While crude oil supply has not yet begun declining, it had been essentially flat since 2005, and this lack of growth is putting tremendous pressure on the world’s financial system, since we now must do more and more with essentially the same oil supply. Oil prices have risen, and this is one source of financial problems, because higher oil prices have a disruptive impact on balance of payments, and can also cause a reduction in profits of companies. But higher oil prices can also lead to recession and debt defaults.

The American Wind Energy Association has just released a plan to phase out the Production Tax Credit, an important federal incentive that has led to the doubling of wind generated electricity. This proposal would provide wind companies with six years of certainty before eliminating it. This makes the wind industry the only energy resource that has volunteered to help reduce the deficit and our country’s huge debt.  Now, it’s time for Big Oil and the rest of fossil fuel industries to propose a plan to phase out their permanent special tax breaks, some of which have been in place for nearly a century.

Peak oil (below, right) has already happened in the United States, in Australia, Britain and in 49 out of 65 of the world’s oil producing regions. Yet 51 million new cars continue to hit the world’s roads every year. Just as farmers have little control over who snatches their land, water and other assets, they have little control over who takes their fuel. By 2040 dwindling reserves of fossil oil may well be reserved for the military and everyone else will have to get by as they can, including food producers.

The resulting yo-yo effect on fuel prices for the last three years has made it hard for consumers and businesses to loosen their purse strings enough to jump start the lackluster economy, says Kay Smith, head of macroeconomic analysis for the U. S. Energy Information Administration, EIA.“There’s a lot of headwind in the U.S. economy right now, but I think we’re just really uncertain,” says Smith . “It’s the volatility of oil prices that will impact the economy more than any particular pricing point.”

Vehicle emissions can affect the environment in several ways. Cars emit greenhouse gasses, such as carbon dioxide, which contribute to global warming. (See Reference 2, page 13) Some air pollutants and particulate matter from cars can be deposited on soil and surface waters where they enter the food chain; these substances can affect the reproductive, respiratory, immune and neurological systems of animals. (See Reference 5) Nitrogen oxides and sulfur oxides are major contributors to acid rain, which changes the pH of waterways and soils and can harm the organisms that rely on these resources.

Adding injury to insult, these same companies are battling to retain $40 billion of tax loopholes that will be paid for by taxpayers who are already providing their additional profits due to high oil and gasoline prices. While consumers and taxpayers get hit with bills for higher gasoline prices and tax loopholes, Big Oil companies get richer by the minute. Congress must heed President Barack Obama’s call to end this unfairness by eliminating these unnecessary handouts.

It seems impossible that a gallon of gasoline, which weighs about 6.3 pounds, could produce 20 pounds of carbon dioxide (CO2) when burned. However, most of the weight of the CO2 doesn't come from the gasoline itself, but the oxygen in the air. When gasoline burns, the carbon and hydrogen separate. The hydrogen combines with oxygen to form water (H2O), and carbon combines with oxygen to form carbon dioxide (CO2).

The study focuses upon the physical depletion of conventional oil in the period to 2030 and includes an in-depth literature review, analysis of industry databases and a detailed comparison of global supply forecasts. This Communication summarises the main findings of the UKERC study. A key conclusion is that a peak of conventional oil production before 2030 appears likely and there is a significant risk of a peak before 2020.

Liquid petroleum --- crude oil --- is the only nonrenewable resource in fluid form. A fossil fuel that is being used up faster than new reserves are discovered, the oil supply may only last through the middle of this century.

When we burn fossil fuels -- oil, coal and gas -- to generate electricity and power our vehicles, we produce the heat-trapping gases that cause global warming. The more we burn, the faster churns the engine of global climate change. Thus the most important thing we can do is save energy.

Charles G. Koch and David H. Koch have a vested interest in delaying climate action: they've made billions from their ownership and control of Koch Industries, an oil corporation that is the second largest privately-held company in America (which also happens to have an especially poor environmental record).

The fossil fuel companies have played the biggest role in making sure we don't slow global warming down. They've funded climate denial propagandists and helped pack Congress with anti-environmental extremists, making sure that commonsense steps to move toward renewable energy never happen.

Optimistically, we may have until 2030 to solve this problem and convert the whole of the world’s advanced farming systems to another energy source, algal biodiesel maybe. Or hydrogen. Or solar-electrics. But there seems little sense of urgency about this issue from governments.

The one risk that appears to us under appreciated by investors is the risk of higher oil prices - mentioned by only 6% of investors as a major concern - especially as there are significant risks of an escalation of the geopolitical situation in the Middle East.

The World Health Organization blames 150,000 deaths per year on the effects of global warming including extreme weather, drought, heat waves, decreased food production and the increased spread of diseases like malaria.

The conflict of these two forces – a need for economic growth in a world that can no longer provide growing oil supply – sets the financial system up for a systemic risk of collapse.

World crude oil production has already stopped rising. Oil production has been essentially flat from 2005 to 2010,6 meaning that more and more cars and trucks must compete for the same fuel supply.

By 2035, global energy demand is forecasted to increase by over a third. The EIA estimates this energy consumption increase will generate enough new greenhouse gases to raise climate temperatures by 3.6 percent.

The IEA specifically cited financial subsidies provided by governments as a key factor in the world’s unsustainable energy path. In 2011, the world subsidized the cost of fossil fuels by $531 billion. This is a 30 percent increase compared to 2010.

Burning 1 gallon of gasoline creates 20 pounds of equivalent CO2. Fossil fuel-powered transportation pumps more than 1.7 billion tons of carbon equivalent emissions into the air annually.

One of the City's most respected institutions has warned of "catastrophic consequences" for businesses that fail to prepare for a world of increasing oil scarcity and a lower carbon economy.

