<p>The great fear among those working to address climate change is that the seemingly vast resources of fossil fuels waiting to be burned will send the world hurtling toward certain catastrophe. By invoking fossil fuel abundance, climate activists believe that their argument for a rapid transition to alternative energy is made more persuasive.

<p>There are two major school networks in France, and a large number of minor ones. Public Schools (écoles publique), also called Secular Schools (écoles laïques), are state run and free (as in free beer). In most areas, they are the default schools and their quality is highly dependent upon their localization.

<p>...Kunstler has a new work of social criticism titled Too Much Magic, his first nonfiction book since The Long Emergency came out in 2005. The book is an inquiry into a skewed, delusional perception of reality that Kunstler thinks has become “baseline normal for the American public lately.” Americans, he says, have been led astray by the incredible technological advancements of recent times.

<p>The documentary takes a penetrating look at overpopulation, what fuels it and why the world has become complacent about the issue after making a good start in addressing it during the late 60s.

<p>Most people living in our modern industrial society take air travel for granted. We think very little about hopping on a plane and travelling around the world for little more than a couple of weeks wages. As jet fuel prices bounce along with the price of crude however many airlines are increasingly struggling to break even.

<p>We are a peculiar culture. We are extremely reluctant to accept the possibility that our civilization might decline and fall, like all those which have preceded us, yet consider the idea of utterly trashing the biosphere with a fascination which would have made an early twentieth century symbolist uneasy. We have had another example of it with a paper published in the June issue of Nature.</p>

<p>So far 2012 is the fourth most volatile year for oil prices since 1982. The other top three years were 2007,2008 and 2009. Since the production of oil from conventional sources peaked in 2005 we have reached a new paradigm: highly volatile oil prices.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.energybulletin.net/stories/2012-08-08/new-paradigm-volatile-oil-markets">read more</a></p>

<p><span class="inline inline-left"><img src="http://www.energybulletin.net/sites/default/files/images/drought-flood-feat.thumbnail.jpg" alt="" title="" class="image image-thumbnail" width="100" height="56" /></span>One has to go back to the 1930's to find a time when so much of civilization was in turmoil at once.</p>

<p><span class="inline inline-left"><img src="http://www.energybulletin.net/sites/default/files/images/ASPO -USAlogo80.jpg" alt="" title="" class="image image-thumbnail" width="80" height="80" /></span>A weekly roundup of peak oil news, including:<br />
-Oil and the global economy<br />
-Economic growth<br />
-The Iranian confrontation<br />
-Quote of the week<br />
-Briefs</p>

<p><span class="inline inline-left"><img src="http://www.energybulletin.net/sites/default/files/images/ODAC.thumbnail.JPG" alt="" title="" class="image image-thumbnail" width="100" height="45" /></span>For anyone watching peak oil this has been a busy week.

<p><span class="inline inline-left"><img src="http://www.energybulletin.net/sites/default/files/images/MiracleOnIce_Team-300x218.thumbnail.jpg" alt="" title="" class="image image-thumbnail" width="100" height="73" /></span>What if we paired two nations as a unified team for each cycle of the summer and winter Games? Instead of Team USA, we could have Team Zimbabwe and USA (or Team Zimbusa).

<p><span class="inline inline-left"><img src="http://www.energybulletin.net/sites/default/files/images/shutterstock-ostrich-donkey-feat.thumbnail.jpg" alt="" title="" class="image image-thumbnail" width="100" height="60" /></span>Evidently growing public concern about the inevitable decline in world oil production has rankled some powerful people, who’ve been knotting their ropes in search of a b

<p><span class="inline inline-left"><img src="http://energybulletin.net/sites/default/files/images/was_a_time_when.thumbnail.jpg" alt="" title="" class="image image-thumbnail" width="67" height="100" /></span>The novel describes a future in which humans have evolved into an entirely new species, the Neu-humans.

<p><span class="inline inline-left"><img src="http://www.energybulletin.net/sites/default/files/images/pink_sky.thumbnail.jpg" alt="" title="" class="image image-thumbnail" width="100" height="75" /></span>-Exxon: 'Losing Our Shirts' on Natural Gas<br />
-Shale Gas Reality Begins to Dawn<br />
-The Sky Is Pink: New Josh Fox Video On Fracking Controversies in New York (and Much More)

<p><span class="inline inline-left"><img src="http://www.energybulletin.net/sites/default/files/images/drip2-600x369.thumbnail.jpg" alt="" title="" class="image image-thumbnail" width="100" height="61" /></span>As the world population climbs and water stress spreads around the globe, finding ways of getting more crop per drop to meet our food needs is among the most urgent of challenges.