Sublime
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A handful of major banks sold gold futures contracts worth tens of billions of dollars on the Comex futures exchange, frequently at odd times when trading was thin. This pushed the “paper” price of gold through technical support levels, which activated sell programs of momentum-trading hedge funds. The resulting additional selling pressure forced g
... See moreJohn Rubino • The Money Bubble
The arrival of geological limits to increasing fossil fuel production places a burden on the secondary economy, because the cost — measured in energy, labor and materials, rather than money — to extract fossil fuels does not depend on market forces. On average, that cost increases steadily as easily accessible reserves are depleted and have to be r
... See moreJohn Michael Greer • The Wealth of Nature: Economics as If Survival Mattered
of that is in Europe, particularly in the North Sea; the United States has just 30 megawatts installed, and that’s all in one project off the coast of Rhode Island. Remember that America uses around 1,000 gigawatts, so offshore…
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Bill Gates • How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need
where to get the millions of gallons required for a frack and what to do with the liquid waste. In Pennsylvania, the early efforts to dispose of this waste by hauling it to local sewage plants had proved disastrous. The local plants didn’t have the capacity to do anything but remove solids before dumping the water back into the river. Eventually, u
... See moreEliza Griswold • Amity and Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America
As Chapter 7 shows, fracking, for all its environmental downsides, has largely liberated America from the dangers of being dependent on a static yet declining industry.
Byrne Hobart • Boom: Bubbles and the End of Stagnation
As power stations go, geothermal plants are “clean.” Instead of burning fossil fuels, they rely on steam or superheated water pumped from underground, which is why they tend to be sited in volcanically active areas. Still, as Aradóttir explained to me, they, too, produce emissions. With the superheated water inevitably come unwanted gases, like hyd
... See moreElizabeth Kolbert • Under a White Sky
Reckoning with the negative aspects of oil and gas is a responsibility that duplicitous marketing, short-term governance, superb engineering, and a certain amount of willful blindness have enabled us to keep at bay for a century. In addition to being extraordinarily flammable, petroleum is lethally toxic, both in its liquid and vapor forms. In ligh
... See moreJohn Vaillant • Fire Weather
It has also brought with it the promise of energy independence and injected much-needed cash into struggling places. Yet it has fractured communities, dividing those making money from those whose water, air, and health are threatened.