Author Archives: Gail Tverberg

About Gail Tverberg

My name is Gail Tverberg. I am an actuary interested in finite world issues - oil depletion, natural gas depletion, water shortages, and climate change. Oil limits look very different from what most expect, with high prices leading to recession, and low prices leading to inadequate supply.

What really causes falling productivity growth — an energy-based explanation

Posted on September 20, 2016

What really causes falling productivity growth? The answer seems to be very much energy-related. Human labor by itself does not cause productivity growth. It is human labor, leveraged by various tools, that leads to productivity growth. These tools are made … Continue reading →

Posted in Financial Implications | Tagged , , , , , | 789 Comments

Intermittent Renewables Can’t Favorably Transform Grid Electricity

Posted on August 31, 2016

Many people are hoping for wind and solar PV to transform grid electricity in a favorable way. Is this really possible? Is it really feasible for intermittent renewables to generate a large share of grid electricity? The answer increasingly looks … Continue reading →

Posted in Energy policy, Financial Implications | Tagged , , , , , , | 1,882 Comments

An Updated Version of the “Peak Oil” Story

Posted on August 8, 2016

The Peak Oil story got some things right. Back in 1998, Colin Campbell and Jean Laherrère wrote an article published in Scientific American called, “The End of Cheap Oil.” In it they said: Our analysis of the discovery and production of oil … Continue reading →

Posted in Financial Implications | Tagged , , , , , | 1,968 Comments

Overly Simple Energy-Economy Models Give Misleading Answers

Posted on July 25, 2016

Does it make a difference if our models of energy and the economy are overly simple? I would argue that it depends on what we plan to use the models for. If all we want to do is determine approximately … Continue reading →

Posted in Financial Implications | Tagged , , , , | 1,527 Comments

Energy limits: Why we see rising wealth disparity and low prices

Posted on July 6, 2016

Last week, I gave a fairly wide-ranging presentation at the 2016 Biophysical Economics Conference called Complexity: The Connection Between Fossil Fuel EROI, Human Energy EROI, and Debt (pdf). In this post, I discuss the portion of the talk that explains several … Continue reading →

Posted in Financial Implications | Tagged , , , , | 1,725 Comments