Savage State of Torpor

This is the most hopeful story I’ve seen in a long time. There are thousands of crumbling industrial and farming towns across the U.S. The steady decline of the family farm and the deindustrialization of the American workforce has led to a major collapse in these towns and urban areas, in all senses: [...]

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Via Ft.com and BusinessSpectator.com
Oil’s slippery slope
With the oil price heading upwards and President George Bush heading for Saudi Arabia, as part of a Middle Eastern tour, it is time to accept the truth. The pursuit of oil is fundamental to US foreign policy.The importance of oil to American foreign policy is both obvious and [...]

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Via GraphOILogy:
Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Oil on the Rise
Oil reached a new intra-day record at $88.05 (US Light Sweet Crude).

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Things are starting to get spooky. Crude hit 126 and change, up from 116 last week. Nigerian oil production is all but shut down. The middle east is exploding further. Myanmar was totally wiped out by a cyclone. AND U.S. CITIZENS ARE TAKING PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION…. TEOTWAKI!
Via NYTimes:
With the price [...]

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It looks like the Moonies over at teh Washington Times get it also. It’s good to see pseudo-mainstream newspapers discussing not only peak oil but its oft-ignored implications.
Via WashingtonTimes.com
The issue is not simply a concern that we will have to pay outrageous prices for a gallon of gas. If that were the worst of [...]

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Warren gets it.
via theOilDrum.com & Omaha.com
Buffett also said that the world’s production of oil, about 87 million barrels a day, is close to capacity. While the world won’t run out of oil this century, as one questioner suggested, Buffett said gradually depleted oil fields could reduce the amount produced.
Munger said he thinks oil production 25 [...]

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Here is an excellent primer on the the current recession & its causes. If you’re interested in understanding it in greater detail, I suggest checking it out.
Via TheOilDrum.com:
The Resurgence of Risk: A Primer on the Developing Credit Crunch
We have been living in inflationary times, for as long as most of us can remember. The [...]

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He explains the issue PERFECTLY and SUCCINCTLY.
Via NYTimesBlogs & Paul Krugman
April 15, 2008, 9:02 pm
Oil numbers
There are two basic facts that would seem to explain a lot about what’s happening to oil prices.
First, Gross World Product growth has accelerated — from 2.9 percent in the 90s to almost 5 percent in recent years, according [...]

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[I've removed the paragraphs prior to the article. My understanding of peak [everything], Malthus, etc. will be left for another date and a much longer, more nuanced essay -ed.]
For now, another article on food shortages….
Via Naked Capitalism
While the New York Times has a good analysis today, “Fuel Choices, Food Crises and Finger-Pointing,” on the [...]

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I’ll start writing about these and why they’re relevant at a later date. For now, know that these articles are just selections from an overall trend of articles on problems related to resource constraints and overpopulation.
Via Bloomberg.com
Rationing Power
Chile may be forced to limit power use for the first time since 1999 because a drought [...]

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via ABCNews Australia and Cryptogon.com
Basic access to food is slipping out of reach for many people in developing countries.
The cost of the rice has risen by more than three-quarters in two months and the price of wheat has more than doubled in the same time.
The desperation in dozens of countries has turned deadly of late. [...]

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South Africa is experiencing some growing pains. I haven’t heard much on this being related to energy prices and/or lack of supply. However, it has a decent impact on gold prices and the reaction of the citizenry is an interesting case study.
If this is the kind of whiny shit we can expect with [...]

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Via Wired.com
Scientists Flesh Out Plans to Grow (and Sell) Test Tube Meat
[...]Rapidly evolving technology and increasing concern about the environmental impact of meat production are signs that vat-grown meat is moving from scientific curiosity to consumer option. In vitro meat production is a specialized form of tissue engineering, a biomedical practice in which scientists try [...]

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Via cryptogon.com
Rice prices rose more than 10 per cent on Friday to a fresh all-time high as African countries joined south-east Asian importers in the race to head off social unrest by securing supplies from the handful of exporters still selling the grain in the international market.The rise in prices – 50 per cent in [...]

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This is the most succinct explanation of the ‘peak oil’ problem I’ve yet come across:
As has been discussed for many years, the key to our collective futures is whether or not the decline in the availability of fossil fuels, particularly oil, will come upon us so fast that that the earth will not have the [...]

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