Gail Tverberg

Latest articles from Gail

• Will Less Oil Lead to Lower Standards of Living?

  Published 22 July 2011 | viewed 7,576 times

  The amount of oil that is extracted from the ground each year has been close to flat since 2005, regardless of what has happened to…

• The Relationship between Peak Oil and Peak Debt - Part 2

  Published 14 July 2011 | viewed 11,563 times

  In Part 1 of this post, I pointed out that an economy is closely linked with the resources that underly it. Because of this, if…

• The Relationship Between Peak Oil and Peak Debt - Part 1

  Published 12 July 2011 | viewed 10,638 times

  There is really a two-way link between peak oil and peak debt: 1. Peak oil tends to cause peak debt. Some will argue with me…

• The Current Situation with Uranium Supplies

  Published 07 July 2011 | viewed 9,403 times

  Will uranium supply be adequate for planned nuclear electricity? This question has seen sharply differing views. The purpose of this post is to give an…

• The Fifth Option: Is This how Governments Will Fix Their Debt Problems?

  Published 01 July 2011 | viewed 13,378 times

  We have all read about the standard “fixes” for a governmental debt problem – (1) inflate your way out of the problem, (2) cut programs…

• Releasing Oil From the SPR - A Desperate Economic Fix as QE2 Comes to an End?

  Published 27 June 2011 | viewed 10,690 times

  The International Energy Association (IEA) announced a plan on Thursday last week to make 60 million barrels of oil available to the market over the next…

• Energy Policies and Oil Supply

  Published 22 June 2011 | viewed 20,231 times

  It seems to me that most policymakers have missed some basic issues with respect to our energy problem. One of these is that world oil…

• A Look at the Latest United Nations Predictions on Natural Resource Consumption

  Published 15 June 2011 | viewed 11,392 times

  The United Nations warned recently that the global consumption of natural resources could almost triple to 140 billion tons a year by 2050 unless nations…

• Preparing for Higher Food and Energy Prices

  Published 09 June 2011 | viewed 3,939 times

  Over the years, we have become accustomed to a rising standard of living. One of things that has helped this happen is a gradually declining…

• World Oil Forecasts and Hubbert’s Peak

  Published 04 May 2011 | viewed 11,028 times

  Recently when I was reading some of the papers M. King Hubbert wrote, one thing struck me was the context in which he made his…

• No Easy Solutions to the Coming Energy Crisis

  Published 27 April 2011 | viewed 16,847 times

  Everyone would like to fix the US energy policy, but doing so is almost impossible, in my view, primarily because we need to be planning…

• Peak Oil Update - April 2011

  Published 25 April 2011 | viewed 26,362 times

  The US Energy Information Administration’s January oil production figures are out, and they show record oil production. Where are we headed from here? While production…

• United States Budget Problems and the Oil Supply

  Published 21 April 2011 | viewed 7,394 times

  We see endless fighting between the Democrats and Republicans about the budget, but no real explanation as to what the issues are. My view is…

• What Should Have Been Said During Obama’s Speech on US Energy Policy

  Published 06 April 2011 | viewed 8,487 times

  We meet here at a tumultuous time for the world.  In a matter of months, we’ve seen regimes toppled and democracy take root across North…

• Peak Oil and Depopulation

  Published 30 March 2011 | viewed 15,010 times

  The growth of the human population cannot continue forever—there is a limit to our numbers, even if we cannot specify what that limit might be. …

• Is loss of electricity a risk for spent nuclear fuel?

  Published 28 March 2011 | viewed 12,065 times

  The usual plan for spent nuclear fuel in the United States is to transfer it to a cooling pool and then after some time to…

• The Nuclear Energy Crossroad – What are our Options Going Forward

  Published 23 March 2011 | viewed 6,073 times

  We are at a crossroads with respect to nuclear energy, having discovered a new way (or several new ways) that nuclear plants can fail. How…

• A Look at the Connection Between Oil Price Shocks and Recessions

  Published 21 March 2011 | viewed 9,654 times

  I want to bring to the attention of readers a recent paper by James Hamilton, called Historical Oil Shocks (also here as a National Bureau…

• What would be the Impact if we Discontinued Nuclear Energy?

  Published 15 March 2011 | viewed 7,760 times

  We are very much reaching limits in the field of energy. This seems to mean that we ending up taking more and more risks, so…

• How to Live in a World with Declining Oil Production

  Published 14 March 2011 | viewed 5,245 times

  We don’t know precisely how oil supply will work out, but if it declines quickly, we need to think about how we can deal with…