wildfires last fall, and back in 2003, over 700,000 acres were burned in California alone.

Conservative estimates indicate that ANWR’s 10-02 Area contains the equivalent of over 30 years worth of Saudi oil.

If the Washington beaurocrats are serious about ending our dependence on foreign oil, then they need to allow R&D to begin in ANWR. It’s time to use the resources in our own country. Why buy something from other countries that we possess ourselves?

Reducing demand is not the answer.
Growing more corn for ethanol is not the answer.
Hybrid cars are not the answer.

The ANsWeR is ANWR.

Duration : 0:3:38

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Peak Oil: Gas Prices, Supply Depletion & Energy Crisis: 5of5

Posted by admin on December 22nd, 2009 and filed under peak oil production | No Comments »

We are entering the Peak Oil era. The growth of oil production is slowing, forcing up oil and gasoline prices, firing inflation, driving unemployment, straining our global economy, and threatening to collapse our entire system. Teacher Aaron Wissner, highlights the impacts, underlying problem, and solutions. This is part 5 of 5 in a one-hour presentation. See the full one-hour video at LocalFuture.org. Also, at YouTube, see the summary with great resources, web sites, video clips, and detailed background on Peak Oil and its impacts.

Duration : 0:10:0

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Peak Oil & Economic Collapse – Megan Quinn Bachman – 2 of 2

Posted by admin on December 15th, 2009 and filed under peak oil production | 15 Comments »

What is peak oil? How will it impact the future? How can we prepare for this challenge?

In this uncut video clip, Aaron Wissner of the Local Future Network interviews Megan Quinn Bachman of Community Service, Inc. about peak oil and the future.

We are entering the Peak Oil era. The growth of oil production is slowing, driving up oil and gasoline gas prices, firing inflation, driving unemployment, straining our global economy, and threatening to collapse our entire system. We are reaching Peak Oil and we are unprepared.

This was published earlier but with a spelling error. The incorrect version had 459 page views.

Duration : 0:5:28

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High gas prices?! And why do you think that is?

Posted by admin on December 10th, 2009 and filed under total oil production | 13 Comments »

Senators Clinton and Obama, did you both sleep through Economics 101? The only way to reduce gas prices is to reduce demand? No, no, no! The best way to drive the price of gas down is to increase SUPPLY! Neither of your answers addressed our need to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

Why is it that the last oil refinery in the United States was built in 1976? And why don’t we find newer and better oil and gas resources here in our own country?

The United States consumes 20 million barrels of oil a day. The demand for oil will not be going down anytime soon. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) is known to contain huge oil and gas deposits, but because of environmental lock-up restrictions on oil production on America’s offshore Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), we have to import 65% of our oil from foreign sources.

More than 75% of Alaskans favor exploration and production in ANWR, so why not more support from the pinheads in Washington, D.C.?

Only 8% (1.5 million acres) of the northern coast of ANWR is being considered for research & development, and the remaining 92% (17.5 million acres) of ANWR will remain permanently closed to any kind of development. If oil is discovered, then less than 2000 acres of the over 1.5 million acres of the Coastal Plain would be affected. That’s less than half of one percent of ANWR that would be affected by production activity. How much is 2000 acres? To put this in perspective, nearly 370,000 total acres were burned in San Diego wildfires last fall, and back in 2003, over 700,000 acres were burned in California alone.

Conservative estimates indicate that ANWR’s 10-02 Area contains the equivalent of over 30 years worth of Saudi oil.

If the Washington beaurocrats are serious about ending our dependence on foreign oil, then they need to allow R&D to begin in ANWR. It’s time to use the resources in our own country. Why buy something from other countries that we possess ourselves?

Reducing demand is not the answer.
Growing more corn for ethanol is not the answer.
Hybrid cars are not the answer.

The ANsWeR is ANWR.

Duration : 0:3:45

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Introduction to Peak OIL part 4 of 4

Posted by admin on December 6th, 2009 and filed under peak oil production | 4 Comments »

Introduction to Peak OIL
Quotation
No limits whatever are placed to
the productions of the earth;
they may increase forever.

~Reverend Thomas Malthus

Thesis:
The next 30 years will probably be different from the last 30 years.

Agenda

o History of energy consumption
o Energy in the modern world
o Countries passed Peak
o Future energy production
o EROEI
o Modern Infrastructure Dependencies
o Mechanized Agriculture
o Banking, Finance and Growth
o Conclusions

History of Energy Consumption

o Wide spread use of heating coal between 1400s and 1600s in Western Europe and China.
o England develops railway technology, and this enables them to become the super-power of the 1600s.
o Initially coal is simply picked up off the ground. Then it is mined from surface level exposed coal beds. Miners begin to dig deeper, causing mines to flood with water.

History of Energy Consumption

The Atmospheric Engine is invented by Thomas Newcomen in 1712

History of Energy Consumption

Initially, horses are used to carry a `train of wagons, along wooden rails.
The picture on the right is famously known as the Walton Wagonway.

History of Energy Consumption
Introduction of Coal Transport

First steam locomotive (coal) is built by Richard Trevithick in 1804

Coal Based Agriculture
o Steam Technology quickly develops into a technology explosion and there are applications in a wide variety of industries
o Steam Technology becomes very successful for Agriculture

Ex-Edinburgh Corporation Aveling & Porter
Steam Tractor
Important Milestones
o In 1858 the first commercial OIL well is drilled by James Miller Williams in Black Creek Ontario.
o In 1859 Edwin Drake drilled the first oil well in the United States.

