Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Information, Gregory Bateson used to say, is a difference that makes a difference. The ability of energy to do work, and the usefulness of material substances, also depend on difference. What do these seemingly abstract considerations have to do with the fine old art of insulating hot water lines and heating ducts? Plenty. With a roll of fiberglass insulation in one hand, the Archdruid explains.
A local diet can reduce energy use somewhat, but there are even more effective ways to tackle the problem. Single-minded pursuit of local food, without consideration of the bigger picture, can actually make things worse from an energy perspective.
Helping the public to reduce wood smoke by improving their wood burning technique is virtually unexplored territory. The wide distribution of high quality public information would give responsible wood burners the tools they need to improve their wood burning practice, regardless of the technology they use.
We are not running out of oil yet. We have, however, reached an apparent limit to the amount of oil that we can produce every day. That is because newly discovered fields are, at best, replacing supply from older declining and depleted fields.
Global warming has likely already caused changes in the world’s climate by delaying monsoon seasons, causing less summer precipitation and creating longer breaks between rainy periods. One group of women in southern India is turning to traditional farming practices for immediate and sustainable answers to address these water problems.
To people who follow the energy industry closely, it’s a common occurrence to come across announcements from companies proclaiming to have developed the key to the ‘next big thing’ — for solving the world’s energy crisis. Maybe they say they can take any sort of waste biomass and turn it into fuel — ethanol, diesel, pyrolysis oil, mixed alcohols — at very low cost. Or they say they can produce renewable electricity at a price competitive with coal.
The layperson reads the news release and is curious: “Is this real?”
Half hidden among the roar of recent news, a pair of stories point toward the uncomfortable reality that the current economic order is coming apart around us. As that process accelerates, pragmatic steps to cut costs and save energy — such as this week’s example, insulated window coverings — will take on an unexpected importance.
As concerns grow in the U.S. about the environmental impact of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” to extract natural gas from shale, companies have set their sights on Europe and its abundant reserves of this “unconventional” gas. But from Britain to Poland, critics warn of the potentially high environmental cost of this looming energy boom.
There is another way to reduce energy consumption for space heating that does not have any of these disadvantages: lowering the thermostat and putting on more clothes.
– NYT: Regulation Lax as Gas Wells’ Tainted Water Hits Rivers
– NG industry tried to get “Gasland” doc disqualified from Oscars
– Lower second tier oil producers – Norway, Brazil, Iraq and Algeria
– How the U.S. may win the battery race
– New book from WebHubbleTelescope: “The Oil ConunDRUM”
As unrest continues to spread across the Middle East, the possibility that the price of oil — already around ten times what it was in 1998, when the peak oil movement first began to shake off its post-1970s hibernation — might spike to unprecedented and economically disastrous levels is hard to ignore. The end of the age of cheap abundant oil calls for pragmatic steps. With the help of a roll of insulation, the Archdruid explains.
In truth, the spare capacity that the world cares about — that the oil futures market cares about — is not the inventory level. But rather, actual production capacity that can be brought on immediately. You can see the problem, from a price standpoint. If the world loses Libya’s 1.5 mbpd production for 90-120 days, and starts drawing down above-ground inventories, this only makes the inventory cushion that much thinner for any new supply disruptions. The question on the mind of the oil market therefore is not Mr. Fyfe’s 1.6 billion barrels of crude, but whether countries like Kuwait, the U.A.E. and especially Saudi Arabia or even Russia can lift supply. Immediately.
