This article was first published in New Scientist, 1 June 2016. THIS is a curious time to publish a biography of M. King Hubbert. The story of how this brilliant but irascible Shell geologist accurately forecast in 1956 that US oil production would peak and go into terminal decline by 1970 is by now well worn. (more…)...

This article was first published in New Scientist, 27 July 2013. DOOM-MONGERS of the climate variety might want to look away now – we apparently have more time to save the planet. A recent study published in Nature Geoscience suggests it will warm more slowly than feared, perhaps buying an extra decade for action. (more…)...

This article was first published in New Scientist, 27 June 2013. THE world's biggest carbon market, the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme, is now widely regarded as a basket case. (more…)...

This article was first published in New Scientist, 16 August 2012. In 2007 James Schlesinger claimed the intellectual arguments around peak oil had all been won. With global oil production flat-lining and prices surging towards their all-time high of $147 per barrel, the former US Energy Secretary declared “we are all peakists now”. (more…)...

First published at New Scientist, 17 May 2012. People have fretted about when the world’s oil will start to run out ever since M. King Hubbert came up with the idea of “peak oil” back in the 1950s. (more…)...

First published at New Scientist, 30 March 2012. Coverage of the gas leak at Total's Elgin platform in the North Sea, off the UK coast, has so far focused on the potential for an explosion, and damage to sea life from hydrogen sulphide contamination - the latter now discounted. But methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, so what about the global warming impact? Here's what emerged from the back of my envelope. (more…)...