Bering Glacier Melting Faster Than Scientists Thought

HOUGHTON, MI – A new system of measuring water melt shows that the Bering Glacier–the largest glacier in North America–is melting at double the rate that scientists thought. The glacier is releasing approximately 30 cubic kilometers of water a year, more than twice the amount of water in the entire Colorado River, said Robert Shuchman, […]

Some fuel terminals have short-term outages

BISMARCK, N.D. – Industry officials say they are mystified by fuel shortages at terminals in the Upper Midwest in recent days, but they expect enough supplies for the Labor Day holiday weekend. Terminals have run out of fuel in West Fargo and Grand Forks in North Dakota; Alexandria, Minn.; and Sioux Falls, S.D. Officials are […]

Gustav ‘Likely to Explode into Major Hurricane,’ Target GOM

Tropical Storm Gustav hasn’t deviated from its “very ominous” track toward the U.S. coast of the Gulf of Mexico, and is likely to strengthen into a major hurricane before making landfall, a private forecaster said Thursday. “This storm remains likely to explode into a major hurricane as it moves across the northwestern Caribbean and into […]

Peak Moment: Cultivating a Suburban Foodshed

Landscape architect Owen Dell has a vision: transforming suburban neighborhoods into shared “foodsheds” with food-bearing and native plants, and even chickens. Neighbors can start by finding edible plants already growing in their yards, maybe remove fences, plant what works best in each location. Best of all, share the resulting food abundance with one another (“Hey, […]

Bayer on defensive in bee deaths

Bayer CropScience is facing scrutiny because of the effect one of its best-selling pesticides has had on honeybees. A German prosecutor is investigating Werner Wenning, Bayer’s chairman, and Friedrich Berschauer, the head of Bayer CropScience, after critics alleged that they knowingly polluted the environment. The investigation was triggered by an Aug. 13 complaint filed by […]

Hurricane Gustav, Energy Infrastructure & Production Impacts/Models (Updated! Th

Latest updates from Chuck Watson: (11:30a 8/28) Compared to the morning drama, not much changed. Models still consolidating the reformation, and Gustav continues to reorganize. Hard to tell how much of the movement is motion vs. reorganization. As I keep emphasizing, until it gets to Cuba/Yucatan Straits Friday, longer range implications for the GOM fields […]

ExxonMobil case said to highlight Indonesia rights abuses

JAKARTA (AFP) “This decision is acknowledging what is common sense to many — if you are paying government militia to do your dirty work then you are responsible for their conduct,” said Australia-based Mineral Policy Institute director Techa Beaumont. Such operations “would be advised to reconsider their positions that payment to sections of the Indonesian […]

Northeast and Northwest Passages Both Free of Ice

For the first time ever, both the Northwest and the Northeast Passages are free of ice. Shipping companies have been waiting for this moment for years, but they will have to wait a little while longer before they can make use of the Arctic shortcut. …This route is radically shorter than the normal trip through […]

Slow Food Nation to Release Healthy Food & Agriculture Declaration

…Some of the leading voices in “the good food movement” have drafted the petition. It seeks to change the food policy of the United States and is described as a “national call for a new, sustainable food system.” It intends to provide “a clear and commonly held framework for future action to educate citizens and […]

Level with us: America needs a stiff dose of the truth

You don’t get elected president, or dog catcher, in America by suggesting that citizens change their profligate lifestyles. America is all about excess and consumption, forever and ever. The fantasy that keeps us going is that by the time the oil runs out we will have made a smooth transition to “alternative energy” sources. And […]

Raising Water Productivity

With water shortages emerging as a constraint on food production growth, the world needs an effort to raise water productivity similar to the one that nearly tripled land productivity during the last half of the twentieth century. Worldwide, average irrigation water productivity is now roughly 1 kilogram of grain per ton of water used. Since […]

Ain’t no wind in T. Boone Pickens’ sails

The oil tycoon’s support of John McCain for president demonstrates that his heavily advertised plan for wind power is only hot air. The epic struggle over clean energy that will define this century has been joined by the unlikeliest of Don Quixotes, ultraconservative oilman T. Boone Pickens. As Pickens tilts at billion-dollar windmill farms, he […]

Japan military may run out of gas money this year

TOKYO: Japan’s military may use up its annual fuel budget months early this year, despite running some ships and planes at low power and cutting back on major exercises. Faced with fuel costs that exceed spending plans by 60 percent, the Self Defense Force has scaled back training missions involving jets and ships, vehicles are […]

Gustav shifts course, heads toward Jamaica

MIAMI – A strengthening Tropical Storm Gustav jogged to the south on Thursday and was likely to graze southern Jamaica and the western tip of Cuba before nearing the oil fields of the Gulf of Mexico as a powerful hurricane. The eventual U.S. landfall of the seventh storm of what experts have predicted will be […]

A Really Bad Couple of Weeks for Pax Americana

Russia’s intervention in what it used to call its ”near abroad” was clearly the most spectacular of the fortnight’s developments, both because of its unprecedented use of overwhelming military force against a U.S. ally heavily promoted by Washington for membership in NATO and because of the geo-strategic implications of its move for the increasingly-troubled Atlantic […]

