The Global Community has had work on Peak Oil and Gas Movement aspects and issues ever since 1985. A short list of our previous work on Peak Oil and Gas Movement aspects and issues. 
For more recent work on the Peak Oil and Gas Movement aspects and issues read the following table.
| Month/year |
Theme and Author |
Read contents |
| December 8, 2007 |
Peak Oil And The Vision In The Mirror
by Aaron Wissner, Countercurrents.org,
LiVEJOURNAL
Aaron Wissner, Organizer, Local Future Network
What happens when the energy supply stops growing, but the population continues to grow?
More importantly, what happens when the energy supply begins to decline, as population continues to grow?
Peak oil is not simply an issue of learning to conserve or finding ways to do more with less. It isn't simply about the possibility of economic
collapse, war, starvation or global pandemic. It isn't just about changing our behaviors or our beliefs. It is about turning ourselves inside-out, and not only
surviving the transformation, but also being and living equal and in harmony with all the rest. |
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| December 7, 2007 |
Forests Could Cool or Cook The Planet
by Stephen Leahy , Countercurrents.org,
BROOKLIN, Canada, Dec 7 (IPS) - A two-degree Celsius rise in global temperatures could flip the Amazon forest
from being the Earth's vital air conditioner to a flamethrower that cooks the planet, warns a new report released at the climate talks in Bali, Indonesia Friday.
The trees of the Amazon contain at least 100 billion tonnes of carbon -- 15 years worth of global emissions from all sources, he said. "It's not
only essential for cooling the world's temperature but also such a large source of freshwater that it may be enough to influence some of the great ocean currents."
It is in everyone's interest to keep the Amazon intact, but deforestation continues apace, driven by expanding cattle ranching, soy farming, conversion into sugar cane for
biofuel and logging. This assault is drying out the forest, making it more vulnerable to burning. Rising global temperatures are also increasing evaporation rates,
drying the forest further. |
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| November 22, 2007 |
Handy Hints For Post-Petroleum
by Peter Goodchild , Countercurrents.org, petergoodchild@interhop.net
The priority of these "hints" will vary as the years go by, but most of
them will remain relevant over the course of the century. The slight bias
toward northern North America is partly due to the fact that the area
meets most of the criteria.
Everything in the modern world is dependent on hydrocarbons. From
hydrocarbons we get fuel, fertilizer, pesticides, lubricants, plastic, paint,
synthetic fabrics, asphalt, pharmaceuticals, and many other things.
When oil goes, our entire industrial society will go with it. We must
therefore look to "primitive" technology. On a broader scale, one could can say that modern industrial society
is based on (1) hydrocarbons, (2) metals, and (3) electricity. The three
are intricately connected; each is only accessible — on the modern
scale — if the other two are present. Electricity, for example, has been
possible on a global scale only with hydrocarbons. The same is true of
metals: most metals are now becoming rare, and the forms that remain
can be processed only with modern machinery — which requires
hydrocarbons. There is no way of breaking that "triangle." What we are
then looking at is a society far more primitive than the one to which we
have been accustomed.
|
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| November 13, 2007 |
US, British And Australian Forces Build Oil-Protection Base In Iraq
by Patrick Martin, Countercurrents.org, WSWS.org
The US Navy, with the assistance of British and Australian commandos, is building a permanent base to guard two oil-export platforms in Iraqi waters
at the northern end of the Persian Gulf. The military mission goes far beyond the patrols which US warships
have conducted in the Persian Gulf for the past 30 years, in the name of
keeping oil shipping lanes open. The Navy finds
itself with an additional, much more specific role: playing security guard
to Iraq’s offshore oil infrastructure. US, British and Australian military officers will control Iraq’s oil export
shipping for the indefinite future.
Iraq is one of the least-explored countries among the major oil producers, and there are plans to
explore for oil in the western desert (Anbar province) as well as the
traditional oil-producing regions in the north and south. Iraq has 112
billion barrels in proven oil reserves, but UN estimates have placed its
probable but as yet unproven reserves at 214 billion barrels, perhaps
the world’s largest pool of untapped oil. The oil ministry reported last week that daily crude oil production in
October hit a three-year high of 2.7 million barrels a day, of which 1.8
million barrels were exported. Hussein al-Shahristani, the oil minister,
said that crude production should reach 3 million barrels daily by the
end of the year.
|
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| November 8, 2007 |
Welcome to the Age of Insuffiency: As oil prices hit new highs and supplies sink, our way of life will drastically change.
We are nearing the end of the Petroleum Age and have entered the Age of Insufficiency.
Major investors are not likely to cough up the trillions of dollars needed to substantially boost production in the years ahead, suggesting that the global output of
conventional petroleum will not reach the elevated levels predicted by the Energy Department but will soon begin an irreversible decline.
