Britain and the PIGS: Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Telegraph.co.uk.

Can living near a train station save you from foreclosure?: Mary Wisniewski, The Chicago Sun-Times.

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Algae to solve the Pentagon’s jet fuel problem: Suzanne Goldberg, Guardian.co.uk.

Mongolian Harvard Elites Aim for Wealth Without ‘Dutch Disease’: Michael Forsythe, Bloomberg.com.

The Oil Export Crisis Has Arrived: Chris Nelder, GetRealList.com.

-Gregor

Photo: Mongolia Roundup, by Michael Loyd Young via Burn Magazine.

Dow to Triple Digits: interview with Robert Prechter, Frisby’s Bulls and Bears Radio.

Building a Planet with a Future: Alex Steffen via KUOW’s Speaker Forum series, KUOW.org.

The Vancouver Winter Olympics: cost and security for the Winter Games, Dianne Rhem WAMU Radio.

Peak Oil and its Effect on the Health Care Industry: interview with Dr. Peter Gray, Two Beers With Steve Podcast.

The New Junk Economics: From Democracy to Neoliberal Oligarchy: interview with Michael Hudson, KPFA Guns and Butter Radio.

The Afghan Rout of the Soviet Army: interview with Lewis Lapham, Bloomberg Radio Podcasts.

-Gregor

Photo: Dennis Oppenheim’s Device to Root Out Evil, Coal Harbour, Vancouver BC.

Anglo-American financial situation: Bill Sharon and Mike Hampton, Frisby’s Bulls and Bears Radio.

24 Hours in Tulsa: Officer Jay Chiarito-Mazarrella’s cult following for his Street Story podcasts, BBC World Service Documentaries.

Big Slide (Act 1): James Kunstler’s latest – a Three Act Play on post crisis America, Kunstler Cast Radio.

Running out of Oil with Few Alternatives: interview with Jeff Rubin (23 January 2010), Financial Sense Newshour.

Nicholas Tesla and Innovation Today: roundtable with Pontin of MIT Tech Review, WBUR On Point Radio.

-Gregor

Photo: Nicholas Tesla in front of his high-voltage transformer on East Houston Street, in New York.

What Peak Oil Can Do for Climate Change: Chris Nelder, Get Realist.

Capital Journal – California’s Budget is Going to Be Dreadful: George Skelton, The Los Angeles Times.

Early Data Suggest Suicides are Rising: Murray and McKay, The Wall Street Journal.

Shifting the World to 100% Clean, Renewable Energy by 2030 – Here Are The Numbers – Jacobson and Delucchi (with links to White Paper and Scientific American Article): Stanford News Office.

Will Federal Stimulus Money Spark a High-Speed Rail Renaissance in the U.S.?: Larry Greenmeier, Scientific American.

Intermittency and You – Do We Need Coal and Nuclear Plants for Baseload Power?: Dave Roberts, Grist.

-Gregor

Photo: Santa Monica Beach, with Railroad: circa 1900.

There are three types of opposition to peak oil theory. The first comes through the most basic misunderstanding of the concept itself. Peak oil means peak flows, not peak quantity of oil in the ground. Probably 70-80% of the people who open their mouths to speak about peak oil do not make it past this first, crucial hurdle. I have found almost no correlation at all among those who fall down at this threshold. Here, there is everyone from the most cavalier TV blatherer to the person who loves to greet all new concepts with the word “nonsense.” There’s also a fair chunk of the journalist class here as well. They tip themselves off everytime with some form of the phrase “running out of oil.” Sigh. I used to think those who wrote for newspapers actually liked to learn new things.

So to get past the first hurdle, one needs to understand peak flows because it’s central to understanding the data of the last 10 years. When I say data, I don’t mean a small amount of data either, but all world data not only on oil but also on coal and other primary energy consumption, and data on projects costs and project completion timelines. Production, Consumption, Exports, Net Exports, Substitution, Timelines, and Costs. This brings me to the second type of opposition to peak oil. There are a fair quantity of industry people and others who are well acquainted with data but it’s largely post-war data up until the start of this decade. Among this group the spare capacity/OPEC control era made the greatest impression on their careers. Also here are those who have made a career out of (what I call) the 90 day oil market–that is making calls on supply and demand over the next 90 days. What binds this type of opposition together is good, solid understanding of a world of oil production that no longer exists. They just don’t believe anything changed after 1999-2000.

Finally there is the philosophical and historical opposition to peak oil. Here we find the benign transitionists and other believers in the magical nature of self-organizing systems. Most here grant that peak oil will eventually become a reality, but whether its a reality now or later, it won’t matter. Technologists, inventors and optimists are prominent here. However, what’s not addressed in this group are the twin issues of Scale, and, previous energy transitions. Thus, the first type of opposition never really gets into the game. The second type of opposition only sees part of the problem (but with clarity), and the third type believes in a grand theory that’s not so well supported historically. For example, the previous two energy transitions, from Wood to Coal and then Coal to Oil, were notable in that humanity was moving from lower to higher density energy sources each time. Finally, it’s odd to me how many persons with math and science degrees avoid the issue of Scale. Didn’t they watch the old (Charles and Ray Eames) Powers of Ten video in first year Physics?

So why does any of this matter? Let’s say oil has peaked and the transition is going to be rough. Really rough. Well, what I’d like to address today is how this might effect what we commonly refer to as money. (this article continues for subscribers through the membership gateway, on the right side of this page)