Preparedness for what? Comparing terrorism and peak oil.
Posted on November 5, 2007 | Filed Under Peak oil | Leave a Comment
Dan Bednarz, Ph.D., American Pubilc Health Association. Whereas terrorism poses no fundamental threat to the functioning of our society, energy decline does because it can degrade non-medical and institutional determinants of health such as education, employment, housing, nutrition, transportation, and sanitation.
Let’s play “Peak Oil Shock Me”
Posted on November 5, 2007 | Filed Under Peak oil | Leave a Comment
Kurt Cobb, Resource Insights. An increasingly popular parlor game among peak oil activists is to see who can serve up the most shocking morsel of peak oil news at any one sitting. There are now plenty of morsels to choose from on an almost daily basis.
Big melt meets big empty: Rethinking the implications of climate change and peak oil
Posted on November 5, 2007 | Filed Under Peak oil | Leave a Comment
Richard Heinberg, Museletter / Global Public Media. The central question facing us is not whether the world will move away from fossil fuels, but how. The primary dispute will be between those who look for short-term solutions to energy supply shocks … and policy advocates with a long-range plan for dealing effectively and peacefully with climate change, adaptation to scarcity, and global inequity.
Energy and Environment News Updates
Posted on November 6, 2007 | Filed Under Our Future | Leave a Comment
–TOD:C’s Energy and Environment Round-Up for 6 NOV
–The ODAC/EU Newsletter for 5 NOV
–The ANZ Bullroarer for 5 NOV
Linking Promises to Funding
Posted on November 6, 2007 | Filed Under Our Future | Leave a Comment
Here is another guest post from Austin, Texas for TOD:LOCAL from Colin Clark.
Holding local elected officials accountable for their words and deeds can be a frustrating experience. One day they are standing up denouncing the Federal government for making the wrong investments in our future and not tackling global warming or our addiction to oil by signing the Mayor’s Climate Change Agreement. The next day they announce the latest in highway funding touting new roads, less traffic, more jobs.
As we consider the collision course of peak oil and global warming, we should start look around our own communities and see if our transportation plans, policies, and construction projects are anticipating higher gas prices and a future with reduced vehicle miles traveled by automobile or stuck in the “building our way out of congestion” mindset.
With motorized transportation using 40% of US oil consumption, it’s important to examine what we are doing on a local and regional level with transportation plans, funding, and construction. Are we digging ourselves deeper into the hole of oil dependency for mobility?
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Adding one new mile of one lane of highway capacity creates an estimated 116,500 to 186,500 tons of carbon dioxide emissions over 50 years. Further, expanding transportation systems primarily for the benefit of single occupancy drivers only deepens our addiction to sprawl land use patterns - when we make it easier for people to drive further and further from where they live to where they work, highway expansions subsidize suburban sprawl.
Highway funding is largely financed by gas taxes, which are collected by the 50 states and sent to the Federal government and then distributed back to the states. Some states are “donor” states that receive back less than 100% of what they contribute to the Feds. Other states are “recipient” states that receive more than 100% of what they contribute
The vast majority of federal transportation funds go to highways (maintenance and expansion), eating up $228 billion out of the $286 billion in federal funding for 2004-2009.
When the Feds kick the highway funds back to the states (with some small amounts “ear-marked” for specific projects), large metro regions and state Departments of Transportation get to decide the vast majority of which highway and transportation projects get funding. So while there is almost no local control of amount of gas taxes collected, there is a lot of local control over what types of transportation projects actually get built in metro regions. Regional “metropolitan planning organizations” are comprised of locally elected officials who must approve transportation plans that receive federal funding. There are 385 metropolitan planning organizations across the U.S.
Where I reside, Austin, Texas, our local transportation planning agency, the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, recently authorized almost $1.5 BILLION in highway expansions for five highways in Austin. About one-third of this - $540 million - is from debt (in the form of bonds) to be floated on the presumption that toll collections on the new toll lanes will repay the bond debt.
