Riots break out in Pakistani city over power cuts

Multan: A crowd protesting power cuts rioted in the home city of Pakistan’s new prime minister on Monday, ransacking the office of the state electricity company, torching a bank and leaving at least 13 people injured. Several hundred men marched to the office of the Water and Power Development Authority in Multan to protest power […]

Australia: ‘Dammed if we do’

…Steve

Diesel weasels its way into costs, supply-chain strategy

Soaring fuel costs percolate through to a range of product pricesCrude oil prices have soared 16% so far this year, and that

World Bank echoes food cost alarm

…Food prices have risen sharply in recent months, driven by increased demand, poor weather in some countries that has ruined crops and an increase in the use of land to grow crops for transport fuels. The price of staple crops such as wheat, rice and corn have all risen, leading to an increase in overall […]

High gas prices portend ‘The Long Emergency’

Just about anyone who’s filled up at the pumps in the past few days knows gas prices are at record highs. In most Canadian cities, retail gas prices topped $1.10 per litre last week. The increasingly high cost of filling up is no surprise considering that on Wednesday crude oil hit a trading record and […]

Australia: Diesel’s turn under the pump

THE new petrol price watchdog has promised to scrutinise soaring diesel prices, amid concern that oil companies are using the fuel to gouge profits previously earned on unleaded. At $1.60 a litre, the average national diesel pump price is now 19 cents a litre higher than the average petrol price, compared with a price gap […]

Shell’s future in Nigeria in doubt

Royal Dutch Shell is facing pressure from the Nigerian government and increasingly violent opposition in the Niger Delta oil-producing region, raising questions over its long-term future in the country. Sources in the Delta say the Nigerian government has withheld up to $1bn as part of a production-sharing agreement while the two sides are locked in […]

Are We Doomed? Why Civilizations Like Ours Fall

Are we doomed? Debora MacKenzie, the author of a recent New Scientist cover story, says our survival depends on how connected we are to each other. “A civilization is a system whereby people get what they need. They get the basics of life MacKenzie says it all comes down to how complex and interconnected your […]

The Coming War with Iran: It’s About the Oil, Stupid

World civilization is based on oil. The world is running out of oil. The oil companies and governments are not telling the truth about how close we are to the end. Dick Cheney knew about peak oil back in 1999 when he spoke to the London Petroleum Institute as Halliburton CEO. He predicted it would […]

Oman inflation jumps, showing cost of dollar peg

MUSCAT/DUBAI – Annual inflation in Oman, one of six Gulf oil producers, surged above 10 percent this year for the first time in at least 18 years, highlighting the cost of being pegged to the ailing dollar as food prices soared. Food, beverage and tobacco costs- which account for almost a third of the consumer […]

Shell Finds Leak, Shuts Oil Pipe From Gulf to Midwest

(Bloomberg) — Royal Dutch Shell Plc said a leak forced the shutdown of a crude oil pipeline that moves more than 1 million barrels a day from the Gulf of Mexico to Midwestern refiners, cutting supplies at a time of near-record prices. The Capline system was closed yesterday after a technician discovered a 10-gallon (37-liter) […]

Is sun setting on Hawaii

For 25 percent of adults, the first sign of heart disease is sudden death from a heart attack. For isolated economies, the first sign that you have flamed out might be that the planes stop flying to your airport on a regular basis. There is a tipping point to governing. At one point you can […]

Bakken oil shows market

We But so what? In the early 1800s, the future wasn

Saudi King says keeping some oil finds for future

Saudi Arabia – RIYADH (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah said he had ordered some new oil discoveries left untapped to preserve oil wealth in the world’s top exporter for future generations, the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported. “I keep no secret from you that when there were some new finds, I told them, […]

Defects found in nuclear reactor the French want to build in Britain

The French nuclear safety agency has uncovered a series of defects in the construction of a reactor in Normandy considered to be the template for the next generation of stations due to be built in Britain. The agency, ASN, says that a quarter of the welds seen in its steel liner The reports

Coming Ecological Collapse: Failing Ecosystems the Mother of All Bubbles

The converging mortgage, financial, food, fuel and climate crises are all symptoms of a massive global ecological bubble Ecological overshoot whereby humanity exceeds the Earth’s carrying capacity is the mother of all “bubbles”. Within the current sub-prime mortgage and financial bubbles, and food and energy price increases, we are witnessing the logical and inevitable economic […]

