We here at The Resilient Earth wish all our readers the happiest of New Years. Hopefully 2013 will be a year without the drama of 2012. After all, the over hyped Mayan Apocalypse did not happen, nor did the Arctic ice-sheet disappear. The Arab Spring slogged on through the summer and fall and is now in the midst of a dismal, dysfunctional winter. The American presidential election finally happened, mercifully removing all the political noise from public media and allowing the populous to return ignoring the government (perhaps to their own detriment). The Euro zone continues on the edge of crisis, Asia boils beneath the surface and Africa remains an open sore. What could go wrong this year?

In response to popular demand, the original Resilient Earth theme has been restored as the default site theme. The voting on the poll was 65% for the old theme vs 35% for the newer, light theme. Though it was neck in neck at the beginning the old theme pulled ahead a few weeks ago and has continued to widen its lead. We here at The Resilient Earth value your input so, as promised, the theme had been changed as an early Christmas present for our loyal readers.

There's been plenty of talk about potentially radical US foreign policy changes as a result of the shale boom. While one shouldn't expect any dramatic US foreign policy move away from the Middle East, factors are influencing a greater focus on Asia. Only one thing is certain in this transforming world: The shale boom is real and the implications are many and difficult to predict. The Resilient Earth is pleased to bring you the following interview with energy security expert Michael Levi.

We have become aware of a bogus site that mimics the look and feel of this website. We suspect that the site is linked to a phishing attack where the perpetrators are trying to gather user name and passwords to gain access to The Resilient Earth website. The domain name of the site is www.th.resilientearth.com (note how craftily they made the fake name). The site's IP address is 216.18.237.72. DO NOT USE THE BOGUS SITE!

The Resilient Earth Press is happy to bring you an interesting interview with the well known economist Ed Dolan. Courtesy of Oilprice.com, Dolan gives his perspective on oil prices, the prospects for cheap energy, Russia's growing uncertainty and how the natural gas boom is hindering renewable energy efforts. We think you will find a number of thought provoking statements and ideas to ponder in the views expressed in the interview, which appears in its entirety below.

The Resilient Earth Press is proud to announce the publication of Mischief's Summer by Allen Simmons. Fifteen-year-old Jeff Slater gets hired as a paid hand on luxury yacht Mischief owned by Clifford and Sybil Hinshaw. The owners assume Jeff is eighteen—he is big and smart for his age and Jeff does not correct their assumption because he wants a job on a big yacht. This unspoken lie leads Jeff into dangerous uncharted waters where evil happens.

Should solar and wind power be subsidized? That is the question being asked by a current Wall Street Journal (WSJ) public poll. Generous funding from the federal government has led to explosive growth in US wind and solar power installations. Lost among the election year hoopla is the fact that many of those subsidies are set to expire soon unless Congress acts. Here is an opportunity for you to express your preference by voting online.

Nowadays the energy picture is confusing at best as the more information we are shown the more blurred our vision seems to become. Mixed messages, poor reporting and a media hungry to sensationalize anything it thinks can grab a headline have led to many wondering what the true energy situation is. We hear numerous reports on how the shale revolution will transform the energy sector, why alternatives are just around the corner, why advances in oilfield extraction techniques and new finds will help to lower oil prices. Yet no sooner have we read these rosy reports than we are bombarded with negative news on the Middle East, on why alternatives will never compete, on peak oil and declining oil production.

The following is taken from an interesting article about the debate over climate change (a link to the whole article is provided): It is very difficult to understand the climate change denial platform on a purely philosophical and scientific level. Climate change is a rather obvious aspect of the history of the Earth and clearly man interacts with climate in an increasingly dynamic manner. That this is even debated appears on the surface to be not a little ridiculous-somewhere on the level of discussing whether the Earth is round or flat.

Resilient Earth coauthor, Dr. Doug L. Hoffman, has contributed a chapter to a new text book in GALE CENGAGE Learning's Opposing Viewpoints series entitled “Switching to Renewable Energy Is Prohibitively Expensive.” Based on his blog article, “The Cost Of Running The World On Renewable Power,” the published version provides a counterpoint to the views of green advocates also presented in the book. “I am really pleased to get this chance to present an opposing viewpoint to the standard line of green advocacy found in normal school textbooks,” said the author. “Illogical policies can only be countered with reason and, to be able to reason, students need to hear more than one side of an issue.”

As the global warming debate increases in its intensity we find both sides deeply entrenched, hurling accusations and lies at one another in an attempt to gain the upper hand. This divide within the scientific community has left the public wondering who can be trusted to provide them with accurate information and answers.

We at The Resilient Earth would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our loyal readers for their patronage during 2011 and wish all of you a happy and prosperous New Year. The wonders of nature continue to unfold around us and the secrets of how the physical universe works are slowly uncovered by hard working scientists around the world. We look forward to a time when this website will only have to concern itself with recent scientific discoveries and the natural marvels they reveal, rather than having to debunk the junk science of the climate alarmist community and various “green energy” swindles.

New lessons are beginning to emerge from Fukushima. Each new concern leads to additional safety requirements. But some contradictions are beginning to raise questions: Amid tens of thousands of deaths from non-nuclear causes, not a single life-shortening radiation injury has occurred. Not one! And while some people in the housing area are wearing cumbersome rad-con suits, filtered gas-masks, gloves and booties, there are many people living carefree in other places like Norway, Brazil, Iran, India where folks have lived normal lives for countless generations with radiation levels as much as a hundred times greater than forbidden areas of the Fukushima homes.

Denis Dutton, philosopher, academic, author, web entrepreneur and libertarian media commentator/activist, died on December 28, 2010. A professor of philosophy at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, he died in Christchurch, New Zealand, where he lived. He was 66. Described by the New York Times as “an impassioned polymath, genial contrarian and native Californian,” Professor Dutton had taught at Canterbury since 1984. Blake Eskin, web editor for The New Yorker, wrote: “Denis helped prove that the Web could be a platform not only for fast-paced celebrity gossip and pictures of cute animals but for long and serious writing and the exchange of complex ideas.” We at The Resilient Earth morn the passing of an internet visionary, fellow skeptic and friend.

The 2^nd anniversary of “Climate Fools Day” is almost upon us and it is starting to attract the attention of UK MP's. This year's Climate Fools Day Rally will be held Wednesday, October 27^th 2PM at Parliament and we encourage all climate skeptics who can to attend. Our friends at Climate Realists have posted the following update on the planned festivities: