Item of General Interest
July 25. I received notice today that an article I helped write is available for free download for the next fifty days. The corrected free link for the article is "An Oil Production Forecast for China Considering Economic Limits." The article discusses the possibility that oil prices may not rise endlessly, and evaluates three future price scenarios. Under the "low" scenario (prices remain under $50 per barrel), oil production in China has already peaked.
Category Archives: Food issues
An Energy-Related Reason Why US Healthcare Outcomes are Awful
Back in January 2013, the US Institute of Medicine published a report called U.S. Health in International Perspective: Shorter Lives, Poorer Health. This poor health outcome for US citizens is in spite of the US spending twice as much as … Continue reading
Posted in Financial Implications, Food issues
Tagged life expectancy, morbidity rates, mortality rates, processed food
658 Comments
2013: Beginning of Long-Term Recession?
We have been hearing a lot about escaping the fiscal cliff, but our problem isn’t solved. The fixes to date have been partial and temporary. There are many painful decisions ahead. Based on what I can see, the most likely … Continue reading
Posted in Financial Implications, Food issues, Planning for the Future
Tagged debt default, economic growth, electricity demand, Food prices, forecast for 2013, government spending, high oil prices, oil exporter, oil importer, oil prices, oil shale, Peter Turchin, recession, renewable energy, Secular Cycles, Social Security, tight oil
158 Comments
Is Sustainable Agriculture an Oxymoron?
This is a guest post by Toby Hemenway, author of Gaia’s Garden, a Guide to Home Scale Permaculture. It is being republished with the author’s permission. It was previously published on his blog, Pattern Literacy. Jared Diamond calls it “the worst mistake … Continue reading
Posted in Food issues, Guest post, Planning for the Future
Tagged agriculture, permaculture, sustainability, Toby Hemenway
143 Comments
Why Malthus Got His Forecast Wrong
Most of us have heard that Thomas Malthus made a forecast in 1798 that the world would run short of food. He expected that this would happen because in a world with limited agricultural land, food supply would fail to rise … Continue reading
Posted in Financial Implications, Food issues
Tagged coal, energy consumption, food supply, Malthus, oil, oil price, peak oil, technology
160 Comments
The Long-Term Tie Between Energy Supply, Population, and the Economy
The tie between energy supply, population, and the economy goes back to the hunter-gatherer period. Hunter-gatherers managed to multiply their population at least 4-fold, and perhaps by as much as 25-fold, by using energy techniques which allowed them to expand … Continue reading
Posted in Alternatives to Oil, Book draft, Food issues, Introductory Post
Tagged coal, deforestation, economy, electricity, energy supply, erosion, GDP, hunter-gatherer, Hydroelectric, oil, peat, petroleum, population, soil fertility, top soil
158 Comments
