Lloyd's of London: "Bad Times Have Not Yet Hit"

The CEO of British insurance giant Lloyd's has just released a paper which predicts that the economic calamities we've been facing over the last few years are minor when compared to what is coming soon. Our global economy is based on the concept of growth and growth depends on energy, cheap energy to be exact. Therefore, when the paper predicts that the price of oil will soon hit $200 per barrel, the ramifications add up to a lot more than just a higher price at the gas pump.

The author of the document, Dr. Richard Ward, says that the world “has entered a period of deep uncertainty in how we will source energy for power, heat and mobility, and how much we will pay for it."

As Dr. Ward admits, it will be difficult for many people to accept how bad he expects things to get. He acknowledges that the truly "bad times have not yet hit."

On the other hand, those same predictions are nothing new if you've been reading all of my posts over the last few months (perhaps the difference is that this warning comes from business and industry, instead of from scientists, journalists or filmmakers).

Sustainable Energy Security is the title of Dr Ward's paper.

The paper was described on the "Peak Generation" blog.

And, if you haven't read my previous posts about films and other media on this topic, now's your chance to do so:

Online Film: The End of Suburbia

Online Film: Blind Spot

The World Consumption Clock

Edward Burtynsky's Photography

King Corn: A documentary About America's Most Subsidized Crop

The Party's Over: Oil, War, and the Fate of Industrial Societies