A weekly update including:
- Prices continue to fall
- Bailing out Detroit

David Strahan on the IEA report
The 2008 IEA WEO - Renewable Energy
Cheap oil: short-term good, long-term dangerous
Rocky Top (Albert Bates interview)

One widespread claim about the current crisis of industrial society holds that it sets the stage for an "evolutionary leap" into a more Utopian world. Does this hope make sense of our predicament, or does it simply wrap the borrowed prestige of Darwin's theory around belief in a miracle?

Prepare to observe the spectacle of the two great economic paradigms of the twentieth century crashing to the ground, locked in mortal combat.

Iraq: The Thirteenth Hour
'2025' Report: A World of Resource Strife
Syria hit by double blow on oil prices and falling supplies

Charley Maxwell interview
IEA WEO 2008 - Fossil fuel ultimates and CO2 emissions scenarios
World oil forecasts using Wikipedia megaprojects, Dec 2008
Court of Appeals judge: The bell tolls for hydrocarbons: what's next?

We are in an emergency situation now and car companies should be required to operate as if this is the case. One way to hunker down is to stop building new models every year. A lesson we might adopt from the airplane industry is that there is no more need for model years.

A lot of readers are twanging on me for refraining to castigate President-elect Obama for deeds yet undone. They're discouraged by the advisors and cabinet sectetaries he's picked, ostensibly because the crew coming in are Washington "insiders," meaning they can't possibly see or do things differently.

My own starting point for this is the belief that in the years just ahead any sociopolitical entity organized at the giant scale will flounder -- this includes everything from the federal government to global corporations to factory farms to centralized high schools to national retail chains. So even expecting Mr. Obama's government to act effectively may be asking too much in a situation that will require mostly local action...

After an oil peak, pressure will increase to cut trees to serve as fuel for heating and cooking fires, as well as to clear land for agriculture. Many other countries who have faced this pressure have become bleak places prone to soil erosion, mudslides, dust storms and finally, desertification.

In the midst of a crisis there are always a ton of voices to listen to, highly qualified voices to give you an in depth analysis of current trends and economic forecasts. For my part, I just see the world through the eyes of the families I work with. Many of these families are scared at the moment, perhaps more scared than they’ve ever been.