Interest in algae's oil prospects is growing

To many, algae is little more than pond scum, a nuisance to swimmers and a frustration to boaters. But to a growing community of scientists and investors in Southern California, there is oil locked in all that slimy stuff, and several dozen companies are racing to try to figure how best to unleash it and […]

UAE is oil-rich, but struggles to get power to all

The Emirates, home to the world’s fifth largest reserves of conventional crude oil, is using its petrodollars to build one of the most modern countries on earth in a matter of decades. Vast amounts of Arabian oil money have packed its cities of Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah with spectacular skyscrapers and mosques during a […]

Chavez Seeks to Boost Oil Production With China Deal

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said China will invest $16 billion to boost oil production in the country, as part of a strategy to reduce dependence on the U.S. and strengthen oil ties with other nations. A Venezuelan commission is meeting with Chinese officials, and the deal to develop the block with state oil company Petroleos […]

Brazil eyes limits on Amazon sugar cane growth

The Brazilian government presented new legislation Thursday intended to protect the Amazon from deforestation by banning any new planting of sugar cane, widely cultivated for ethanol production. “Now we can say that our ethanol is 100 percent green,” said Environment Minister Carlos Minc announcing the proposed rules.The legislation would ban new clearing or planting of […]

Cars running on ethanol can pollute too: Brazil study

Cars running on sugarcane ethanol can produce as many harmful pollutants as those using ordinary petrol (gasoline), according a study published by Brazil’s environment ministry. But the report on the emissions of the cars on Brazil’s roads does not count carbon dioxide emissions.“We want to make sure that customers are aware of pollutant emissions” when […]

The Peak Oil Crisis: The Next Price Spike

The peak oil thesis holds that the cessation of further growth in world oil production will be accompanied by wild price swings as the world attempts to adjust to the new state of affairs. Now that mankind’s oil supply has not grown significantly in the last four years despite some very high prices in the […]

Oil Investors Embark on Voyage of Discovery

Barely a week goes by without a major oil discovery being announced. Recent hot spots include the Gulf of Mexico, Brazil and West Africa. But beware jumping to conclusions about how much this changes the dynamics of energy supply, for oil bears or peak-oil pundits. The discoveries show energy companies are no slouches in finding […]

China's projected fossil fuel use 'shocking'

BEIJING | If China’s economy continues to expand rapidly and rely heavily on coal and other fossil fuels until the middle of the century, its power consumption would be unsustainable, according to a study by government think tanks released Wednesday. The two-year study, supported by the U.S.-based Energy Foundation and the international environmental group WWF, […]

$20 per gallon of gasoline

It Once President George H.W. Bush said,

Ralhall, Salazar Find New Ways to Reinstate Moratorium

It’s been nearly a year since the since the federal government responded to the will of the American people and retired its decades-old bans on responsible offshore energy exploration. Unfortunately, one year later, it seems as though that long overdue response was merely a gesture. In fact, not only are we no closer to tapping […]

Going 'coach' makes sense

The City of North Vancouver has bravely put forward the idea of allowing homeowners to build secondary residences, or coach houses, on their properties knowing full well the outcry that such a move would create within the community. Sadly an impasse was reached during council on July 20 and the discussion has been put on […]

SGA 2009: Climate Change and Energy Security

Southern Governors engaged in a broad dialogue about climate change and energy security during the annual meeting in Williamsburg, Virginia. The agenda for this gathering was developed to support the region …Under the leadership of SGA Chairman Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, SGA is providing a forum for member Governors to explore together federal, regional and […]

August Seas Warmest in at Least 120 Years

The National Climatic Data Center has released its review of worldwide sea surface temperatures for August and for the stretch from June through August and finds that both the month and the Sea ice in the Arctic appears to be starting the slow late-summer freeze after reaching its minimum extent several days ago, by a […]

GOP's Martinez lobbied Pentagon on behalf of big donor

Sen. Mel Martinez’s office repeatedly intervened in a 2007 legal dispute between the Defense Department and a company owned by a top Republican fundraiser who is now at the center of a campaign-finance investigation, according to records obtained by The Miami Herald. In a series of phone calls and e-mails, a Martinez aide urged Pentagon […]

Communicating Science: Not Just Talking the Talk

The issues involved in science communication are complex and often seem intractable. We While there may be some similarities in theme with

Drought Causing India Farmers to Sell Wives

Faced with starvation and complete financial ruin, farmers in the drought-ridden region of Bundelkhand are being forced to sell what is often times their only remaining “possession”: their wives. The area of central India straddling the states of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh suffered from one of the worst droughts in recent memory this summer. […]

