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When will the world reach its peak population?According to data from the United Nations’ 2022 Revision of its World Population Prospects, we could see a peak of over 10.4 billion people sometime in the late 2080s.While the UN’s projections are the most widely used, this doesn’t necessarily mean they’re the most accurate. Several alternative models have predicted an earlier and lower peak, suggesting that the world’s population could decline sooner than expected.In the UN’s latest revisions, it lowered its own estimates for global population in 2100, from 10.9 billion (as of 2019) to 10.4 billion (as of 2022).In this graphic,...

Inflation wasn’t transitory. And inflation hasn’t peaked. It’s more like peak inflation was transitory.The May Consumer Price Index (CPI) came in higher than expected. The headline year-on-year price increase was 8.6%. The projection was for the CPI to hold steady at the same level as last month — 8.3%. Instead, we got the biggest jump in prices during this inflationary cycle and the highest CPI print since 1981. On a month-to-month basis, the CPI rose by 1%. This was above the 0.7% projection. Another spike in fuel and energy costs primarily drove the monthly increase. Energy costs rose 3.9% during...

New York (CNN Business)Inflation is at a 40-year high, and Americans are feeling it. A gallon of gas costs about double what it cost in January 2021. Home prices were up a whopping 19.8% year-over-year in February. And, in March, groceries cost 10% more than they did a year earlier.

As expected, the March Consumer Price Index was smoking hot with a 1.2% month-on-month increase and an 8.5% annual gain. But the mainstream found a silver lining in the numbers. Core inflation wasn’t quite as high as expected leading many to conclude that we’ve reached “peak inflation.” In his podcast, Peter Schiff said this is just wishful thinking. The March CPI reflected the first impacts of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the spiking oil prices that followed. Although the CPI was slightly above the consensus expectation, many thought it would surprise to the upside. Peter said some people were...

African countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo are struggling with an influx of hospitalizations as the omicron-driven 4th wave of the global pandemic environment hammers the country, which boasts one of the world's lowest vaccination rates. But Congo isn't alone; over the weekend, American media reported that, after nearly two years of seeing surprisingly low COVID levels, sub-Saharan Africa is finally seeing a big enough wave of infections to pose a serious threat to its health-care system.Experts in the US are projecting that the latest COVID wave will worsen before it gets better, according to the following chart from...

Though the comment received little more than a headline from the newswires, the White House acknowledged earlier on Wednesday that it has started to see COVID cases leveling off in the hardest-hit states.WHITE HOUSE SAYS U.S. HAS STARTED TO SEE SOME LEVELING OFF OF COVID-19 INFECTIONS IN STATES SEEING SURGETo be sure, the drop in cases, which typically portends a decline in hospitalizations and deaths, has arrived just in the nick of time for some hospital systems in Florida and Texas, which have reported seeing a surge in beds occupied by COVID patients. Still, South Carolina recorded the fourth straight...

The number of Coronavirus (CV) cases in the U.S. has decreased significantly, but instead the focus has been on the number of masks to wear and that we’re in the middle of a “dark winter.”The current seven-day average of cases is down by 75% from the high, and is now at the same level as in mid-October:Source: Author’s graph of CDC dataWe might wonder why cases are down, and whether this will continue: Cases fell last summer, yet the fall brought an increase that rightly concerned everyone.But what if cases continue to drop, which is what Johns Hopkins medical professor...

Israeli mathematician Isaac Ben-IsraelTop Israeli mathematician Isaac Ben-Israel predicted in mid-April (April 15) that the deadly COVID-19 virus peaks after around 40 days independent of the society locking down their economy or not. Via Ned Nikolov. A leading Israeli math Prof. compared the evolution of #COVID19 epidemics in different countries and found that the virus follows the same pattern regardless of the mitigation measurements adopted by Governments, i.e. an economic lockdown has NO effect!https://t.co/Dv2nh9hNv5— Ned Nikolov, Ph.D. (@NikolovScience) April 15, 2020 The Times of Israel reported: A prominent Israeli mathematician, analyst and former general claims simple statistical analysis demonstrates...

Good news on a national basis, but this offer may be void where numbers are looking more prohibitive. “We are nearing the peak now,” CDC director Dr. Robert Redfield told Savannah Guthrie on NBC’s Today, as the country progresses through its planned 45 day effort to “flatten the curve.” Redfield warns that the only way to know the peak is to see it in the rear-view mirror, but the numbers are “stabilizing” — nationally, anyway.The question isn’t just when we reopen, Redfield warns, but also where: “We are nearing the peak right now.” Watch @CDCDirector’s full interview with @savannahguthrie...

