Richard Heinberg talks about Afterburn
Post Carbon Fellow Richard Heinberg was interviewed about his new book Afterburn: Society Beyond Fossil Fuels for the Hal Ginsberg Morning Show on Radio Monterey. In the interview Richard talks about how we are living in an era that...
Revisiting the Shale Oil Hype: Technology versus Geology
The press has been all abuzz the past few weeks speculating on what the drop in oil prices will mean for U.S. shale oil (tight oil) production. Pundits have been falling over themselves quoting various estimates of the breakeven...
Announcing AFTERBURN: Society Beyond Fossil Fuels
The advent of fossil fuels changed the world profoundly (giving us everything from plastics and automobiles to global warming); the inevitable and rapidly approaching end of the oil-coal-and-gas era will likewise bring overwhelming transformation in its wake. My new...
Goldilocks Is Dead
Five years ago I wrote an article for Reuters titled “Goldilocks and the Three Fuels.” In it, I discussed what I call the Goldilocks price zone for oil, natural gas, and coal, a zone in which prices are “just...
Nile River Nations Agree to Cooperate, but Danger Lurks for One of Planet’s Great Wetlands
The beginning of the Blue Nile near its outlet from Lake Tana in the highlands of Ethiopia. Photo by Ondrej Zvácek/Creative Commons Earlier this month, the foreign ministers of Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia reached agreement on basic principles for managing what...
OVERdevelopment, OVERpopulation, OVERshoot
“Even as a waste disposal site, the world is finite.” —William R. Catton Jr. Post Carbon Fellow Bill Ryerson’s introduction to the new book OVERdevelopment, OVERpopulation, OVERshoot. MOST CONVERSATIONS ABOUT POPULATION begin with statistics—demographic data, fertility rates in this or that...
Lessons from São Paulo’s Water Shortage
It’s getting harder and harder to separate nature’s role in disasters from our own, and the dire water predicament confronting São Paulo, Brazil, is no exception. But as with the ongoing drought in California, there are important lessons from...
Only Less Will Do
When I’m not writing books or essays on environmental issues, or sleeping or eating, you’re likely to find me playing the violin. This has been an obsessive activity for me since I was a boy, and seems to deliver...
Recycling in the Anthropocene
Recently I’ve been reading salvos in a raging debate about biological and ecological conservation. Traditionally, conservation has largely been about protecting “natural” environments by keeping human presence to a minimum. Now some observers have pointed out that there are...
Sustainability for Whom?
The mission of UPSTREAM (formerly Product Policy Institute) is “sustainable production and consumption and good governance.” Sometimes I feel like we’re swimming against the tide in advocating a role for government action in ensuring sustainable production and consumption. Big...