Despite Austin’s image as “green,” we are investing enormous sums of money into deepening our addiction to cars, oil consumption, and sprawling land uses. Our mayor unveiled an “Austin Climate Protection Plan” this year and a few months later voted for the $1.5 BILLION in highway expansions, with no one in the media picking up on the hypocrisy.
What transportation plans are being considered, funded, and built in your area? New toll roads? Mass transit? Rapid bus? Free or low-cost bike rentals? Extensions of commuter rail lines? What percentage of your metropolitan planning organization’s funding is going to highway expansions?
TOD:LOCAL is interested in hearing your stories!
The needs and use of water for power, industrial plants and people
Posted on November 6, 2007 | Filed Under Our Future | Leave a Comment
I was recently in a meeting with some State officials, and representatives of a large fossil energy supply company. The meeting was largely focused on State-centered efforts to increase the amount of renewable or sustainable energy. In the course of the discussion the company representatives raised the issue of water availability, and how this might impact some of the options. It is a subject that is starting to raise its head in more than just this type of discussion. If we look at the current drought status of the United States, for example.
The exceptional drought in the South East and the extreme drought in the South West are both evident. The growing impact of the sustained lack of water, or the need to provide water to an increasing number of people or a growing industrial base, from a fixed resource, is one that will have an impact that goes beyond just the immediate short term. And so, being curious, I looked at the major users of water, and what they did with it. And it was in this light that I then looked at one of the promising new technologies that Dave Rutledge had mentioned at the ASPO conference, the use of concentrated sun power (csp), and in the process I also looked at how they are handling process water in the oil sands of Alberta.
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So where does the majority of the U.S. water go? Best folk to ask seem to be those folk over at the US Geological Survey. And to quote one of their reports:
Estimates of water use in the United States indicate that about 408 billion gallons per day (one thousand million gallons per day, abbreviated to BGD) were withdrawn for all uses during 2000. This total has varied less than 3 percent since 1985 as withdrawals have stabilized for the two largest uses—thermoelectric power and irrigation. Fresh ground-water withdrawals (83.3 BGD) during 2000 were 14 percent more than during 1985. Fresh surface-water withdrawals for 2000 were 262 BGD, varying less than 2 percent since 1985.
About 195 BGD, or 48 percent of all freshwater and saline-water withdrawals for 2000, were used for thermoelectric power. Most of this water was derived from surface water and used for once-through cooling at power plants. About 52 percent of fresh surface-water withdrawals and about 96 percent of saline-water withdrawals were for thermoelectric-power use. Withdrawals for thermoelectric power have been relatively stable since 1985.
Irrigation remained the largest use of freshwater in the United States and totaled 137 BGD for 2000.
That is a fair volume of water, particularly for the amounts that are single-use pass through. Now a lot of this water is returned to the source, but still a significant amount is lost to evaporation. And thus there is currently a program within the National Energy Technology Lab (pdf), to look into this. But before I get there I think it is useful to put the current conditions in context.
I am one of those folk that think that we can learn from the past, and so I went to see what the history of droughts were in the South-West. I found that we appear to be heading back into the same sort of cycle that hit about 1100 years ago. And one of the things of concern, if one looks at the following graph, is the length of time that the droughts lasted. I have noted, earlier, that droughts in New York at this time lasted around 200 years. The evidence from Southern California, reported by Seager, Herwijer and Cook seems to show the same sort of duration.
And again, as one of the intriguing little quotes that illustrate the point let me add a quote from the paper
In a remarkable paper (’Late Quaternary bison population changes on the southern Plains’, Plains Anthropologist, v 19, 180-196, 1974), Tom Dillehay successfully sketched the medieval climatological history of the southern Great Plains based on little more than the numbers of bison bones found in archaeological sites. At this time few Indians were dependent on bison hunting - that was yet to come when European expanded into the moister areas to the east and displaced Indians from areas where they both farmed and hunted. In Dillehay’s study it is striking how few were the bison remains a millennium ago compared to the periods before and after. He also drew what now appears the correct conclusion - the climate was drier and bison populations shrank as grasslands became desert.
