Short Takes  

The IHT has a fairly blunt report quoting Jeroen Van Der Veer - "Shell CEO: Easy-to-produce oil, gas to peak in next decade".

The Columbia Journalism Review has an article on "The silent side of oil" - noting the "Press needs to pump information on peak supply".

Jeff Vail has a post on "Timing: The Credit Crunch & Peak Oil". I think there could be an interesting project for someone to do some modelling to determine how much renewable power you need to put in place in order to manage the switch from oil/gas/coal without dropping into an EROEI hole. In an ideal world, we'd be well on the way to switching and would never drop below the net EROEI of a fully solar/wind/ocean/geothermal/biogas powered economy when we make the transition. In a less than ideal scenario, we would find ourselves trying to bootstrap back up with the EROEI of our "primary sources" now less than the fully renewables outcome would give us. I wonder if Charlie Hall and Nate Hagens are looking into this ?

The FT has an article which looks like a slight twist on the "export land model" genre of stories that have been appearing in various guises in the top tier financial press lately - "Forget about 'peak oil' and instead focus on 'peak power'" - in this case "power" refers to gas-fired generation in the middle east contributing to shortages and rising prices elsewhere.

TruthOut has a look at a recent hearing of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming and the "Dance of the oil fairies", which Exxon relies on to avoid climate change.

Byron King's latest column is "The U.S. Oil Supply - A Look At Our Future Oil Needs".

CleanTechnica has a post on the Top Five Micro Wind Turbines.

The Green Tech Blog reports that wind turbine waiting lists are now 18 months long.

Grist has a post on "Breaking the U.S.-China suicide pact", looking at William Chandler's recommendations on how we can cooperate to lower emissions.

Renewable Energy Access has a look at the spread of the "passivhaus" (or passive house) in Europe and its 90% energy saving - "Passive house retrofit: Taking it easy".

The BBC reports that a University of Lancaster team has been trying to find any evidence the Svensmark "cosmic ray" theory beloved by climate skeptics, and found virtually no correlation between cosmic ray intensity and global warming - 'No Sun link' to climate change.

Grist has a post on "The forgotten solution" - noting "Transit investment should and will be a part of the peak oil solution".

The Scottish government has offered a $20 million prize for innovation in marine power, as part of their dream of becoming the "Saudi Arabia of ocean power" (particularly the vast potential of Pentland Firth"

Energy Current reports that Japan is aiming to get 10 per cent of its energy from the oceans by 2050.

The Aspen Times is pondering the question, "Does humanity’s future include a ‘very large extinction spasm’?".

The WSJ Environmental Capital Blog has a post on Boeing's experiments with a plane powered by a hydrogen fuel cell (also at Cleantech.com).

The Chinese government has jailed an environmental activist for "inciting subversion of state power and the socialist system".

Oliver Stone is working on a film about George Bush, with the script asking: 'How did an alcoholic bum become most powerful leader in world ?".

Polls in the US are showing that 81% of the population think the country is "on the wrong track".

The New York has an editorial on use of torture by the US - "You can often tell if someone understands how wrong their actions are by the lengths to which they go to rationalize them. It took 81 pages of twisted legal reasoning to justify President Bush’s decision to ignore federal law and international treaties and authorize the abuse and torture of prisoners".

Joe Bageant has some choice phrases in his latest epistle - "The Audacity Of Depression" - such as "We all stand submissively before the global ATM machine network like trained chickens pecking the correct colored buttons to release our grains of corn" and "Lately though, I don't hear so much outrage. In fact, the readers seem to be suffering from what someone aptly called "rage fatigue." Which is another way of saying the bastards have simply worn us out. And it's true.".