New U.S. Record-Level Oil Production! Peak Oil Theory Disproven! Not.
Well, I’m amazed and impressed. Tight oil production has pushed total United States petroleum output to more than 10 million barrels a day, a rate last seen almost a half-century ago. It’s a new U.S. record. Fifteen years ago...
The Brief Sad Story of GDP—and the Happy Alternative
Local Futures and the Economics of Happiness, Richard discusses why GDP growth became a measure of success, why it’s officially a failure, the reasons growth can’t continue indefinitely, and why we need a metric that reflects human and ecological wellbeing. Originally presented...
Webinar: Community Resilience in an Era of Upheaval
On February 27, 2018, Island Press hosted a well-attended webinar on our 2017 book, The Community Resilience Reader: Essential Resources for an Era of Upheaval. Editor Daniel Lerch and contributors Richard Heinberg (Post Carbon Institute) and Rebecca Wodder presented...
U.S. Department of Energy Doubles Down on Shale Optimism
The U.S. stock market is not the only thing that’s gotten overheated in the last few years. Exuberance over U.S. energy output has hit a record high as natural gas production has reached its all-time peak, and oil production...
A California Trend Worth Catching: College for All
California can be an annoyingly trendy state. Think avocado toast, In-N-Out Burger, Hollywood fashion, even legal pot. But Californians are now in the vanguard to fix the serious problem of how to pay for public higher education. Over 44...
EIA: U.S. Energy Abundance for Now— But Don’t Peek Behind That Curtain!
The Energy Information Administration (EIA) of the U.S. Department of Energy is about to release its Annual Energy Outlook (AEO) 2018, with forecasts for American oil, gas, and other forms of energy production through mid-century. As usual, energy journalists...
As Climate Changes, We Need the Arts More than Ever
In tumultuous times, art can and must express the turmoil and help us process what’s going on.
Why Bitcoin’s Value Could Eventually Approach Zero
According to most observers, the speculative bubble-of-the-year award for 2017—had there been one—would have gone to Bitcoin, the value of which soared from under $800 in January of last year to almost $20,000 by mid-December. In fact, though, Ripple (a...
Energy, Money and Technology – From the Lens of the Superorganism
During Nate Hagens’ #WEP2018 keynote, he discussed how all of our lives will be influenced by how we react to the coming era of harder to extract and more costly fossil fuels that will be combined with cleaner but less...
Old Age and Societal Decline
People grow old and die. Civilizations eventually fail. For centuries amateur philosophers have used the former as a metaphor for the latter, leading to a few useful insights and just as many misleading generalizations. The comparison becomes more immediately...