Welcome to Worldview Two, where we explore how the expectations and assumptions we’ve developed over the past two centuries need to be replaced by a better understanding of what is happening today and coming tomorrow.  If you explore the website, you can learn about the nature of the resource limits we face and how they create a massive challenge to business as usual.

In this blog I will be sharing current ideas and linking to recent developments, especially relating to peak oil and climate change.  Here are some of the things I think are important and will be following:

• Despite all the talk about “energy independence,” there’s a reason the world price of oil remains stubbornly above $100 per barrel:  We’ve pretty much reached the limit on the amount of affordable oil we can produce around the world, and high prices are needed to control demand.
• The melting of the Arctic Ice Cap is a really big deal, both for the impact on climate all over the Northern Hemisphere and as an indicator of climate change.
• The US will probably never resume its place as the leading world producer of oil (which it was until the 1970’s), and if it does, it will be due as much to slow growth or declines in Saudi Arabia and Russia as to abundance here.
• If the US uses over 20% of the world’s oil but has only 3% of the world’s reserves, why are we so eager to use ours up so fast?  Wouldn’t it be wise to save some for the next generation?
• Big changes in energy systems take a lot of money and time, much of which inevitably includes pursuing ideas that ultimately don’t work out.  If we’re going to create a new energy and economic structure for the US and other parts of the world, we need to start moving in a big way right now.  Unfortunately, it’s hard to get people to move before a crisis is apparent.

Come back frequently, and share in the conversation.