Samuel Alexander (Melbourne): Peak Oil and the Twilight of Growth. From Conversations with History, an interview with Daniel Yergin, author of The Prize: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World. Brad Plumer on how most of the world’s oil comes from aging fields and getting harder to come by. The peak oil brigade is leading us into bad policymaking on energy. A review of Spills and Spin: The Inside Story of BP by Tom Bergin and A Hole at the Bottom of the Sea: The Race to Kill the BP Oil Gusher by Joel Achenbach. An essay on global oil risks in the early 21st century. The massacre everyone ignored: Up to 70 striking oil workers killed in Kazakhstan by Nursultan Nazarbaev, a US-supported dictator. How North Dakota became Saudi Arabia: Harold Hamm, discoverer of the Bakken fields of the northern Great Plains, on America's oil future and why OPEC's days are numbered. The ethical and economic issues aside, what do we know about the safety and environmental impact of oil pipelines today? Friend or enemy: William D. Nordhaus reviews The End of Energy: The Unmaking of America’s Environment, Security, and Independence by Michael J. Graetz. Michael Levi on what the Nobel Prize tells us about oil. Seeking sparks of hope in books on energy: Is there a happy medium between the apocalyptic and the utopian? Don’t count oil out: Alternative energies won’t replace oil, gas, and coal anytime soon. An article on oil and Arabic-speakers in Iran’s troubled southwest. Chris Nelder on why energy journalism is so bad. A look at how the oil map of the world is shifting to the West. Charles Homans on a short history of energy independence: A century and a half of an idea whose time has never come. Oil and democracy: Discovering natural resources has no effect on the political system — if the country is already a democracy.