One can follow this further, the drought conditions in the South-west at the time led on to significant health issues (pdf) (not to be topical!).
In coastal California, the effects of a punishing late Holocene environment are found in recent archaeological discussions. Arnold (1992) and Raab and Larson (1997) identify patterns of site abandonment, increased rates of disease, malnutrition, and interpersonal violence along the Santa Barbara coat during the MCA (Lambert 1994, Lambert and Walker 1991). Stress-related phenomena, such as elevated levels of disease and incidents of warfare, stemmed from the competition among prehistoric peoples for the resources which were severely diminished by the climatic changes discerned (Fischman 1996). Similarly Jones et al. (1999) document settlement pattern hiatuses, shifting dietary regimes, sharply increased levels of violence, disruption of regional trade networks and other cultural patterns that correlate with the MCA in California, the Great Basin, and in the American Southwest.
These drought conditions extended much further south, and one also reads of this being a reason for the Collapse of Mayan Civilization .
During its Classic period (250–950 A.D.), Maya civilization reached a zenith. At its peak, around 750 A.D., the population may have topped 13 million. Then, between about 750 and 950 A.D., their society imploded. . . . . . In his fascinating book, The Great Maya Droughts, independent archaeologist Richardson B. Gill persuasively argues that a lack of water was a major factor in the terminal Classic collapse. Gill pulls together an enormous amount of information on modern weather and climate, draws on the record of historical droughts and famines, and heaps on evidence from archaeology and from geological studies of ancient climates. . . . . . . Gill builds an impressive case. When his work was first published (five years ago), the most compelling evidence for drought came from sediment cores that David A. Hodell, Jason H. Curtis, Mark Brenner and other geologists at the University of Florida had collected from a number of Yucatán lakes. Their measurements of these ancient deposits indicate that the driest interval of the last 7,000 years fell between 800 and 1000 A.D.—coincident with the collapse of Classic Maya civilization.
Looking at the current wet and dry pattern over the United States, one is then led to wonder what happened in this time interval in the central part of the country. This is the part that is currently not in the drought zone. And it turns out that it wasn’t then either. This was the time of the rise of the Indian Civilization at Cahokia Mounds in Illinois.
The archaeological remnants at Cahokia Mounds, near Collinsville, Illinois, have been preserved to tell the story of the most sophisticated prehistoric Indian civilization north of Mexico. According to the finds, the ancient city of Cahokia, from about A.D. 700 to 1400, covered nearly six square miles. Originally, there were over 120 mounds. . . . . . . . It is believed that the population of the city peaked at 20,000 from 1100 A.D. to 1200. The fate of the culture is unknown, although historians attribute a climate change that may have affected crop production, plant and animal resources and possible war, disease and social unrest.
This could perhaps have been the start of the Little Ice Age.
Hmmm! So if we are going back to the weather of about 1100 years ago, how do we stop everyone leaving the drought stricken coasts and moving to Illinois – which might start to get a tad overcrowded after a while.
Well this is where I go back to what we are doing with the water from the power stations. The majority of the water used in power stations is either turned into steam to drive turbines, or used in cooling – this is one of its functions also in some of the biofuel refineries. A 500 MW power plant that uses once-through cooling, uses over 12 million gallons per hour for cooling and other requirements. Currently most of this water is recycled and returned to the environment from which it came, so that the absolute use in power stations, for example, is only 3 percent when this is taken into account. But it is another figure in that report that is also relevant. Power stations take up 60 BGD of saline water, to reduce the demand on freshwater that they would otherwise impose.
So there are two points that can be made from this, the first is that power stations can be engineered to use water that is not currently viable as potable water for use domestically and by industry, and the second is that, in the processing of the water for their own use, industry is already cleaning up the water, so that the resulting condensed steam and clean product can then be fed back to society to remediate some of the coming problems with water shortage. Consider, if you will, that this is converting power plants into concurrently becoming desalination plants.
Remember that each kWhr of electricity currently requires 25 gal of water .