Warmer seas, over-fishing spell disaster for oceans: scientists

The future food security of millions of people is at risk because over-fishing, climate change and pollution are inflicting massive damage on the world’s oceans, marine scientists warned this week. The two-thirds of the planet covered by seas provide one fifth of the world’s protein — but 75 percent of fish stocks are now fully […]

The Great Biofuel Famine

How many deaths per gallon are you getting in your SUV? Using United Nations global poverty statistics as a base, it is now clear that United States and European Union biofuel policies will significantly contribute to the early, avoidable deaths of between 10 and 20 million people in the year 2008 alone. Only a post-disaster […]

France says food should take priority over biofuel

Production of food must take precedence globally over biofuels as prices surge and the threat of famine grows, France’s farm minister said on Friday, calling for a European Union initiative on world supplies. “Absolute priority must be given to agricultural production for food,” French Agriculture Minister Michel Barnier told Reuters, saying France would unveil proposals […]

Netherlands and Brazil agree to cooperate on sustainable biofuel production

Brazil and the Netherlands agreed Friday to work together on the sustainable production of biofuels and to help developing nations establish their own crops to make alternatives to fossil fuels. Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen said Brazil, the world’s largest producer of ethanol from sugar cane, is well placed to help the European Union meet […]

German development minister calls for regulation of biofuels market

Germany’s development minister is calling for greater regulation of the global biofuels market to prevent its expansion from driving up food prices. Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul says “it is unacceptable for the export of agrofuels to pose a threat to the supply situation of the very people already living in poverty.”She says the world needs new rules […]

Darling calls for urgent review of biofuel policies

Alistair Darling has demanded an urgent review of international biofuel programmes as part of a plan to tackle the world’s mounting food crisis. The Chancellor said he had asked the World Bank to produce an analysis – for June’s G7 meeting of global leaders – on the impact of green policies, including America and Europe’s […]

Energy politics in South Asia

An all too visible energy crunch lies at the heart of Pakistan’s unfolding economic crisis. In fact, its deleterious effects in various sectors have become obvious probably a trifle earlier than expected because of a rapid increase in demand. It is a problem that all the states of South Asia face in a setting where […]

Britain ignored risk of whale extinction in rush for oil and gas

Britain agreed to bankroll controversial drilling for oil and gas, despite a warning from its own officials of the “potentially devastating effects” on a critically endangered species of whale. The decision to flout their own experts’ advice is revealed in deeply embarrassing documents the Government fought for three years to keep secret. The documents – […]

Crushed on the road to oil armageddon

Record oil prices have pushed the UK’s road haulage industry close to meltdown, with unions warning that tax relief is all that can save many smaller companies Another week, another set of dire omens and fears for the UK haulage industry. Last week it was the turn of Unite, Britain’s largest trade union to warn […]

Economic crises can have health benefits

If everyone lost just 4 or 5 kilograms, mortality rates would drop dramatically. At least that’s one lesson from the ‘Special Period” economic crisis Cuba suffered in the 1990s. When the Soviet empire began to unravel in 1989, Cuba was hit with serious food and fuel shortages. From 1991 to 1995, people were getting only […]

Energy and food problems need global solutions, says Sachs

An interview with Jeffrey Sachs Any one of the problems that economist Jeffrey Sachs takes on would be daunting by itself: finding sustainable energy sources to avoid environmental destruction; stabilizing world population; ending extreme poverty and creating a new system for global cooperation. Yet Sachs, who directs the Earth Institute at Columbia University, tackles all […]

Oil and gas in Peru: A warm welcome

Within a decade, says Peru’s prime minister, Jorge del Castillo, his country will be a net exporter of energy. While other Latin American governments are tightening the screws on foreign investment in oil and gas, Peru is courting it. It has opened up swathes of the country to exploration, and is encouraging the $1 billion […]

Oil, environment, lifestyle fuel Asia’s two-wheeler boom

Record high oil prices, environmental concerns, affluent lifestyles as well as the need to dodge city traffic are driving a boom in Asia’s motorcycle and bicycle market, industry figures say. The rediscovery of cycling as a way to keep fit is also helping to boost demand for two-wheelers, those at a bicycle and motorcycle exhibition […]

Russia to Cut Oil Taxes as Production `Stagnates’

Russia will cut taxes on oil companies to overcome production “stagnation” after a decade of growth, Energy and Industry Minister Viktor Khristenko said. “The output level we have today is a plateau, stagnation,” Khristenko said in an interview with Bloomberg Television in Moscow. “We hope the debate on tax changes will be complete within two […]

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