Recipe for Famine

The bag of green peas, stamped

Defence warns of climate conflict

RISING sea levels could lead to failed states across the Pacific and require extra naval deployments to deal with increases in illegal migration and fishing, a Defence Force analysis says. “Environmental stress” has increased the risk of conflicts over resources and food and may demand greater involvement by the military in stabilisation, reconstruction and disaster […]

Russian Natural Gas Supply to Europe Dwindles

MOSCOW — The flow of Russian natural gas to Europe dropped sharply Tuesday with six countries reporting a complete halt of shipments as Russia deepened its gas embargo of neighboring Ukraine. Countries as far away as Italy and Germany warned of disruptions and the European Union called the sudden fuel cut-off to member countries “completely […]

The mystery of Antarctica’s speeding glacier

With the possible exception of the ice that covers Greenland, the West Antarctic ice shelf is the most important body of water in the world. If it thaws, the results will be disastrous for millions, raising sea levels and flooding coastal cities such as London, New York, Tokyo and Calcutta. So it is understandable that […]

U.S. In the Midst of a Revolution

Sandwiched around the election of the first African-American President of the United States, we find the debacles associated with the collapse of the international finance sector and the imminent end of the American automotive industry as we’ve known it for decades — accompanied by the scurrying of would-be leaders and experts around the world attempting […]

Utility cutoffs fuel carbon monoxide poisonings

Desperate families are turning to dangerous heat sources, experts say Severe winter weather and a stormy economy could combine to make one of the season

Brace for ‘Climate Wars’

…On how to predict the fall of human civilization: “Most of [the scenarios] were from military reports. There was a lot of awareness among scientists about the severity of climate change, but scientists don’t do strategic scenarios. A lot of that scenario stuff, believe it or not, actually started with Shell Oil back in the […]

Richard Heinberg: Slo-mo Splat

Remember the wall that environmentalists (like the 1972 “Limits to Growth” authors) have long been saying that industrial society would eventually hit? Permit me to make the formal introduction: Industrial society, meet wall; wall, meet industrial society. It’s understandably taking a while for the recognition to seep in. We are not accustomed to seeing every […]

Toyota to suspend production for 11 days in Japan

TOKYO A global economic downturn has hammered the auto industry in Japan and elsewhere, forcing carmakers to cut staff, lower production and delay new models. Major automakers in the U.S. had teetered on the brink of collapse until securing a multibillion dollar government lifeline. “We are coping with a slump in global sales,” Toyota spokesman […]

Russian Gas Supplies To Romania Still 30% Short – Transgaz

Deliveries of Russian gas to Romania were still 30% short of the planned volume after Russian gas group OAO Gazprom (GAZP.RS) said it would reduce supplies, the company handling the flow of gas said on Monday. “The fall of 30% in gas deliveries is continuing,” the director of the gas transit company Transgaz, Ioan Rusu, […]

Bulgaria says Russia gas supplies halted

Supplies of Russian gas via Ukraine to Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey stopped flowing on Tuesday because of a dispute between Moscow and Kiev over gas prices, officials in Sofia said.“As of 3.30 a.m. (0130 GMT) supplies … to Bulgaria as well as the transit to Turkey, Greece and Macedonia have been suspended,” Bulgaria’s Economy Ministry […]

Kuwait joins OPEC peers with deeper oil supply cuts

Kuwait will deepen oil supply curbs to its main customers in Asia later this month, refiner sources said on Tuesday, as the Gulf producer joins bigger OPEC peers in cutting back output to put a firmer floor beneath prices. State oil firm Kuwait Petroleum Company notified at least three Asian lifters that it will cut […]

Venezuela’s Chavez Scraps U.S. Heating Oil Program

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, under pressure to maintain domestic social programs as his country’s oil income falls, ended a three-year-old program that provided heating oil to low-income households in the U.S. Citgo Petroleum, the U.S. refining unit of state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA, is suspending deliveries of the oil “until further notice,” Joseph […]

East Africa: EAC Ministers Discuss Fuel Crisis

Ministers in charge of East African Affairs have discussed the ongoing fuel crisis in the region as a way of finding a solution to the problem that has affected the region despite the general decrease of its price on the global market. Speaking to The New Times, yesterday, the Minister for the East African Community, […]

Severn barrage: Row breaks out over UK’s biggest renewables project

Government consultants have been accused of miscalculating the costs of a project to generate vast amounts of green electricity in the Severn estuary, promoting a 10 mile-long tidal barrier strongly backed by ministers in preference to a scheme that engineers and environmentalists say is far less damaging. The US engineering firm Parsons Brinckerhoff has been […]

