The rich can relax. We just need the poor world to cut emissions. By 125%

Well, at least that clears up the mystery. Over the past year I’ve been fretting over an intractable contradiction. The government has promised spectacular cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. It is also pushing through new roads and runways, approving coal-burning power stations, bailing out car manufacturers and ditching regulations for low-carbon homes. How can these […]

Arctic glacier to lose Manhattan-sized 'tongue'

The biggest glacier in the Arctic is on the verge of losing a chunk of ice the size of Manhattan. A group of scientists and climate change activists who are closely monitoring the Petermann glacier’s ice tongue believe the rapid flow of ice is in part due to warm ocean currents moving up along the […]

Three Plans for Fuel Emergencies

Three plans for fuel emergencies have recently been released by UK public sector agencies. This review compares the three plans, highlights certain points from each, and provides internet links to the documents. DECC’s Business Continuity Management for Fuel Shortages (Nov. 08) Although DECC is now the lead ministry during fuel emergencies, their document is the […]

Wood stoves — a viable home heat source?

MADISON, WI — The stress of rising natural gas prices is leading many consumers to rethink how they heat their homes. For some this means moving towards modern alternative energy options, while others have been turning to a more traditional method for a solution to these rising costs. In Canada and the United States, wood […]

Toyota launches Lexus hybrid

TOKYO (Reuters) – Toyota Motor Corp launched its first dedicated hybrid model under the premium Lexus brand on Tuesday, saying it had received orders worth six months of targeted sales in Japan. The launch of the HS250h sedan marks the latest push by the world’s biggest automaker to drive fuel-sipping hybrids into the mainstream as […]

Then & now

Recently a friend gave me a copy of a January 22, 1973 issue of Newsweek. The cover title was

Students dig into sustainable farming at Vermont college

POULTNEY, Vt. “Lots of schools study sustainable agriculture but I don’t think any of them put it into practice,” said spokesman Kevin Coburn. There are no tractors on the 22 acres next to the brick campus of the small liberal arts college on the edge of the town

Moratorium sought in Utah on depleted uranium

SALT LAKE CITY “Utah is vulnerable,” said Christopher Thomas, public policy director of the group. Depleted uranium is classified as the least dangerous type of low-level radioactive waste and has been disposed of for 18 years at the EnergySolutions Inc. facility in the Utah desert 70 miles west of Salt Lake City. However, the material […]

Does NASA's James Hansen Still Matter in Climate Debate?

When NASA climatologist James Hansen testified to Congress in 1988 about the dangers of global warming, his words became a rallying cry for environmentalists and politicians determined to control heat-trapping gases. When Hansen, the director of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, showed up at a briefing on Capitol Hill yesterday, it was with little […]

Obama in Africa: A Major Disappointment

Africans are screwing up, and if they want more American aid, they’ve got to get their act together. This is the Obama analysis–simplistic, myopic, patronizing, implicitly threatening, just what we expected and got from George Bush. Like Bush, evidence based-reality takes a back seat to whatever reality a president chooses to concoct. For the past […]

Brown to Promote Wind, Clean Coal to Curb U.K.

(Bloomberg) — The U.K., more reliant on natural gas than any country in Western Europe, will try to persuade utilities to build more wind parks and carbon-free coal plants. Britain is importing record volumes of gas, through pipelines from Norway and by ship from the Middle East, to replace production from spent North Sea fields. […]

OPEC Forecasts Slower Oil Demand Recovery Next Year Than IEA

(Bloomberg) — The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries expects a slower rebound in oil demand next year than the International Energy Agency, based on a weaker outlook for the global economy. Worldwide crude-oil consumption will increase by 500,000 barrels a day, or 0.6 percent, to 84.3 million a day in 2010 as industrial production gradually […]

It's All About Energy… – Re-localizing politics and energy capture

Only through securing localized progressive political control , eg: the ability to control energy sources and forms of harnessing energy, will we be able to move to a more just and equitable society based on sustainable practices. *Note: The term “localized” needs defining by the user: a parameter that will be variably dependent on population […]

On tiny plots, a new generation of farmers emerges

ROCHESTER, Wash. Wobbly Cart is also tiny, just 6 acres. Nationwide, the average farm is 449 acres. But Gabiou and business partner Asha McElfresh, 32, differ from typical farmers in another way. Wobbly Cart, say agriculture specialists, is part of a movement in which young people

Syria: Hubble bubble means forest trouble

It is thought that hundreds of Syrians work in the production of charcoal today, especially in the heavily wooded northern coastal areas of Tartous and Latakia. The numbers have increased because of the recent rise in unemployment and inflation, observers say. Some people with other jobs produce charcoal in their spare time to raise cash […]