Knut M. Wittkowski is a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics and research design at Rockefeller University in New York for over 20 years. He is a proven expert in modeling epidemics. He made a first determination in the 1980s, when he denied the danger of an HIV epidemic in the heterosexual population - and was right. In the current debate about SARS-CORONA VIRUS-2, Professor Wittkowski is now declaring, based on data from the registration authorities and on experience with dealing with respiratory diseases, that the epidemic has already passed its peak. The following interview was translated from German to English...

New daily Coronavirus cases in the United States fell for the first time in over a week, according to the latest numbers from Worldometers. On Sunday March 29th, the US registered 18,469 new daily Coronavirus cases, which was down from 19,452 on Saturday. This could very well mark the beginning of a "peak" in new Coronavirus cases in the United States. While the "total" case number is still seeing steady growth, this drop in "daily new" cases could mean that the exponential spread of the virus has come to a grinding halt.

Officials want to know but predictions vary wildly, from now to after hundreds of millions of people are infected.Coronavirus infections in China continue to swell by thousands a day, prompting epidemiologists to estimate when the outbreak will peak. Some suggest the climax, when the number of new infections in a single day reaches its highest point, will happen any time now. Others say that it is months away and that the virus will infect millions — or in one estimate hundreds of millions — of people first. Public health officials want to know roughly when the peak will be —...

Good Morning/Afternoon,MEGARushRoarsIntoLocal/County/StateEllectionsWeekGettingAPeakTo2020DITTOS!

This weekend presents the Orionid meteor shower at its best, and tonight – the night of October 20-21, 2017 – may well be the shower’s peak night. Late Saturday night and Sunday morning may be good times to watch as well. On both of these nights, meteors should become visible starting at late evening. They’ll probably be most prolific in the few hours before dawn on October 21, but try watching before dawn on October 22, too. From a dark site, you might see a maximum of about 10 to 15 meteors per hour. Fortunately, today is only one day...

Bond guru Bill Gross believes the growing global move toward negative yields will have dire consequences. In a tweet from his firm, Janus Capital, Gross goes back half a millennium to assert that the current situation with the world's debt market is unprecedented and dangerous: The warning comes as yields on Japanese government bonds and German bunds hit record lows.

Crude oil futures rose 3.5 percent in mid-afternoon trading on Wednesday, following official data earlier in the day showing a 3.4-million drop in crude inventories and a fall in crude output to 8.8 million barrels per day, the lowest since the fourth quarter of 2014. June deliveries of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) were up US$1.57, or 3.5 percent, settling at US$46.23 per barrel on the New York exchange. This jump is higher than any closing price the commodity has seen since November of last year.

Solar power is popular nowadays as a “renewable,” non-polluting energy source. It helps California comply with AB32, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, which mandates a 25 percent reduction in greenhouse gases in the state by 2020. “Even on short winter days, California is breaking solar energy records,” declared environmental writer Chris Clarke on the website of KCET, America’s largest independent public TV station, which broadcasts across Southern California. Clarke was jubilant that solar power had generated more than 2,800 megawatts of electricity just before noon on that day. There also was 1,898 megawatts of rooftop solar power generated...

It was with some dismay that I read this morning of the impending end of The Oil Drum, perhaps the leading “peak oil” blog … … due to scarcity of new content caused by a dwindling number of contributors. Despite our best efforts to fill this gap we have not been able to significantly improve the flow of high quality articles. Because of this and the high expense of running the site, the board has unanimously decided that the best course of action is to convert the site to a static archive of previously published material as of 31st July...

As the Cline is roughly 9,800 square miles in size, this works out to estimated reserves in excess of 30 billion barrels. These reserves could easily eclipse the Bakken (4.3 billion barrels according to conservative government estimates) and the Eagle Ford (3 billion barrels).

$20 trillion shale oil find surrounding Coober Pedy 'can fuel Australia' ... Coober Pedy has between 3.5 billion and 233 billion barrels of oil Australia could change from oil importer to exporter ... South Australia is sitting on oil potentially worth more than $20 trillion, independent reports claim - enough to turn Australia into a self-sufficient fuel producer. Brisbane company Linc Energy yesterday released two reports, based on drilling and seismic exploration, estimating the amount of oil in the as yet untapped Arckaringa Basin surrounding Coober Pedy ranging from 3.5 billion to 233 billion barrels of oil. At the higher...