Nigeria: Country Sets Ambitious Renewable Energy Target

Nigeria has set an ambitious target of moving 20 per cent of the country to off-grid renewable energy sources by 2012. Renewable energy presently contributes less than one per cent of the country’s energy mix profile. Dr Victor Fodeke, Head of the Nigeria Special Climate Change Unit, told NAN yesterday in Accra that the move […]

Biofuel buses could hit end of line in Toronto

Amid concerns over rising fuel costs and the growing worldwide debate over the environmental benefits of biofuels, Toronto’s transit agency will consider abandoning the use of biodiesel for its massive bus fleet. In a meeting tomorrow, the nine city councillors who oversee the Toronto Transit Commission will debate a report that advises the agency to […]

Nanosolar raises $300 million for thin-film solar

Nanosolar, a maker of thin-film solar panels, said that it has raised $300 million to accelerate production of solar-power facilities in Berlin and San Jose, Calif. The round of funding, which was completed this spring but announced Wednesday by Nanosolar CEO Martin Roscheisen on the company’s blog, brings the total money the six-year-old company has […]

Compressed-air storage coming to wind power

A New Jersey company said on Tuesday it will invest $20 million over three years to develop an underground compressed-air storage system for wind turbines and other power sources, a sign of growing confidence in the technology. With Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES), air is pumped into underground formations, such as depleted natural gas wells […]

Iraq and China agree to $3 billion oil service deal

BEIJING (Reuters) – Iraq and China have agreed the terms of a $3 billion oil service contract, Iraq’s oil minister said on Wednesday, announcing the first major oil contract with a foreign firm since the fall of Saddam Hussein. Energy-hungry China has beaten international oil majors to take the first opening since the U.S.-led invasion […]

Cut greenhouse gases to save coral reefs: scientists

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – To keep coral reefs from being eaten away by increasingly acidic oceans, humans need to limit the amount of climate-warming greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, a panel of marine scientists said on Wednesday. “The most logical and critical action to address the impacts of ocean acidification on coral reefs is to stabilize […]

Sugar to Gain 14% on Brazil Ethanol Demand, Guarani CEO Says

Aug. 27 (Bloomberg) — Sugar futures will rise 14 percent in coming months as higher fuel prices prompt mills in Brazil to turn more cane into ethanol rather than sweetener, according to Acucar Guarani SA. Sugar will rise to about 16 cents a pound, said Jacyr Costa Filho, chief executive officer of Guarani, Brazil’s third- […]

Ag Giants Go Wild Over Next-Generation Ethanol

While the food vs. fuel debate rages on, I think most of us can agree that using corn crop residue to produce bioenergy is a pretty palatable option. This tasty target is the subject of a new powerhouse partnership between Big Ag aces Monsanto (NYSE: MON), Deere (NYSE: DE), and Archer Daniels Midland (NYSE: ADM). […]

Here’s why the stock market is all about oil these days

Q: Why does the price of oil seem to have such a big influence on the stock market? A: Our nation relies heavily on oil and other fossil fuels. And that is reflected by the stock market. When oil and gasoline prices rise, consumers feel the hit almost immediately. Suddenly, they cringe as they see […]

No more cheap energy, warns cabinet minister John Hutton

John Hutton, the Business Secretary, admits households will struggle to pay their heating bills this winter due to rising costs. But he effectively rules out imposing a windfall tax on energy firms because it would only lead to higher charges for customers. He says: “The era of cheap energy is over. The question is how […]

Canada to map resources in Arctic for development

TORONTO (AP) Arctic sovereignty has moved to the forefront among northern countries as global warming melts Arctic ice and opens new shipping routes and access to untapped, potentially rich resources. Natural gas has already been discovered in the Beaufort Sea, oil has been found in eastern areas of the Arctic Ocean and diamond mining is […]

The greatest failure of thought in human history

…Earth is warming because humans, primarily in industrialized nations, suffer from systems blindness. We have failed to recognize the effects of our insatiable use of fossil fuels, massive resource consumption, and huge emission of waste, including greenhouse gasses, on the ecological and social systems we depend on for life. That blindness threatens all life forms […]

Will lasers brighten nuclear’s future?

Inside a bland industrial building in Wilmington, N.C., an experiment is in the works that could vastly reduce the cost, time, and space needed to make fuel for nuclear power plants and, some nonproliferation experts say, for nuclear bombs as well. In that building, secret uranium-enrichment technology licensed by GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy is nearing a […]

We drive as we live

No wonder traffic will never improve. We are doomed by our behavior, as a drive in New York with “Traffic” author Tom Vanderbilt reveals. … Vanderbilt emerged from his road trips with the world’s arcane professors of traffic with a narrative humming with vigorous facts. Did you know more people travel on Saturday at 1 […]

Schweitzer Speech Energizes the Convention

Mark Warner was tonight’s keynote speaker, but it was the raucous Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer who worked the crowd into a frenzy, delivering a kinetic speech about–of all things–energy policy. It’s hard to imagine anybody getting quite that fired up about energy policy in 2004. Schweitzer’s remarks (a prepared transcript of which is available on […]

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