Exxon to Invest Millions to Make Fuel From Algae

The oil giant Exxon Mobil, whose chief executive once mocked alternative energy by referring to ethanol as “moonshine,” is about to venture into biofuels. On Tuesday, Exxon plans to announce an investment of $600 million in producing liquid transportation fuels from algae — organisms in water that range from pond scum to seaweed. The biofuel […]

Drawing Critics, China Seeks to Dominate in Renewable Energy

When the United States’ top energy and commerce officials arrive in China on Tuesday, they will land in the middle of a building storm over China’s protectionist tactics to become the world’s leader in renewable energy. Calling renewable energy a strategic industry, China is trying hard to make sure that its companies dominate globally. Just […]

Desertec – a nanotechnology-enabled bold vision for an energy revolution

According to Desertec, in order to meet today’s global power demand of 18,000 TWh/year, it would suffice to equip about three thousandths of the world‘s deserts (about 90,000 square kilometers) with solar collectors of solar thermal power plants. About 20 square meters of desert would be enough to meet the individual power demand of one […]

Time To Invest With The Ants

Buying resources makes perfect sense if you have even a broad idea of the resource crisis that’s approaching. The problems we have today may seem big, but at least they can be solved by money. The coming resource shortage cannot. China’s method of using money to accumulate resources is now one of a few possible […]

Enjoying the sunset of the automobile era

Last Friday I walked down Main Street, along with thousands of others out to enjoy the sunshine and ogle the dazzling array of classic cars at the Atlantic Nationals. For all the merriment, to me it feels like the sunset of the automobile era — the last couple of hurrahs before peak oil and climate […]

Buyouts back on the table in the oil industry

Takeover activity has returned to the oil exploration sector with a vengeance with deals totalling almost ‘The real feeling is that in the short to medium term, the oil price could plunge,’ said one analyst. ‘Companies are looking at the high cost of production and doing deals to cut costs. ‘But over the longer term, […]

Pakistan 'fatwa' on power thieves

A power company in Pakistan has obtained a decree – or fatwa – from 12 senior Islamic scholars, declaring the theft of electricity a sin. The Karachi Electricity Supply Company (KESC) says the thieves are costing it 1bn rupees ($12.3m) a month. People had to realise, it said, that stealing electricity was as illegal and […]

'E-Rockit' hits German fast lane

A Berlin inventor has come up with an electric bike which you power by pedalling that can reach speeds of 50 mph. Stefan Gulas has developed a system that amplifies the effort you put in by a factor of 50, meaning you can accelerate quickly and maintain high speeds with very little effort. Video: BBC […]

Trapping Carbon Dioxide Or Switching To Nuclear Power Not Enough

Attempting to tackle climate change by trapping carbon dioxide or switching to nuclear power will not solve the problem of global warming, according to energy calculations published in the July issue of the International Journal of Global Warming. Bo Nordell and Bruno Gervet of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Lule

Siemens, Munich Re Start Developing Sahara Project

(Bloomberg) — Siemens AG, Munich Re and 10 more companies agreed to draw up blueprints for a project to harness power from the Sahara Desert sun to bring extra electricity to European homes. The plan, including technical and financial requirements to pipe power from the Sahara under the Mediterranean Sea to Europe, will need three […]

Small town fears quakes from geothermal energy project

ANDERSON SPRINGS On a ridgetop above Anderson Springs, Bay Area startup AltaRock Energy Inc. is drilling a hole more than 2 miles deep. As soon as August, the company plans to inject high-pressure water to crack the solid, 500-degree Fahrenheit bedrock, creating an artificial reservoir of superheated water. The steam will then be used to […]

Kunstler: Wobble Time

… From a purely practical standpoint, the electric car is absurd. If they were produced on a mass basis, they would crash the electric grid — assuming that the masses could afford to buy them, which assumes a lot. We simply don’t have the electric generating capacity to run even one-quarter of the current car […]

A day to remember how political the price of oil has become

This Saturday just passed “In July, 2008 the production of oil around the world peaked. For years prior to this, geologists, economists, politicians, and a growing number of concerned citizens had tried to sound the alarm bell

Countries betting tech can clean up coal

(CNN) — In the high-stakes game of climate change, the United States and other countries are betting on the idea that technology can make dirty coal cleaner. For years if not decades, U.S. efforts to develop big coal-fired power plants that push CO2 emissions into the ground instead of spewing them into the atmosphere have […]

Out of gas but a better future awaits

Two new books say the rising price of oil-based energy will force us to change our lives for the better. $20 per Gallon: How the Inevitable Rising Cost of Gas Will Change Our Lives for the Better. Christopher Steiner, Grand Central Publishing. 288 pages. Why Your World Is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller: […]

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