New Parliamentary report on the limits to growth

[Little John]

https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence ... 400914ed96

A report commissioned on behalf of a cross-party group of British MPs authored by a former UK government advisor, the first of its kind, says that industrial civilisation is currently on track to experience “an eventual collapse of production and living standards” in the next few decades if business-as-usual continues.

The report published by the new All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Limits to Growth, which launched in the House of Commons on Tuesday evening, reviews the scientific merits of a controversial 1972 model by a team of MIT scientists, which forecasted a possible collapse of civilisation due to resource depletion.

[johnhemming2]

The Club of Rome were not wrong in principle, but obviously there are questions of timing. It is only really improvements in PV that can mitigate this in the medium to long term.

[emordnilap]

Thanks for that, Little John. Interesting. Fúck May and Corbyn. Tim Jackson for PM.

“an eventual collapse of production and living standards”

?

More like "an eventual shortage of toys for the masses".

It is perfectly easy - and can be hugely enjoyable - to live with minimal fossil fuel use. Very little 'alternative technology' is required.

What is required is the reining-in of the power of money and those who have the most.

The world has just 6 years left to “completely decarbonise the economy” and thereby avoid a rise in global average temperatures of 1.5 degrees Celsius

Ha! Fat chance.

[woodburner]

With the continuing increase in the use of glyphosate, an ecological collapse is also a possibility.

[raspberry-blower]

It could be argued that, after 8 years of virtually 0% interest rates, economic growth, as previously understood, is now dead:

Consider 0% and near-zero interest rates to be the economic equivalent of a defibrillator: the most-extreme, last-resort attempt to “stimulate” the human body when it is near death.



Our economies have had this economic defibrillator attached to them for more than eight years – without the slightest glimmer of life. What would happen to a human body if it was defibrillated continuously for more than eight years? Charred meat. This is what Western economies have become: charred meat.

Jeff Neilson: The Great Western Economic Depression

[Lord Beria3]

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... -recession

https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... rical_Data

Two good articles on the current state of play with oil.

I've just been discussing with my friend (who has read Greer) who thinks that there won't be a energy crisis looming because of advances in renewable's. Is he right?

Personally, I think the unconventional tight oil boom in America has merely postponed the inevitable.

What do the rest of you think?

[raspberry-blower]

I've just been discussing with my friend (who has read Greer) who thinks that there won't be a energy crisis looming because of advances in renewable's. Is he right?

Nope. I posted this on another thread but is equally prevalent to this one:

Prof Steve Keen: The Role of Energy in Production

Given the gargantuan amounts of debt that have been accrued by energy companies - often used to unproductively buy back company shares rather than R & D - then any significant interest rate rise will cause severe financial distress. They are struggling as it is with oil prices stubbornly staying below $60 a barrel as they are not breaking even.

Big Oil is on the road to ruin - in more ways than one - and they are architects of their own downfall.

[vtsnowedin]

I've just been discussing with my friend (who has read Greer) who thinks that there won't be a energy crisis looming because of advances in renewable's. Is he right?

Nope. I posted this on another thread but is equally prevalent to this one:

Prof Steve Keen: The Role of Energy in Production

Given the gargantuan amounts of debt that have been accrued by energy companies - often used to unproductively buy back company shares rather than R & D - then any significant interest rate rise will cause severe financial distress. They are struggling as it is with oil prices stubbornly staying below $60 a barrel as they are not breaking even.

Big Oil is on the road to ruin - in more ways than one - and they are architects of their own downfall.

When I actually go to the financial reports of the majors I fail to see this gargantuan debt. BP , XOM and RDS have a positive net worth of 376 billion dollars. The smaller drilling companies out in the oil patch maybe in hock to their eyeballs but the big boys are not.