Enerugi エネルギ

Oil on the Brain

2007-02-19T13:56:00.000-08:00

Now reading: Oil on the Brain by the NY Times writer Lisa Margonelli.

New Links: glazr, sphere, pageflakes

2007-02-05T07:11:00.001-08:00

I have found some new tools and added some links to this page to energy-related news and blog posts.

Grazr provides a widget that provides interactive interface for blog posts. I listed my favorite blogs on Technorati, and then provided this list of blogs (OPML XML file) in a Glazr widget (which is also embedded in this page). I also put the RSS feed of recent posts in my Technorati blog list in Glazr.

Also, Sphere is a service that searches for related blog posts, with sometimes mixed results compared with the more consistent Google News and Google Blogs.

Finally, pageflakes provides a way for feeds to be aggregated.

Solar Power 2006

2007-01-29T21:52:00.000-08:00

The videos from this conference have been placed online:

http://www.tvworldwide.com/events/eqtv/061016/

The energy speech Bush should have given

2007-01-25T10:35:00.001-08:00

Well written summary of previous assertions and the current situation for America's energy supply and demand.

http://pipeline.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/01/22/the-state-of-our-energy-policy/

False Signals of Declining Scarcity

2007-01-25T09:58:00.001-08:00

This article

http://www.hubbertpeak.com/reynolds/MineralEconomy.htm (digg)
says that for certain types of finite resources (where there is uncertainty in the remaining amount), the market can result in a low price for the resource until at some point, there is a correction leading to a price spike. Is this the case for oil today? Is this theory accepted in academic economics?

Here is a related post:

http://thenewbusinessworld.blogspot.com/2007/01/low-oil-price-rising-concern-of-oil.html
But it seems to say that the decrease is due to cyclical factors (high price => more wells => high supply => low price => ... ), which is different than the above article.

Clean Tech Investor Summit

2007-01-25T09:36:00.001-08:00

Here are some CNET articles related to the Clean Tech conference.

http://news.com.com/The+long%2C+winding+road+to+renewable+energy/2009-11395_3-6152915.html

http://news.com.com/Green+tech+powers+forward/2009-1008_3-6106533.html

videos on oil

2007-01-23T10:10:00.001-08:00

Here are some videos:

Robert Newman - History of Oil
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7374585792978336967
A humorous but also deadly serious monologue on the history of oil. Explains the petrodollar using an anecdote of Salvador Dali's sketches on the back of his checks (guaranteeing that they would not be cashed).

THE END OF SUBURBIA: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of The American Dream
http://www.endofsuburbia.com/
An indictment of suburbia, an arrangement predicated on cheap oil and one that now traps us into an unsustainable transportation situation.

Reading materials

2007-01-23T09:34:00.001-08:00

Here is a list of books that helped open my eyes to the situation:

"Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed" (Jared Diamond) - The rise and fall of civilizations under resource constraints.

"The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century" (Grove Press) - Jim Kunstler's scary scenarios for the near future.

"Out of Gas: The End of the Age Of Oil" (David Goodstein) - an early book from a CalTech University professor on the depletion of oil.

"Hubbert's Peak: The Impending World Oil Shortage" (Kenneth S. Deffeyes) - an explanation of Hubbert's peak by a Princeton geology professor, presenting evidence for a worldwide peak forthcoming.

"American Theocracy: The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21stCentury" (Kevin Phillips) - covers a variety of topics such as the Bush family and U.S. debt, but also discusses the energy crisis.

Enerugi

2007-01-21T19:56:00.000-08:00

Enerugi is the transliteration of "energy" in Japanese: エネルギ

This blog is intended for me to share some links and participate in the discussion on the issues of energy, resources and society. My interest comes from reading books such as Collapse, The End of Oil, The Long Emergency, etc, which discuss the depletion of resources (in particular, fossil fuel energy) and their societal and economic effects. In addition, a number of web sites (e.g. CFN) also regularly discuss these topics. Enerugi will be my attempt to understand the predicament that we are in.