I have used the word desalination, since there are many power stations near the coast that could provide this additional water source (and perhaps some already do) But water cleanup is an ongoing process in many mining operations. There is, for example, a program in South Africa that is desalinating mine water for use in power atations. If one looks at the video shown in the description of the concentrating solar power the very hot oil from the concentrators is fed through water to generate steam, which drives turbines. There is nothing but some clever engineering that precludes this from using contaminated or saline water as the feed,, and condensing the steam to provide a rsource for those who are starting to become starved of it.
One of areas of the world where water supply is already causing concern, in its ability to restrict future expansion is in the oil sands of Alberta. Here, even though the processes are increasingly efficient in their recovery of water, the projected growth will still place an increasing burden on the supply of make-up water to the various processes. This becomes increasingly so where Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage is used to recover the heavy oil from underground deposits. In a traditional Once-Through Steam Generator (OTSG) some 20% of the water will form a concentrated brine that carries the water treatment and pollutant chemicals, and this has to be either disposed of or further processed through a Zero-Liquid-Discharge facility that produces a dry product for disposal. In the more modern technology, which uses vertical-tube evaporators the process water that is recovered after the steam has been injected, is recycled through the plant for re-use. The simpler evaporation system is now becoming increasingly adopted, and is largely considered to also be more economic. Of additional interest it also lowers the fuel cost requirement for the process by about 1-5%. Energy demand for the operation of the evaporator runs at around 60 – 70 kWh/ 1,000 gallons distillate (the higher end includes crystallization of the solid waste stream).
The ability of industry to utilize undrinkable water, and to convert this, while utilizing it in pass-through mode, to water that can be provided as a resource to the community is something that we may need much more of in the future. It is perhaps reassuring to find that there is a technology out there that will allow this to happen.
DrumBeat: November 6, 2007
Posted on November 6, 2007 | Filed Under Our Future | Leave a Comment
On the Road to $100: The Historical High for Oil is Actually $99.04 Per Barrel; “Back to the Future”
With eyes focused on whether and when oil breaks through the $100 barrier, it turns out that $100 a barrel is really $99.04, at least in terms of the all-time record, according to Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA).
CERA, an IHS company, finds that the inflation-adjusted high of $99.04 in today’s dollars — $39.50 in 1980 dollars - was reached during the spring of 1980 when geopolitical turbulence in the Middle East, and Iran in particular, created acute uncertainty about the reliability and adequacy of oil supplies from the world’s most important oil exporting region.
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Peak Oil Again? - Is “social meltdown” imminent?
At the heart of the EWG analysis is its drastic downward revision of estimated world oil reserves. The Oil & Gas Journal estimates that world oil reserves are 1.3 trillion barrels and BP offers an estimate of 1.2 trillion barrels. By including unconventional sources of oil, Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA) triples reserves to 3.7 trillion. The EWG derives its figures by joining other peak oil proponents skeptical of Middle Eastern reserve claims. Like other oil peakists, they believe that Middle Eastern governments are lying about how much oil they have in the ground and, as a result, slash over 300 billion barrels from their total, calculating world reserves at only 854 billion barrels.
First, a bit of perspective. Daniel Yergin, chairman of CERA, noted that this is the fifth time the world is said to be running out of oil. “Each time—whether it was the ‘gasoline famine’ at the end of World War I or the ‘permanent shortage’ of the 1970s—technology and the opening of new frontier areas has banished the specter of decline,” asserted Yergin. “There’s no reason to think technology is finished this time.”
U.S. sharply raises 2008 oil price forecast
The U.S. government on Tuesday sharply raised its 2008 oil price forecast to nearly $80 a barrel and said extra OPEC production may fail to stanch falling inventories.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration, the statistical arm of the Department of Energy, raised its forecast for U.S. oil prices to $79.92 per barrel from $73.50 per barrel in its previous forecast.
EIA sees pressure on OPEC to bridge supply gap
Rising oil consumption and the realization that additional OPEC production may not be sufficient to arrest the inventory decline are keeping markets firm.
How much Exxon pays for oil
It doesn’t cost big oil companies anywhere near $90 to produce a barrel of crude. But they buy more crude than they pump, so the rising cost of a barrel cuts both ways.