This conclusion leads to two obvious strategic impulses: first, the government will seek to ease the qualms of major energy investors by promising to protect their overseas
investments through the deployment of American military forces; and second, the industry will seek to hedge its bets by shifting an ever-increasing share of its investment
funds into the development of nonpetroleum liquids. In considering these past events, it is important to recognize that the use of military force to protect the flow
of imported petroleum has generally enjoyed broad bipartisan support in Washington. One might imagine that the current debacle in Iraq would shake this consensus, but
there is no evidence that this is so. In fact, the opposite appears to be the case: possibly fearful that the chaos in Iraq will spread to other countries in the Gulf
region, senior figures in both parties are calling for a reinvigorated US military role in the protection of foreign energy deliveries.
There is mounting perils to the safe flow of foreign oil. Concluding that the United States alone has the capacity to protect the global oil trade against the threat of
violent obstruction, it argues the need for a strong US military presence in key producing areas and in the sea lanes that carry foreign oil to American shores.
An awareness of this new "Washington consensus" on the need to protect overseas oil supplies with American troops helps explain many recent developments in Washington.
Most significant, it illuminates the strategic stance adopted by President Bush in justifying his determination to retain a potent US force in Iraq -- and why the Democrats
have found it so difficult to contest that stance. We should expect an increase in the use of military force to protect the overseas flow of oil, as the threat level rises
along with the need for new investment to avert even further reductions in global supplies.
|
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| October 22, 2007 |
It’s The Oil
by Jim Holt, Countercurrents.org, London Review Of Books
Iraq has 115 billion barrels of known oil reserves. That is more than five
times the total in the United States. And, because of its long isolation, it
is the least explored of the world’s oil-rich nations. A mere two
thousand wells have been drilled across the entire country; in Texas
alone there are a million. It has been estimated, by the Council on
Foreign Relations, that Iraq may have a further 220 billion barrels of
undiscovered oil; another study puts the figure at 300 billion. If these
estimates are anywhere close to the mark, US forces are now sitting on
one quarter of the world’s oil resources. The value of Iraqi oil, largely
light crude with low production costs, would be of the order of $30
trillion at today’s prices. For purposes of comparison, the projected
total cost of the US invasion/occupation is around $1 trillion.
Who will get Iraq’s oil? One of the Bush administration’s ‘benchmarks’
for the Iraqi government is the passage of a law to distribute oil
revenues. The draft law that the US has written for the Iraqi congress
would cede nearly all the oil to Western companies. The Iraq National
Oil Company would retain control of 17 of Iraq’s 80 existing oilfields,
leaving the rest – including all yet to be discovered oil – under foreign
corporate control for 30 years.
The occupation may seem horribly botched on the face of it, but
the Bush administration’s cavalier attitude towards ‘nation-building’ has
all but ensured that Iraq will end up as an American protectorate for the
next few decades – a necessary condition for the extraction of its oil
wealth. If the US had managed to create a strong, democratic
government in an Iraq effectively secured by its own army and police
force, and had then departed, what would have stopped that
government from taking control of its own oil, like every other regime in
the Middle East? On the assumption that the Bush-Cheney strategy is
oil-centred, the tactics – dissolving the army, de-Baathification, a final
‘surge’ that has hastened internal migration – could scarcely have been
more effective. The costs – a few billion dollars a month plus a few
dozen American fatalities (a figure which will probably diminish, and
which is in any case comparable to the number of US motorcyclists
killed because of repealed helmet laws) – are negligible compared to
$30 trillion in oil wealth, assured American geopolitical supremacy and
cheap gas for voters. In terms of realpolitik, the invasion of Iraq is not a
fiasco; it is a resounding success. |
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| September 12, 2007 |
What Is Being Stolen From Us All
by Jeff Berg
Countercurrents.org
Once again, this time in Iraq, we see the natural resource wealth of an
entire nation enriching none but a criminal class and megacorporations. I
will assume a distinction. Once again this is only able to take place as a
result of the planned aggression and full cooperation of a government &
military that acts as if it is a wholly owned subsidiary of a monied elite.
Much the same thing is being done here in Canada but "thanks" to the
connivance of significant elements of our corporate and government
elite it is being achieved without the need for military force.
It should be noted however that to some in the corporate class the
missing military element is a major mistake even in Canada as it
seriously erodes the huge profit margins possible in war zones and
markedly reduces the amount of money that can be transferred from
citizens to shareholders in times of military conflict. (The quintessential
double dip) Admittedly this is a minority opinion but as Iraq will not be
the last to prove not an uninfluential one. Evidence of this influence here
in Canada can be seen by the massive increase in expenditures for our
military and security industrial complexes over the last few years.
NB. Before the Harper government's commitment to a $13 billion
increase in military spending Canada’s military spending was the 7th
highest in absolute terms in the OECD and 12th overall in the world.
If you are skeptical of the claim that Canadians are being all but
completely shut out of the benefits of their resource wealth go to the
Parkland Institute site and discover for yourself the pitiful fraction the
Albertan people receive of their resource wealth compared to the
people of Norway.
http://www.ualberta.ca/PARKLAND/
For we the Canadian people the situation is an even crueler joke as we
receive even less benefit while at the same time bearing more of the
brunt of the economic problems associated with being a resource
dollar. Aka. Dutch Disease
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/dutchdisease.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_disease
And it is all Canadians and especially Albertans and even the rest of the
world that are at the same time forced to pick up the massive
environmental tab even as the profits flee the province and the country. |
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