The barriers that renewables and efficiency face come less from our living in a capitalist market economy and more from not taking market economics seriously.

Many analysts now regard modest, zero, or negative growth in our rate of energy use as a realistic long-term goal.

In the model that we grew up with, governments rule physical territory in which national economies function, and strong economies support hegemonic military power. In the new model, already emerging under our noses, economic decisions don't pay much attention to national sovereignty in a world where more than half of the one hundred or two hundred largest economic entities are not countries but companies.

Facts are more mundane than fantasies, but a better basis for conclusions.

The barriers that renewables and efficiency face come less from our living in a capitalist market economy and more from not taking market economics seriously.

We've got 21st century technology and speed colliding head-on with 20th and 19th century institutions, rules and cultures.

Prominent exploration experts have recently predicted that total world production of liquid oil will peak by about the end of this decade-or a few years later if production does not rise much-and will decline thereafter.