Valero 3rd-qtr net falls; puts refinery on block
Independent refiner Valero Energy Corp said on Tuesday its quarterly earnings fell 20 percent, but its shares rose on news it was considering selling its Aruba refinery.
That refinery, with processing capacity of 285,000 barrels per day, does not produce gasoline, the company said, and has suffered power outages that would require Valero to spend heavily to upgrade the plant.
Ralph Nader: Who Determines the Price of Oil?
Question of the day: who and what is determining the price of oil and your gasoline and home heating bills? Don’t ask Uncle Sam, because George W. Bush and Dick Cheney are running a regime marinated in oil that does not issue reports which explain the real determinants of petroleum pricing beyond the conventional supply-demand curves.
They are all quite mad and we are all living in an insane asylum…
It was predicted that peak oil would occur around 1995/2000, but the price hike from the OPEC countries in the 70’s pushed that estimate a further few years into the future. Some estimates put the peak oil time at 2007/2010, and others say 2020. Whatever the true date, it is certain to come and the civilization built on cheap oil will no longer be viable.
US natural gas proved reserves hit 30-year high
U.S. crude oil proved reserves declined 4 percent in 2006. The Gulf of Mexico Federal Offshore and Alaska, two of the largest oil producing areas, respectively reported 10 and 7 percent declines in crude oil proved reserves.
UK: Bills pave way for nuclear power
Energy, planning and climate change bills in the Queen’s Speech pave the way for new UK nuclear power stations.
The plans, part of Gordon Brown’s first programme as PM, are said to be aimed at cutting carbon emissions and getting the best energy mix for the UK.
Syria to build two refineries worth a combined USD 5.6 billion
The country’s refining capacity should increase by 240 000 barrels per day following the construction of two new refineries.
Analysis: Chinese arms and African oil
China has been promoting arms-for-oil deals with Africa as the continent is becoming one of its major sources of oil. Since last year, top Chinese leaders and military officers have made frequent visits to Africa. And at the Zhuhai Air Show under way this week in southern China’s Guangdong province, military delegations from African countries including Sudan, Angola and Zimbabwe have made frequent appearances.
Coal conversion dilemma for US
The US is the world’s greatest per capita emitter of carbon dioxide with each US citizen responsible for 20 tonnes of gas annually - the world average is less than four.
As global warming campaigners increase pressure on the White House to cut emissions, policymakers in the US have other concerns: they say there is a threat not just from climate security but from what is known as energy security.
Aviation, the “fastest growing source of greenhouse gases”
The airplane has become, for many, climate change public enemy number one. And for good reason, say environmentalists. The air travel sector now carries the label of “the world’s fastest growing source of greenhouse gases” according to Friends of the Earth (FoE), with airplanes pumping out more than 600 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) every year. That’s nearly as much CO2 as the African continent annually expels.
Oil hits $97 on bombs, demand predictions
NEW YORK - Oil futures jumped to a new record of $97 a barrel Tuesday after bombings in Afghanistan and an attack on a Yemeni oil pipeline compounded the supply concerns that have driven crude prices higher in recent weeks.
Those concerns were further fed by a government prediction on Tuesday that domestic oil inventories will fall further this year while consumption rises.
Also: Oil Rises to a Record as North Sea Platforms Closed for Storm
What Is Energy Security? Definitions And Concepts
The energy literature and numerous statements by officials of oil-producing and oil-consuming countries indicate that the concept of energy security is elusive. Definitions of energy security range from uninterrupted oil supplies to the physical security of energy facilities to support for bio-fuels and renewable energy resources. Historically, experts and politicians referred to “security of oil supplies” as “energy security”. Only recently policy makers started worrying about the security of natural gas and LNG supplies.
UK: Drivers hit by fuel problems
MOTORISTS in Suffolk were left high and dry today after a fuel shortage hit the county.
Garages across Ipswich and in Woodbridge, Felixstowe and Stowupland reported shortages, following a fire at a large oil refinery at Coryton, Essex, last week.
