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EartherEnergyCountries Invested in Drilling for Oil Unsure About This Not Drilling for Oil Thing
Oil-producing heavyweights like Russia and Saudi Arabia will not go quietly into the night. This week, ministers from those and other countries slammed the latest report from the International Energy Agency calling for all new oil and gas development to stop by next year, using some pretty heated (and funny) rhetoric. The “euphoria” around the … Continued
By Molly Taft -
EartherClimate ChangeShell Is Back, Baby :(
After more than a year of covid-19 lockdowns, there’s—dare I say—a feeling of hope in the air. Yes, things are far from over, but millions of people are getting vaccinated and it’s starting to seem like there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. Well, sorry to ruin things slightly, but oil companies are … Continued
By Dharna Noor -
EartherShell Says It Has Reached Peak Oil Production
Shell says oil is on its way out. In a Thursday statement, the fossil fuel giant said its “oil production peaked in 2019,” and that we can now expect it to decline gradually by 1 or 2% per year. Shell also said its total carbon emissions peaked in 2018 at 1.7 gigatonnes. The statement doesn’t … Continued
By Dharna Noor -
Tech NewsToyota CEO Predicted Peak Oil by 2020 Back in 2009
Toyota’s North American CEO, Jim Lentz, predicted back in 2009 that by 2020 the world would hit peak oil—the idea that the world’s demand for oil would exceed the world’s supply of oil. And since we’ve officially entered the year 2020, it feels like an appropriate time to look at whether his prediction was correct. … Continued
By Matt Novak -
Tech NewsArticle from 1975: The World Will Be Out of Oil by 2015
The idea of peak oil has haunted us for decades. I say haunt because the concept that sooner or later we’d run out of the stuff has contributed to some terrible public policy in the United States. Environmentalists of the 20th century took solace in the fact that if we wouldn’t convert to renewable energy … Continued
By Matt Novak -
Tech News
We’ve Been Incorrectly Predicting Peak Oil For Over a Century
When the residents of Tulsa, Oklahoma buried a car in 1957 as part of an enormous time capsule, they included containers of gasoline. The good people of Tulsa reasoned that the folks of 2007 might not have any gas left to fill up the Plymouth Belvedere that they were interring for a fifty year journey … Continued
By Matt Novak -
io9
1846: The Year We Hit Peak Sperm Whale Oil
Energy experts predict that the global production of oil will soon start to decline, what’s referred to as peak oil. Now while we may not be there yet, there was a time in our history when we did reach a similar plateau, but it was a very different kind of energy source — one that … Continued
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io9
1920s engineers believed the Electric Age would die a quick death
Our electrical infrastructure spans the globe, lighting up every place on Earth. But it all relies on one singular metal: copper. And back in the early years of the 20th Century, many economists and engineers worried that we would run out of copper in no time. They looked at the fast pace of our copper … Continued
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io9MoviesOptimistic Visions of the World After the Oil Runs Out
Our whole economy and way of life is based on the idea of cheap petroleum. So what happens when the oil starts to run out? Most scenarios assume that it will be catastrophic — rioting in the streets, governments collapsing, Mel Gibson fighting guys with big mohawks. But what are the optimistic scenarios for a … Continued
Jennifer Griffith and Charlie Jane Anders -
io9
Your next ocean vacation could be on an abandoned oil platform
What do you do with an oil platform after it has outlived its usefulness? You’ve got this giant structure, set up for people to live and work on it, and it’s solidly sunk into the ocean floor. Now designers are saying that the best way to deal with these leftovers of the oil economy is … Continued
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io9
Lloyd’s Of London warns businesses to prepare for peak oil
Venerable financial institutions Lloyds of London and Chatham House issued a dire warning to UK businesses. Energy shortages and peak oil are going to be major issues for insurance markets in coming years. The groups issued a joint report, Sustainable Energy Security: Strategic Risks and Opportunities for Business, which explained, “Companies which are able to … Continued
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io9Books
May’s New Books: Football Zombies and Votes for Vampires!
May books bring zombie football players, migrations across deep space, and elegiac short stories. Plus, a Jazz-Age social worker campaigns for equal rights for vampires, and a young man travels through a post-scarcity Gulf Coast. Ship Breaker, Paolo Bacigalupi (Little, Brown) Paolo Bacigalupi brings his reservations about Earth’s future to the young adult market with … Continued
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io9
The Only Way To Save The Environment May Be Setting An Oil Slick On Fire
This white, foamy oil slick appears almost beautiful in this satellite image — but it’s set to become the worst oil spill in U.S. history. The Coast Guard is considering setting it on fire to save the environment. A Louisiana drill rig exploded and sank last week, and some 42,000 gallons of oil are still … Continued
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io9This Waterfall Represents The Amount of Oil We Use Every Second
The world reportedly uses 40,000 gallons of oil every second to keep the globe a-whirring. But what would this river of Texas Tea look like? The amount of water per second that flows down India’s Jog Falls. Harry at Harryhammer’s Blog decided to put global oil consumption in visual terms. Harry first calculated the amount … Continued