China’s green investment challenge

So far, the Chinese green sector appears to be unscathed from the current financial crisis with no shortage of capital flowing in. The most recent boost of course was the central government’s RMB 4 trillion (US$585 billion) economic stimulus package, which includes RMB 350 billion (US$36.5 billion) for environmental projects, such as waste-water treatment and […]

Abrupt climate shifts may move faster than thought

The United States could suffer the effects of abrupt climate changes within decades—sooner than some previously thought–says a new government report. It contends that seas could rise rapidly if melting of polar ice continues to outrun recent projections, and that an ongoing drought in the U.S. west could be the start of permanent drying for […]

Gulf takes wrong currency path

The end-of-year meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in Muscat apparently saw another step along the road to the creation of a GCC currency designed along the lines of the euro. It is surprising, to say the least, that the GCC is not taking a cool step back and reviewing the project from first […]

Tom Whipple: The Top 10 Peak-Oil-Related Stories of 2008

1. The Global Recession 2. Price Volatility: Who Knew? 3. Falling Investment = Building the Big Boomerang 4. The IEA Changes its Stance (will U.S. EIA, CERA and Exxon-Mobil follow?) 5. The Campaign and the Elections 6. OPEC Cuts Production 7. The Large Exporters: from Boom to Busted 8. Shale Gas: Game Changer or Rope-a-Dope? […]

Peak Oil Review – Jan 5

1. Last Week 2. Briefs 1. Last Week It was yet another wild ride for oil prices last week as the markets continued to balance unsettling economic news, Israel

The Promise of Wind

Embracing America In 2007, 35% of all the new electricity generation installed in the U.S.

The staggering cost of new nuclear power

A new study puts the generation costs for power from new nuclear plants at from 25 to 30 cents per kilowatt-hour The new study, Business Risks and Costs of New Nuclear Power, is one of the most detailed cost analyses publically available on the current generation of nuclear power plants being considered in this country. […]

Mexico’s Pemex pushes ahead with Chicontepec field

MEXICO CITY, Jan 5 (Reuters) – Mexico’s state oil company Pemex has awarded over 2 billion pesos ($148 million) in construction contracts at its Chicontepec project aimed at boosting crude output, the firm said on Monday. The contracts call for the construction of access roads and site preparation work at 344 well pads, where Pemex […]

Ethanol demands may consume grain crops: farmers

Farmers say one fifth of New South Wales’ grain crop could be eaten up by changes to the proportion of ethanol in unleaded fuel. The State Government announced last month it would quadruple the ethanol mandate within three years. Unleaded petrol will contain 10 per cent ethanol from mid 2011. Dougal Gordon, from the Australian […]

Food, Fuel and Fiber? The Challenge of Using the Earth to Grow Energy

Doubts about whether the rapid switch to biofuels was responsible for the spike in many food prices were washed away when the UK newspaper The Guardian got hold of a non-public World Bank report on the subject (see “Secret report: biofuel caused food crisis,” 4 July 2008). A top World Bank analyst had estimated that […]

Russia reduces gas flows to Europe via Ukraine

MOSCOW/KIEV (Reuters) – Russia reduced gas flows to Europe via Ukraine on Monday, a measure it said was to stop its neighbor siphoning off fuel but which Kiev said could jeopardize supplies to European countries including Germany. Countries in southern and eastern Europe reported new falls in gas supplies from Russia while Serbia and Bulgaria […]

Oil rises 5 percent as geopolitical concerns mount

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Oil prices rose 5 percent on Monday as Israel’s deepening incursion into Gaza and a dispute between Russia and Ukraine over natural gas heightened fears of supply disruptions. U.S. crude gained $2.47 to settle at $48.81 a barrel, after touching a three-week high of $49.28. London Brent crude rose $2.71 to […]

Gulf OPEC to ignore Iran oil supply cut call: source

DUBAI (Reuters) – Core OPEC oil producers in the Gulf would ignore Iran’s call for Islamic countries to cut supplies to supporters of Israel in response to the Israeli offensive in Gaza, an OPEC source said on Monday. “There are no plans to do this and I think it is very unlikely,” the source told […]

US drilling outlays soar to $226.4 billion in 2007

WASHINGTON, DC — US oil and gas drilling expenditures soared to a record $226.4 billion in 2007, more than doubling the previous record of $109.8 billion a year earlier, the American Petroleum Institute said on Jan. 5. API said the Joint Association Survey of Drilling Costs for 2007, the latest year for which figures are […]

Saudi Arabia finds 5 oil fields, 3 gas fields

SAUDI ARABIA. The world’s top oil exporter Saudi Arabia said on Monday it had discovered five new oilfields and three gasfields in the Eastern Province, the state news agency SPA reported. Four of the oilfields were on land and one was offshore, Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said in a statement carried by SPA. He named […]

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