Indonesia: Govt may limit fuel sales to private vehicles
With further increases to the fuel subsidy as a result of skyrocketing oil prices, the government is considering limiting sales of subsidized fuels to private vehicles.
Africa: Global Agencies Forecast Looming Fuel Shortage
International agencies have forecast an oil supply shortage next month, signalling a possible leap in crude prices to a new record high.
The International Energy Agency (IEA), the Energy Information Agency (EIA) and the Organisation for Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) forecasts all pointed to a looming oil supply shortfall as the year draws to a close, citing strong demand and fears of supply disruptions.
In case of oil supply disruption, coal offers abundant alternative
Given rising oil prices and the vulnerability of the country to events that could disrupt foreign supplies, one would think the government would be pulling out all the stops to bring to fruition one potentially significant alternative source of liquid fuels. Coal, which the United States has in abundance, is the chemical equivalent of petroleum, except it is in solid form. The technology to convert coal to a liquid fuel has been known for more than 60 years. But a planned coal-to-liquid fuel plant in Schuylkill County, first proposed 15 years ago, continues to wait upon the Bush administration to come through with a promised loan guarantee.
Fuel Fraud Latest In Army Contracting Woes
So far two former employees of Kellogg, Brown and Root have been arrested for their part in a scheme worthy of Tony Soprano.
The two KBR men, who worked for the U.S. military at Bagram, forged receipts for 80 tanker loads trucked in but never delivered, according to court documents. The Pentagon paid for the undelivered fuel while the drivers sold it on the black market. For their role in the scheme, KBR employees divvyed up an estimated $800,000 in kick backs.
Uganda: That Tree On Your Land Can Give You Electricity
Simply put, gasification is a conversion of solid fuels into a combustible gas. Wood-gas generators, called gasogene, were used to power motor vehicles in Europe during World War II fuel shortages.
Oil firms need a new game plan
Justified or not, PetroChina’s huge stock market value makes it a stronger company and gives it greater access to capital to make acquisitions. It builds on PetroChina’s advantage relative to IOCs in places such as Africa, where it is ready to spend on infrastructure to complement its energy investments. With a strong stock price, it can afford to pay up, if it chooses, for Husky Energy Inc.
Our Profit, Their Loss
As U.S. oil companies suffer their steepest profit declines in five years, American consumers should be sadder than the tycoons in 10-gallon hats. Lower earnings mean less investment in our own sources of energy.
Preparedness for what? Comparing terrorism and peak oil.
The threat from energy scarcity should be of paramount importance – we should invoke the Precautionary Principle - yet it is poorly understood and only recently begun to be articulated by public health leaders. This emerging attention is of critical importance. A critical risk factor, however, is how much time we have for mitigation and preparation.
Storm warning for western Norway
BP, which has operations in the Valhall field in the North Sea, was sending oil workers ashore from its platform there for safety reasons.
…On Tuesday afternoon BP and Conoco Philips were discussing evacuating all non-essential personnel from their platforms in the Ekofisk and Valhall fields, which would affect a total of 1,500 employees.
What does Peak Oil mean for Investors?
The concept of a coming peak and then decline of oil supplies has been ridiculed because those who knew the numbers of how much is in the ground have been able to easily argue that all it takes, is for a higher price to encourage people to either move into substitutes or for explorers to drill for more.
This is right up to a point. But the supplies from the largest fields are flagging now and it is getting harder and harder to find more oil economically. That means that the appetite of investors for risk is being sorely tested. Fewer wells yield a successful outcome and oil companies are becoming more selective where they look. Not enough capital is now available to meet our appetite.
Perryman: Oil at $100 could have psychological impact on consumers
“Oil could easily hit $100 a barrel,” said Economist M. Ray Perryman, visiting the University of Texas of the Permian Basin Monday to discuss energy issues with the university’s business faculty.
Oil at $100, he continued, “could have a psychological impact” on consumers and oil traders alike.
The shape of things to come?
A leading climate change scientist gives his prediction of what living with the effects of climate change could be like within 50 years.
