Tag Archives: GDP

What Would it Take to Get to a Steady State Economy?

Humans live in equilibrium with other species in a finite world. In such a world, there is never really a Steady State. Instead, there is a constant ebb and flow.  For a while, one species may be dominant in an … Continue reading

Posted in Financial Implications | Tagged , , , , | 441 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 , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 158 Comments

Humans Seem to Need External Energy

Strange as it may seem, humans seem to have evolved in a way that we have a need for external energy, such as energy from burning wood or fossil fuels. While the evidence is not 100% certain, it appears that … Continue reading

Posted in Book draft, Financial Implications, Introductory Post | Tagged , , , , , , | 138 Comments

An Energy/GDP Forecast to 2050

We talk about the possibility of reducing fossil fuel use by 80% by 2050 and ramping up renewables at the same time, to help prevent climate change. If we did this, what would such a change mean for GDP, based … Continue reading

Posted in Financial Implications | Tagged , , , , | 111 Comments

How much oil growth do we need to support world GDP growth?

A few days ago, I showed the close relationship between growth in world oil consumption and growth in world GDP. In this post, I will extend that analysis by building a model that shows how much of an increase in … Continue reading

Posted in Financial Implications | Tagged , , , | 67 Comments