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Tag Archives: peak oil
Distilled Disintegration
Distilled Disintegration Photo by Nigel Brown; licensed under Creative Commons My adult life has run on two diverging tracks. On one, I played science. The other track branched off at age 34—twenty years ago this month—when I started teaching a class on Energy and the Environment. I was eager to piece together our likely energy future: […]
Peak Oil is Officially Here! World oil production peaked November of 2018
Peak Oil is Officially Here! World oil production peaked November of 2018 Preface. When I first published this post in February of 2022, I said that peak world oil production might have arrived, but it takes 5 years in the rear-view mirror to call it. Now peak “crude oil including lease condensate oil” is officially here! […]
Twilight of the Blobs
Twilight of the Blobs “Respect the blob, learn from the blob, love the blob.” — Robert Kagan, Arch Blob Monster, Brookings, 2020 HG Wells concocted a marvelous trick ending to his classic tale The War of the Worlds (1897). Remember: the colossal Martian tripod “fighting machines” swarm all over the planet zapping cities with “heat […]
Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh LXI–Peak Oil: Not Ready For Mainstream Consumption
Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh LXI July 29, 2022 (original posting date) Athens, Greece (1984). Photo taken by author. Peak Oil: Not Ready For Mainstream Consumption Today’s contemplation is based upon a post in a Peak Oil Facebook Group I belong to and the suggestion that the idea of Peak Oil is catching on more broadly and making […]
The Harsh Truth: We’re Using More Oil Than Ever
The Harsh Truth: We’re Using More Oil Than Ever In this age of climate crisis, the world is consuming more crude than ever. Peak oil demand? Not yet. Maybe one day, perhaps even soon, around 2030. For now, however, the global economy still runs on oil. It will take a while before governments certify it, […]
Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh XXIX–Are We Being Duped Regarding Global Warming?
Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh XXIX August 17, 2021 Tulum, Mexico (1986) Photo by author Are We Being Duped Regarding Global Warming? Today’s contemplation was prompted by an email my mum sent me. As she closes in on 80, I find that she’s becoming a bit more open-minded about things but remains somewhat of a skeptic when it […]
Why Civilization Would Collapse Even Without Climate Change
Why Civilization Would Collapse Even Without Climate Change Even if there were no climate change, civilization would still collapse in the next few decades. Here’s why. I want to start by emphasizing that I have nothing but love and respect for the millions of climate activists in the world, many of whom work tirelessly to […]
Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh CLVI–Peak Oil, Complexity, Psychology, Magical Thinking, and War
Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh CLVI Mexico (1988). Photo by author. Peak Oil, Complexity, Psychology, Magical Thinking, and War Again, some sharing of my comments and others’ on a couple of recent FB Group posts. First, a post from the Peak Oil Group I am a member of where some great conversations happen. In this particular situation, […]
Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh VIII–Peak Oil and Sociopolitics
Today’s Contemplation: Collapse Cometh VIII Oct 30, 2020 Chitchen Itza, Mexico (1986) Photo by author Peak Oil and Sociopolitics Once again, a comment I posted in response to an article on The Tyee. Where to begin? I realise this article is primarily about a federal political party and its future but there are two underlying […]
Opposition to mining will prevent a green transition to renewables
Opposition to mining will prevent a green transition to renewables Source: Bare (2012) Environmentalists win review of two more plants near Rosemont copper mine. Arizona Capitol times. I could overwhelm you with world-wide trillions of tons of mining waste and how China has rendered 20% of its farmland too toxic to grow crops (BBC 2014), but […]
The Spectre of Peak Oil — Part 2
The Spectre of Peak Oil — Part 2 Ramifications: the long term consequences of peak oil Photo by Boston Public Library on Unsplash Peak oil is not the end of the world. It is a subtle, almost barely noticeable phenomenon. It does not mean that we will run out of oil from one day to another, causing all […]
Global Peak Oil Remains an Existential Threat
Global Peak Oil Remains an Existential Threat “I have reported on the dire impacts of global peak oil at guymcpherson.com for many years. My reports from August 2007 onward indicate the potential for peak oil to terminate industrial civilization. Information I discovered a few years later indicates that stopping or even slowing industrial activity will cause our extinction. […]
No, Nuclear Energy Won’t Save Us
No, Nuclear Energy Won’t Save Us Soon to be mementos of a lost age. Photo by Lukáš Lehotský on Unsplash Ever since the first commercial reactors have started to produce electricity for the grid in the 1950’s (um, about 70 years ago now…) we keep hearing how nuclear is the clean, green power of the future. No emissions, […]
Peak-Oil Fears Cast Shadow Over US Supply Outlook as Costs Climb
Peak-Oil Fears Cast Shadow Over US Supply Outlook as Costs Climb (Bloomberg) — The specter of peak oil that haunted global energy markets during the first decade of the 21st century is once again rearing its head. Major US oil producers are warning that production from one of the fastest growing sources of supply appears […]
Peak Oil Gets Admitted?
Peak Oil Gets Admitted? Denial is like a glacier. At first sight, and to everyone standing on it, it looks rock solid. Then cracks start to develop, and before you know it, a huge chunk breaks off and drifts away — never to be seen again. This is what’s happening to peak oil right in […]