Feds cutting climate studies: Nobel winners
Nobel Prize-winning scientists from Canada say the Harper government has shut down a federal climate change research network and blocked new studies on the impact of rising greenhouse-gas emissions.
The scientists, among a few dozen Canadians on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that won the Nobel Peace Prize for its report on global warming, say the atmosphere is changing faster than anticipated. But without adequate research, Harper and other world leaders won’t know what policies or targets to adopt.
Uganda: Energy Crisis Caused By Climate Change - Migereko
INDUSTRIALISED nations should provide mitigation measures to Africa’s energy crisis because they are the major contributors to climate change, which has affected the continent’s hydro-power generation.
Exxon Sees Rising CO2 Emissions Despite More Renewable Fuels
It’s hardly surprising that Exxon Mobil forecasts continued steady growth in petroleum demand for decades to come.
But the oil giant also sees alternative sources of energy rapidly expanding their share of the market, even if they require a big push in the form of government subsidies and legislation.
Solar-Power Fever May Not Last - Japan’s Tokuyama
The world’s current fever for solar power may not be sustainable and could be a bubble, an executive at Japanese silicon maker Tokuyama Corp said on Monday.
Right ways on the road
Cycling is often lauded as the panacea for a range of problems, from peak oil and parking to congested roads and declining fitness levels, the Nelson Mail said in an editorial on Tuesday.
However, it has its downside. The intrinsic health benefits are many and obvious, but wearing a suddenly opened car door is not one of them. Latest statistics from the police and ACC make the point yet again that, despite cycling’s many positives, those who do it are at risk.
Coastal shipping gets recognition, deserves more
“We are pleased the Government has finally woken up to the fact that nurturing and developing coastal shipping is a critical part of future proofing New Zealand against the joint impacts of peak oil and climate change,” Greens’ Spokesperson for Regional Economic Development Sue Bradford says.
UK: Radical emissions reductions achievable and cost-effective
“The government claims that seriously curbing our emissions means damaging the economy, and that nuclear power has a crucial role to play in securing our energy future. Today’s report shows this not to be true.”
The western appetite for biofuels is causing starvation in the poor world
Developing nations are being pushed to grow crops for ethanol, rather than food - all thanks to political expediency.
Sweden’s sustainable finance system (transcript of a previously-posted audio interview)
Andi Hazelwood: So how does JAK bank work that’s different than the conventional system?
Oscar Kjellberg: It’s an interest-free savings and loan system, and it’s a cooperative bank. The members borrow at no interest, and the loans are financed by the members’ deposits.
ExxonMobil breaks ground for largest petrochemical complex in Singapore
US energy giant ExxonMobil on Tuesday began building the world’s largest petrochemical complex in Singapore, which is expected to be ready by 2011.
Brent crude hits record high $92.31
The price of Brent crude oil struck an historic peak of 92.36 dollars per barrel in trading Tuesday on concerns over tight global energy supplies.
That beat a previous high of 92.31 dollars, struck on Monday.
…”If the inventory figures are bad again then it (New York crude) could push up to around the 97 dollar level,” said CMC Markets trader Nas Nijjar.
“It still feels as though there will be a test of the 100 dollars level … We’re not seeing any large sellers in this market.”
A Brief History of Oil (Profits)
Don’t believe the hype. The real reason for high oil prices is (gasp) that they bring in more profits for oil companies and Wall Street.
Telling the Whole Truth About Oil
World oil output is nearing 90 million b/d now, but it is never going to reach 100 million b/d. “Peak oil” may be just a few years away, or it may be right now. (You will never know until after the fact, since it is the point at which global oil production goes into gradual but irreversible decline.)
It is still deeply unpopular in the oil industry to talk about peak oil, but essentially what de Margerie was saying, albeit in a cautious and coded way, is that it is here or nearly here. The same sort of talk is coming from Rex Tillerson, chairman of ExxonMobil, who told the Financial Times earlier this year that he believed oil production from sources outside the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries could see “a little more growth” but would soon level off. And OPEC is generally assumed to be pumping very close to maximum capacity.