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon: The Ice Is Melting

Two weeks ago, I visited the Arctic. I saw the remains of a glacier that just a few years ago was a majestic mass of ice. It had collapsed. Not slowly melted I was alarmed by the rapid pace of change there. Worse still, changes in the Arctic are now accelerating global warming. Thawing permafrost […]

Andrés Duany Speaks on Urbanism: 'Urbanism Molts, it Evolves'

…Three near-simultaneous “crises”—global warming, peak oil and the housing bubble—have recently jolted people from complacency, Duany said. And one culprit, according to Duany, is to blame for the current environmental crisis: the lifestyle of the American middle class. “It’s how we consume land, how we transport ourselves, how we feed ourselves and what we do […]

Legislation for a 21st Century Transportation System Doesn't Come Easy

The road to reforming the nation’s transportation systems looks to be a long and winding one. Once lawmakers decide when to move forward with the sweeping overhauls they promise, they will need to find a way to pay for it. And once that difficult task is accomplished, the debate will only grow more complicated. Many […]

Greenland icesheet could melt faster than thought: study

PARIS (AFP) “It is entirely possible that a future temperature increase of a few degrees Celsius in Greenland will result in a icesheet mass loss and contribution to sea level rise larger than previously projected,” it warns. Greenland contains enough water to raise sea levels by about seven metres (23 feet). Even a far more […]

John Michael Greer: Daydreams of Destruction

…One of the crucial facts about the future, after all, is that the fossil fuels that prop up current lifestyles across the industrial world, and provide the basis for survival for hundreds of millions in the Third World, are depleting rapidly with no adequate replacements in sight. That hard fact pretty much guarantees a future […]

Advanced Solar Panels Coming to Market

Nanosolar’s new factory could help lower the price of solar power, if the market cooperates. A promising type of solar-power technology has moved a step closer to mass production. Nanosolar, based in San Jose, CA, has opened an automated facility for manufacturing its solar panels, which are made by printing a semiconductor material called CIGS […]

Oilwatch Monthly September 2009

The September 2009 edition of Oilwatch Monthly can be downloaded. The Oilwatch Monthly is a newsletter that is available free of charge with the latest data on oil supply, demand, oil stocks, spare capacity and exports. A summary and latest graphics below the fold.Latest Developments: 1) Conventional crude production – Latest figures from the Energy […]

Gulf 'dead zone' to grow dramatically due to federal biofuel mandate

A new study says efforts to shrink the massive, oxygen-depleted dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico will be stifled if the U.S. continues to increase its biofuel production. Every year copious amounts of fertilizer and nutrient-rich sentiment dump into the Gulf of Mexico from the mouth of the Mississippi River, feeding massive algae blooms […]

Minister: Brazil's Oil Reserves Will Last 50 Years

Brazil will have crude for half a century and become a leading oil exporter and “an important player in international geopolitics,” the country’s energy minister said Wednesday during a congressional hearing. Edison Lobao said that thanks to the vast potential of its pre-salt region, so-named because the estimated 50-80 billion barrels of oil equivalent it […]

Would You Know How Survive After the Oil Crash?

Could you get by without your car, food from outside your community, your job? There’s a bunch of folks who want to show you how. Do you know how to make shoes? Can you build a house? How about grow food? Do you have a doctor and a dentist in your circle of friends?These are […]

Offshore Wind To Power Europe

“Offshore wind power is vital for Europe’s future,” the European Wind Energy Association said in a report published at an offshore wind industry conference in Stockholm. Currently, 11 wind farms harness the stronger winds at sea, mostly in Britain and Scandinavia. Together, they account for only 0.2 percent of Europe’s electricity demand, but that figure […]

Germany clears plan for offshore wind park zones

Germany’s cabinet on Wednesday adopted a plan to speed along the construction of offshore wind parks in the North Sea, paving the way for a targeted 25,000 megawatts of capacity to come on line by 2030. Germany, one of the leading onshore wind power nations, aims to move turbines out to sea in order to […]

Russian pact stokes Caucasus tensions

Russia has signed defense agreements with Georgia’s breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia regions, allowing Moscow to maintain military bases in the rebel regions for the next half-century. In a separate move also likely to ratchet up tensions in the Black Sea region, Russia announced that it would seize any Georgian ship it finds off Abkhazia’s […]

'Global health catastrophe' feared without climate deal

Medical leaders all over the world are warning of a global health catastrophe if governments cannot agree on cuts in greenhouse gases when they meet at Copenhagen in December. In articles in The Lancet and British Medical Journal, 18 professional medical organisations say developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa are particularly vulnerable.They say that what is […]

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