"This collapse, I predicted would occur in 2015-16 at which time the summer Arctic (August to September) would become ice-free. The final collapse towards that state is now happening and will probably be complete by those dates".Wadhams says the implications are "terrible". "The positives are increased possibility of Arctic transport, increased access to Arctic offshore oil and gas resources. The main negative is an acceleration of global warming.""As the sea ice retreats in summer the ocean warms up (to 7C in 2011) and this warms the seabed too. The continental shelves of the Arctic are composed of offshore permafrost, frozen sediment left over from the last ice age. As the water warms the permafrost melts and releases huge quantities of trapped methane, a very powerful greenhouse gas so this will give a big boost to global warming."

Biking to work reduces damage to the environment and leaves very little carbon footprint. Next to walking, biking to work excludes emissions, oil leaks and other unfriendly pollutants.

One person’s global catastrophe is another’s commercial opportunity. Governments and energy companies, notably Shell, are busy jostling to be in position to loot the oil and minerals hidden beneath the region’s fast-disappearing ice. This is akin to setting your house on fire to keep yourself warm.

“The conversation I’ve been having with the young family that’s now managing my farm is: let’s imagine that 10 years from now extreme weather events are twice as common as they are today, and oil is at $300 barrel, so fertilizer costs jump,” says Kirschemann. “That’s the kind of thinking we need to be doing.”

Past energy transitions have taken a long time to unfold. Firewood was mankind's first energy source and was not displaced by coal until the 18th century. With an increasing pace of technological advance, it took one century for oil to replace coal as the primary global energy source. Climate change is not the only motivation to move toward more renewables and enhanced energy efficiency, but it has injected unequivocal urgency into an otherwise normal evolution.

Our resources of mineral nutrients are starting to fail.  When Canadian Patrick Dery applied Hubbert’s peak theorem to phosphorus (below) he found, to his dismay, we had passed it in 1989. According to the International Energy Agency peak oil and gas are due in the coming decade. These spell scarcity and soaring prices in the primary nutrients – N, P and K – that sustain all advanced farming systems worldwide.

The primary greenhouse gas responsible for global warming is carbon dioxide. The U.S. is responsible for 19.91% of the carbon dioxide emissions worldwide.

To get serious about reducing greenhouse gas emissions, we should take a close look at the bike as a potential solution.

To arrest man-made global warming, the world needs to stop the atmospheric stock of greenhouse gases from increasing. This requires emissions to be reduced until they balance with the rate of natural removal from the atmosphere.

THE WORLD is changing; opinions are changing, economies are changing, values are changing and the environment is changing.The environment is arguably the most important thing that is drastically transforming. This global warming, as we know it, is being caused by the burning of fossil fuels — emitting CO2 and other greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. These fuels are burned in cars, in our homes and first and foremost in power generating stations. One of the primary fuels burned in power stations is coal and lets get one thing straight from the start: burning coal is not clean.

Cycling is non-polluting and can help us breathe easier. Much of the pollutants and irritants in the air are the result of fossil fuel emissions and can cause serious health problems, including asthma, irritation of the lungs, bronchitis, pneumonia, decreased resistance to respiratory infections, and even early death. These health risks are accentuated in children. When people ride bikes instead of driving cars, everyone's health benefits.

Commuting by bike reduces pollution that causes asthma and bronchitis. Cycling instead of driving will reduce the 38 million tonnes of carbon produced each year by British motorists and improve the quality of your air. Surprisingly, a cyclist is also less exposed to air pollution than a commuting motorist.

Each of those cars, on average, produces 20 pounds of carbon dioxide for every gallon of gas it consumes

Using one gallon of gasoline in your car produces about 20 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions directly, or 26 pounds if you account for upstream processing of the fuel.

About 19.64 pounds of carbon dioxide (CO2) are produced from burning a gallon of gasoline that does not contain ethanol. Most of the retail gasoline now sold in the U.S. contains about 10% ethanol by volume.  Under international agreement, CO2 from ethanol and other biofuels are not counted at the tailpipe, so burning a gallon of gasoline with 10% ethanol produces about 17.68 pounds of CO2.

Carbon dioxide takes 100 years to disperse in the atmosphere. Even if emissions are stopped today, we will still feel the effects for years to come.

Here's what we know: an overwhelming majority of scientists tell us that the Earth's climate is heating largely due to rising greenhouse gas emissions, which, in turn, is driving more extreme weather and climate events. The underlying changes -- warmer oceans, more intense precipitation events, and rising sea levels -- are significant contributors to storms like Sandy. Around the world, we're seeing heavier rainfall and record-breaking high temperatures, and many areas are experiencing more severe droughts and more wildfires. These patterns are precisely what climate scientists have said we should expect in a warming world. Further, these extreme weather and climate events are taking a serious toll as they disrupt people's lives and our economy.

We just assume when we turn on the tap, the water will be there, and that the water system buried in the ground is doing fine. Both assumptions are out of date. Population growth, economic development (which changes dramatically how much water people want and use), and climate change are all putting pressure on water supplies — not just in places like Las Vegas or California, but in Atlanta, in Florida, in Spain, across China.

Average temperatures in the Arctic region are rising twice as fast as they are elsewhere in the world. Arctic ice is getting thinner, melting and rupturing. For example, the largest single block of ice in the Arctic, the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf, had been around for 3,000 years before it started cracking in 2000. Within two years it had split all the way through and is now breaking into pieces.

A recent study commissioned by Oxfam into global warming and food prices, said: "Against a backdrop of rising populations and changing diets which will see global food production struggle to keep pace with increasing demand, the food security outlook in a future of unchecked climate change is bleak."