Chris caught petroleum geologist Art Berman right before he went on stage to deliver a presentation on the limitations of shale oil (his excellent slides can be found here). The world is finally starting to realize that the profit-making potential of this space was drastically over-hyped.

But more important, warns Art, is that the souring sentiment on shale oil is a reflection on the bigger challenge ahead of us: How we will power the world in a future of declining net energy?

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We happen to be alive at a time of peak abundance and technological miracles.  It’s never been easier or more comfortable to be a human.

On nearly every dimension — longevity, dependable access to food, quality of shelter, personal safety, leisure time, intellectual pursuits, technological advancements — no previous generation of humans have enjoyed the excesses and luxuries that we currently do.

What are you going to do with that good fortune while it lasts? Because it won’t for much longer.

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• Study: Some public pensions funds could run dry in downturn
• Report: Pennsylvanians carrying $33.2 billion in credit card debt
• Venezuela warns businesses not to halt payments amid currency overhaul
• Soros warns new global financial crisis looming
• Why are nearly 1 in 4 Millennials still living with mom? Lack of affordable housing
• Italy’s debt bubble pop heard around the world
• Copper supply shock hits India as Vedanta group's Tuticorin plant ordered to close
• Lawmakers approve $366 million sales tax bill (Louisiana)
• Billionaire George Soros outlines his plan to save Europe
• Knives are too sharp and filing them down is solution to soaring violent crime, judge says
• Hepatitis A is usually not a problem to recover from. But in Michigan, 27 people died since this outbreak began.
• With urgency, VA deploys new capabilities to fix services almost every day
• NASA virtual exoplanet tours bureau lets anyone ‘vacation’ in space
• Oil Is Still Going To $80
• Scientists Are Hinting at The Existence of a Strange New Type of Particle
• Garbage Island: An Ocean Full Of Plastic

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At Peak Prosperity, we strive to help people advance in three key areas: Knowing, Doing and Being.

Doing and Being are the resilience-building steps we recommend. Helping folks develop their own personal action plans in these areas is the main focus of the seminars we run.

But Knowing? That's the essential first part to master. Without sufficient understanding and insight to guide you, any action you take is merely groping in the dark.

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Actuary Gail Tverberg returns to provide an update on where we are in the global energy story. Her outlook is not rosy: she doesn't not see a path for society to transition to an affordable, plentiful substitute to petroleum as a transportation fuel. The physics as well as the funding do not pencil out, at least with today's known technologies.

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Financial markets the world over are increasingly chaotic and either retreating or plunging.  Our view is that there’s a gigantic market crash in our future and it’s possible that this has started now.

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The bottom line is this: we, as a species, all over the globe, have already mined the richest ores, found the easiest energy sources, and farmed the richest soils that our Environment has to offer.

We have taken several hundreds of millions of years of natural ore body, fossil energy deposition, aquifer accumulation, soil creation, and animal population growth — and largely burned through them in the few years since oil was discovered. It is safe to say that in human terms, once these are gone, man, they’re gone.

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