PMC’s President, Bill Ryerson, was recently interviewed by LivingECHO.com’s Ken Spector at the 2010 Green Lifestyle Film Festival.

http://www.livingecho.com/celebrities/william-ryerson/

Thanks to Phil Kreitner for this article by an investment advisor. The article mentions an alternative population scenario to the one usually given in forecasts.
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I have dished out a healthy share of criticism about the paths we are taking into the energy future, so perhaps it’s time I offered some paths of my own. I will outline them as simply as possible, since the data and thinking behind them could fill a book.

First we must know where we’re going.

Credible models show that by the end of this century, essentially all of the fossil fuels on earth will be consumed—oil, natural gas, and coal. Presumably, whatever fuels do remain at that point will be reserved for their highest and most valuable purposes like making crude oil into plastics and pharmaceuticals, not burning it in 15% efficient internal combustion engines.

For full article, visit:
http://www.energyandcapital.com/newsletter

Thanks to Jack Alpert for this article.

PEAK OIL AND POPULATION
Population is the ‘hot potato’ of topics related to peak oil. It is the often the one most difficult to discuss as it can be a very sensitive topic, both on a micro and macro level. However, 81% expect a significant decrease in human population across the globe by the end of the 21st century, although only 58% see it happening in their own country…86% think there are too many people in the world but a massive 96% think there are too many people who consume too much, suggesting that it is not population alone that is the problem, but population multiplied by consumption.

http://www.powerswitch.org.uk.pdf

Earth Day 2010 is a global referendum on climate change – our moment to hold world leaders responsible for enacting ambitious, fair climate legislation. Learn more at http://www.earthday.org/

Population Media Center, in partnership with Population Institute, will be celebrating the 40th anniversary of Earth Day at the National Mall in Washington, DC. We will have a booth set up from Saturday, April 17 through Sunday, April 25 (our booth number is 8-B). Stop by and learn more about our two organizations and pick up a free tote bag!

Thanks to John Rowley for this article.
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As the world graph of greenhouse gas emissions keeps on rising and entrenched fossil fuel lobbies are fed millions of dollars to scupper radical clean-up measures, it is easy to overlook the quiet progress that is being made to step up the transition to a renewable energy future. In only the last few weeks our website has carried a series of stories on wind power and other green energy projects, which show just how quickly these industries are scaling up to make a real impact on the problem.

Most recently the United Kingdom, already the leading offshore wind power, has seen agreement to go ahead with the London Array, the world’s largest offshore wind farm in the Thames Estuary, potentially able to power a quarter of Greater London’s homes. At the same time, Europe’s largest on-shore wind farm was turned on in Scotland near Glasgow (see Europe’s largest on-shore wind farm turned on). Already able to meet all of Glasgow’s electricity needs, it is due to expand by another third. Meanwhile, plans were lodged to build a huge community-owned 150-turbine scheme in Shet land.

For full article, visit:
http://www.peopleandplanet.net/

For more information on our PSA campaign, visit:
http://www.populationmedia.org/where/united_states/psa-campaign/

Many thanks to Frank Arundel for sending me this article.
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Humanity has struggled to survive through the millennia in terms of balancing population size with food supply. The same is true now, but population numbers have been soaring for over a century. The limiting factor has been hidden, but this factor — oil and natural gas, or petroleum — is close to or beyond its peak extraction. Without ample, free-flowing petroleum, it will not be possible to support a population of several billion for long.

Famine caused by petroleum supply failure alone will result in about 2.5 billion above-normal deaths before the year 2050; lost and averted births will amount to roughly an equal number.

For full article, visit:
http://culturechange.org

If you missed my March 2 distribution of Goodchild’s “Food and Population,” see http://culturechange.org/cms

Today we are an oil-based civilization, one that is totally dependent on a resource whose production will soon be falling. Since 1981, the quantity of oil extracted has exceeded new discoveries by an ever-widening margin. In 2008, the world pumped 31 billion barrels of oil but discovered fewer than 9 billion barrels of new oil. World reserves of conventional oil are in a free fall, dropping every year.

Discoveries of conventional oil total roughly 2 trillion barrels, of which 1 trillion have been extracted so far, with another trillion barrels to go. By themselves, however, these numbers miss a central point. As security analyst Michael Klare notes, the first trillion barrels was easy oil, “oil that’s found on shore or near to shore; oil close to the surface and concentrated in large reservoirs; oil produced in friendly, safe, and welcoming places.” The other half, Klare notes, is tough oil, “oil that’s buried far offshore or deep underground; oil scattered in small, hard-to-find reservoirs; oil that must be obtained from unfriendly, politically dangerous, or hazardous places.”

For full article, visit:
http://www.earthpolicy.org/Books/Seg/PB3ch02_ss3.htm

In response the article I distributed last week on vertical farming, one agronomist commented:

It’s a completely crackpot idea promoted by innumerate people who have no idea about growing plants… When I did delve into it last year, they were underestimating the lighting requirement by a factor of about 50, and not allowing for the energy conversion to light, or the energy consumed by any of the other functions of the building, let alone the cost and resource consumption in its construction. No idea how they expect to keep CO2 coming in and oxygen going out, without losing any water vapour. It doesn’t add up any way you look at it.

Visit http://www.populationmedia.org/pmc-blog/ where you can post a comment on any article.

This article is thanks to the Post Carbon Institute.
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A new report by a United Kingdom industry taskforce predicts steep oil price rises and gasoline supply shortages by 2014-2015, which will put the global economy at similar risk to the 2007-2008 rapid rise in oil prices that helped trigger the Great Recession.

“The time period would be 2014-2015 when the oil market would be starting to experience rapidly rising prices and tightening oil supplies…It is notable that the CEO of Total, Christophe de Margerie, is already warning of such an outcome in the 2014/15 period,” says the report, “Industry Taskforce on Peak Oil & Energy Security,” funded by Virgin Group, Arup Engineering, Foster and Partners, and Scottish and Southern Engineering.

For full article, visit:
http://www.postcarbon.org/blog