Scramble to insure against more oil price rises
Energy consumers and speculators are scrambling to take out options contracts to insure themselves against oil prices rising above $100 a barrel – a further sign of growing expectations of a spike in the crude market.
Some have even taken out contracts to protect themselves against prices rising to $250 a barrel in the next two years.
The buying frenzy has been “extraordinarily” strong in the past week as oil prices rose to a record high of $96.24 a barrel, according to traders and bankers.
“Options calls of strikes well over $100 a barrel are being bought by the thousands,” said Nauman Barakat of Macquarie Futures in New York.
Is it just me? Or is the world ending?
This year isn’t wrapping up very well. In fact, I’ll be honest with you. I’m scared. I feel like I’m in one of those video games I used to play when I was on a PC platform, the kind in which you have to run very fast over a lake of fire to get to a safe zone on the other side. In my mind, that area of relative comfort has a banner over it that says 2008. Everything else before that is just, well… fire and brimstone.
OPEC to take no decision on oil market - Algeria
Algerian Minister of Energy and Mines Chakib Khelil predicted here Monday that the OPEC would take no decision on the oil market ahead of its extraordinary ministerial meeting in Abu Dhabi on December 5.
He also expected that oil prices would remain at their current level until the second quarter of next year amid forecasts of a drop in international demand for oil by two million barrels per day.
Nigerian oil review may redirect investment flows
Nigeria’s planned review of oil contracts will bring more foreign investment to the Niger Delta where output has fallen, but make the fast-growing offshore less attractive, investors said on Tuesday.
China’s oil giants pledge to increase supplies of refined oil
China’s two leading oil giants have promised to increase production and supplies of refined oil to ease shortages on the domestic market, the government planning agency said Tuesday.
China’s edible oil firms urged again to be reasonable in price-setting
China’s major edible oil manufacturers and traders were urged again on Tuesday by the central government to exercise self-discipline and to be reasonable in price-setting in the wake of rising market prices for the product.
In a harshly-worded statement, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the nation’s top economic planning agency which oversees price affairs and other economic and social matters, said edible oil producers and traders would face punishment, including fines of up to 300,000 yuan (40,000 U.S. dollars), and have their business licenses revoked for violation of price laws and regulations.
Coast Guard: Oil Spilling Into Gulf
U.S. Coast Guard officials say about 2,000 gallons of crude oil have been released into the Gulf of Mexico after a pipeline ruptured near Port Arthur.
Egypt seeks to head table of ‘Arab nuclear family’
Egypt has emerged at the forefront of a new push by Arab nations to build nuclear power plants in the volatile Middle East even as the West is locked in a standoff with Iran over its atomic drive.
Clean green NZ battles climate change threat to trade, tourism
New Zealand is famous for its clean air and pristine environment but finds itself fighting for the future of its top export moneyspinners because of global climate change fears.
Clinton sees opportunity in climate woes
The battle against global warming means big economic opportunities as well as challenges for the U.S., Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday, touting her energy proposals as she campaigned in Iowa.
“For this generation, climate change is our space race,” said Clinton, speaking in a cavernous factory with giant wind turbines in the background.
Re: Global warming? 84 deg in Greenland
Posted on November 6, 2007 | Filed Under Our Future | Leave a Comment
Hi David, That is a bit disturbing. Out of curiosity I check that website and looked at the monthly numbers. As of June 30th the maximum high temperature for
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Portland, Bicycle City
Posted on November 6, 2007 | Filed Under Our Future | Leave a Comment
From the NY Times, November 5, 2007 In Portland, Cultivating a Culture of Two Wheels By WILLIAM YARDLEY PORTLAND, Ore. ? Susan Peithman did not have a job
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How and Why We Rationalize - other primates too
Posted on November 6, 2007 | Filed Under Our Future | Leave a Comment
From the NY Times, November 6, 2007 Go Ahead, Rationalize. Monkeys Do It, Too By JOHN TIERNEY For half a century, social psychologists have been trying to
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