Black Creek
AKA
Oil Springs, Petrolia, Ontario, v. 1870

Important Milestones
o Initially `Rock OIL is used to power OIL lamps.
o Crude oil replaces whale oil industry.
o Nicolaus Otto built the first practical four-stroke internal combustion engine called the “Otto Cycle Engine,
o In 1891 Herbert Akroyd Stuart built his oil engine, leasing rights to Hornsby of England
o The Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur invented and built the world’s first successful airplane on December 17, 1903.
o The Model T set 1908 as the historic year that the automobile came into popular usage.
o In 1911, Winston Churchill commissions the construction of new and larger warships, the development of tanks, and the switch from coal to oil in the Royal Navy.
o This brings us up to the modern age.

Dr. Marion King Hubbert
Famously developed what is how known as Hubberts Peak
o Marion King Hubbert (October 5, 1903 October 11, 1989) was a geoscientist who worked at the Shell research lab in Houston, Texas. He made several important contributions to geology, geophysics, and petroleum geology, most notably the Hubbert curve and Hubbert peak theory (a basic component of Peak oil), with important political ramifications. He was often referred to as “M. King Hubbert” or “King Hubbert”.

Total Energy
Countries that have passed Peak
EROEI
o In physics, energy economics and ecological energetics, EROEI (Energy Returned on Energy Invested), ERoEI, EROI (Energy Return On Investment) or less frequently, eMergy, is the ratio of the amount of usable energy acquired from a particular energy resource to the amount of energy expended to obtain that energy resource.
o When the EROEI of a resource is equal to or lower than 1, that energy source becomes an “energy sink”, and can no longer be used as a primary source of energy.

EROEI
Source: The OIL Drum
Modern Infrastructure Dependencies
o Cement
o Transportation
o Food
o Computers
o Everything else

Mechanized Agriculture

Banking, Finance and Debt
Conclusions
o The next 30 years are likely to be much different than the last 30 years.
o Cheap and Abundant Fossil energy is a historic relic of the past.
o Energy prices are likely to become more volatile in the future
o Food prices, and even food availability may become more unpredictable in the future.

Duration : 0:7:27

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Energy Crossroads: An Oil Dependent Nation

Posted by admin on November 29th, 2009 and filed under global oil production | 4 Comments »

Most experts agree that global peak oil production, when demand exceeds supply, will occur within the next 15 years and will drastically change the very fabric of our industrialized world.

Duration : 0:2:33

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Peak Oil & Economic Collapse – Megan Quinn Bachman – 1 of 2

Posted by admin on November 22nd, 2009 and filed under oil production peak | 3 Comments »

What is peak oil? How will it impact the future? How can we prepare for this challenge?

In this uncut video clip, Aaron Wissner of the Local Future Network interviews Megan Quinn Bachman of Community Service, Inc. about peak oil and the future.

We are entering the Peak Oil era. The growth of oil production is slowing, driving up oil and gasoline gas prices, firing inflation, driving unemployment, straining our global economy, and threatening to collapse our entire system. We are reaching Peak Oil and we are unprepared.

This was published earlier but with a spelling error. The incorrect version had 459 page views.

Duration : 0:6:41

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Gas Prices, Gas Gouging, Peak Oil, Elasticity, Supply Demand

Posted by admin on November 13th, 2009 and filed under peak oil production | 25 Comments »

Gasoline gas prices are based on oil prices. Oil prices are determined by the oil supply and oil demand. Right now, both oil supply and oil demand are almost inelastic. As gasoline gas and oil prices go up, the demand stays almost the same. As the oil supply reaches peak oil or maximum production or extraction, the demand curve becomes vertical, or inelastic. The inelasticity of the oil supply and oil demand set things up for price volatility of both oil and gasoline. The seasonal changes in gas and oil prices we’ve seen in the last three years is probably due to reaching peak oil. This short screencast shows an inelastic oil supply curve, as well as an inelastic oil demand curve, and what happens to prices as the oil supply or oil demand change.

Duration : 0:1:16

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Economic Collapse: Our Unsustainable System vs. the Peak Oil & The Decline of the Master Resource

Posted by admin on November 13th, 2009 and filed under global oil production | 13 Comments »

Our global economic system is dependent on a growing energy, and most importantly, oil supply.

Without growth in energy, the money supply can not grow (for long), which leads to a situation where the money supply stops growing, leading to economic recession.

When the USA hit its peak oil production in 1970, there were a series of economic impacts, including recession, abandoning the gold standand, high unemployment, and high inflation.

Global peak oil extraction appears to have happened in the 2005-2008 time frame, and had a large contributing effect on stressing the global economic system to the verge of collapse. The run up in gas gasoline prices during that same era impacted the economic system severely.

The US Government and many others have examined the global peak oil issue and have come to the sobering conclusion that severe economic impacts are inevitable, and we are unprepared.

Future oil prices may be driven up by the stagnant or declining supply, and then collapsing down as economic dislocation occurs.

This is the second part of a 30 minute talk by Aaron Wissner about our Local Future.

Duration : 0:10:5

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