Reframing the Energy Conversation
Richard Heinberg Every activist engaged in combating human-caused climate change or specific elements of the current energy economy knows that the work is primarily oppositional. It could hardly be...
View ArticleThe Fight of the Century
Richard Heinberg As economies contract, a global popular uprising confronts power elites over access to the essentials of human existence. What are the underlying dynamics of the conflict, and how is...
View Article$5 Gas = Long, Hot, Crazy Summer
Richard Heinberg Here in northern California gasoline is now retailing for $4.20 a gallon. Prices haven’t been this high since mid-2008. Forecasts for $5 per gallon gas in the U.S. this summer are now...
View ArticleFun with Trends
Richard Heinberg If current population trends continue . . . The population of the U.S. will increase to more than 600 million by 2080, and in 2150 it will equal China’s present size. World population...
View ArticlePeak Oil—The Top 11 FAQs
Richard Heinberg I’ve been giving lectures on Peak Oil for over a decade now, and always look forward to the question period after the main show. It’s an opportunity to interact with the audience, and...
View ArticleVisualize Gasoline
Richard Heinberg Next time you find yourself in traffic, try this nifty thought exercise. Ignore the cars within your field of vision and imagine instead the contents of their fuel tanks. Visualize...
View ArticleEnd of Growth Update: Part One
Richard Heinberg Neither a Borrower nor a Lender Be In The End of Growth, published in September 2011, I made the observation that world economic expansion, which has been barreling along for the past...
View ArticleOur Solution Is Our Problem and Its Name Is Growth
Richard Heinberg Part 2 of 3 of an update to Richard Heinberg's 2011 book The End of Growth: Adapting to our New Economic Reality The U.S. blues Surely there’s cheerier news to be gleaned from the...
View ArticleThe Latest in Ignoring Reality
Richard Heinberg Just when you thought weird weather and dying oceans might get us all thinking about how to reduce human impact on this little planet we call home, along comes Breakthrough Institute...
View ArticlePeak Denial—What Reality Awaits Us?
Richard Heinberg There is nothing but “Sad News for Peak Oil Disciples” these days, according to the Financial Post . The latest example: Leonardo Maugeri, a fellow in the Geopolitics of Energy...
View ArticleAdapting to Our New Reality
Richard Heinberg Economic contraction and social claustrophobia The social dimensions of the end of growth are coming into clearer focus with each passing month—from last year’s Occupy uprisings, to...
View ArticleWill Our Evolution Be Cooperative or Competitive?
Richard Heinberg Evolution can be ruthless at eliminating the unfit. “Red in tooth and claw,” as Tennyson memorably described it, Nature routinely sacrifices billions of individual organisms and...
View ArticleInternational Energy Agency: The Party’s Over
The International Energy Agency (IEA) has just released a new special report called World Energy Investment Outlook that should send policy makers screaming and running for the exits—if they are...
View ArticleSo You Want to Change the World? Better Read This First
History is often made by strong personalities wielding bold new political, economic or religious doctrines. Yet any serious effort to understand how and why societies change requires examination not...
View ArticleTwo Realities
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. –Robert Frost Our contemporary world is host to two coexisting but fundamentally...
View ArticleNew Russia Sanctions Show Washington Delusional About U.S. Energy Capacity...
The New York Times reports that “The United States and Europe kicked off a joint effort on Tuesday intended to curb Russia’s long-term ability to develop new oil resources.” The new sanctions would...
View ArticleEnviros Blamed for Bursting Frack Bubble
Here's The Script, in four despicable acts: Act 1. Fracking boom goes bust as production from shale gas and tight oil wells stalls out and lurches into decline. Act 2. Oil and gas industry loudly...
View Article100% Renewable Energy Is Possible, Here's How
If our transition to renewable energy is successful, we will achieve savings in the ongoing energy expenditures needed for economic production. We will be rewarded with a quality of life that is...
View ArticleHere's How We Get to 100% Renewable Energy
I spent the last year working with co-author David Fridley and Post Carbon Institute staff on a just-published book, Our Renewable Future . The process was a pleasure: everyone involved (including the...
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