Monsoon Model Indicates Potential for Abrupt Transitions

A self-amplifying effect presently sustains monsoon winds, but it could also disrupt the circulation over land and sea. The periodical rainfall could stop from one season to another or for months within seasons. High air pollution could lead to the disruption, researchers of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research report in the Proceedings of […]

MIT: Better way to harness waste heat

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – New MIT research points the way to a technology that might make it possible to harvest much of the wasted heat produced by everything from computer processor chips to car engines to electric powerplants, and turn it into usable electricity. More than half of the energy consumed worldwide is wasted, most of […]

The Peak Oil Crisis: Accusations

Not many years from now, there will be a huge uproar over who missed the coming of peak oil. There will be Congressional hearings and much finger pointing and protestations that the peaking of world oil production was impossible to predict. It will all sound much like current discussions of whether our great recession was […]

Scotland: Island braced for winds of change

Where Seumas MacDonald grew up he says people used to plough land that’s now under water. He said: “We probably lost about 20 to 30 yards along the coast. I was born and brought up here and I’d like to see it remaining. I’m really worried about it because this is all that’s holding back […]

Why China Isn't Willing to Get Too Tough on Iran

A U.S. push for harsher sanctions against Iran won’t be welcomed in Beijing, for two reasons. First, for all the talk of China as the other half of a “G-2″ that will That’s odd, on the face of it, because China’s interests in Iran are very different from Russia’s. Moscow is a huge energy exporter […]

Experts: Smart grid poses privacy risks

Technologists already are worried about the security implications of linking nearly all elements of the U.S. power grid to the public Internet. Now, privacy experts are warning that the so-called “smart grid” efforts could usher in a new class of concerns, as utilities begin collecting more granular data about consumers’ daily power consumption. “The modernization […]

Mexico Not Considering Pricing Change for Oil Exports

(Bloomberg) — Mexico Aramco, Saudi Arabia

Rising fuel prices hit consumers

The government’s key inflation measure came in higher than expected due to a 6.3% jump in oil and gas prices. NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Consumer prices in October were essentially unchanged from a year ago, the government reported Wednesday, as the rising cost of oil and gas offset earlier price declines. The Consumer Price Index, […]

Time and the Latest CERA Report: Why 2030 for the Peak?

One of the features of many models that are used to predict future events is that they focus on target years. Decadal years are the most common target years, so that whether talking of climate or the amount of oil or natural gas available, models focus on, for example, the amount that will be available […]

Forget $100 oil. $80 oil is a problem

Energy prices don’t need to rise that much before a fragile consumer-led economy could face another setback. NEW YORK (Fortune) — Are cash-strapped American consumers on for another date with energy price misery? The U.S. economy remains weak and one in six Americans can’t find enough work. Yet oil prices have risen steadily this year. […]

Why Some People Go Green – and Others Don't

…It may seem that all Prius drivers are Democrats and that Republicans are behind the wheels of Hummers, but a new book from Duke University social scientists Scott de Marchi and James T. Hamilton argues that political affiliation has very little to do with consumer decisions. In You Are What You Choose, de Marchi and […]

The petroleum civil war

The petroleum world is at war with itself, and the stakes of the quarrel are high for all of us. The debate concerns the concept of peak oil Some respected analysts have forecasted such warnings. Businessman Warren Buffet

UN: Fight climate change with free condoms

LONDON “As the growth of population, economies and consumption outpaces the Earth’s capacity to adjust, climate change could become much more extreme and conceivably catastrophic,” the report said. The world’s population will likely rise from the current 6.7 billion to 9.2 billion in 2050, with most of the growth in less developed regions, according to […]

Nuclear promises safe, cheap energy, but the truth is less enticing

Energy independence is the new creationism; nuclear power its deity. As the head glow for nuclear’s new dawn, you can’t do better than Aris Candris. He’s president and CEO of Westinghouse Electric, the company aiming to build 14 of 25 new nuclear reactors planned in the United States. Candris also sums up everything that’s wrong […]

Peak Oil? Not Here and Not For Decades, CERA Study Says

Peak oil And supply won

Earth 'heading for 6C' of warming

Average temperatures across the world are on course to rise by up to 6C without urgent action to curb CO2 emissions, according a new analysis. Emissions rose by 29% between 2000 and 2008, says the Global Carbon Project. All of that growth came in developing countries, but a quarter of it came through production of […]

The Oil Sands and the World Energy Outlook

International Energy Agency (IEA) executive director Nobuo Tanaka noted that Suffice it to say at a certain point consumers started driving less, flying less, spending less–using less carbon-based fuel. As aggregate demand for energy declined steeply along with the global economy, however, companies began to scale back, postpone and/or cancel planned development projects. At the […]

In signal to West, Iran boosts fuel output

TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran said it temporarily boosted gasoline production by about 30 percent on Tuesday to show the West it can cope with any sanctions targeting its fuel imports. Oil Minister Massoud Mirkazemi said the move to raise output by 14 million liters per day increased total output to 58.5 million liters. Domestic consumption […]

New food price crisis a matter of time-UN

ROME, Nov 17 (Reuters) – A new food price crisis is only a matter of time, the U.N. food envoy said on Tuesday, criticising world leaders for not tackling what he saw as the key factors behind price spikes in 2008 — speculation and biofuels. The U.N. Special Rapporteur Olivier De Schutter also said a […]

Pemex Proven Reserves May Drop for 11th Straight Year

Nov. 17 (Bloomberg) — Petroleos Mexicanos, the state-owned oil company, said proven reserves of crude-oil equivalent may drop for an 11th straight year as existing fields dry up and discoveries are smaller than expected. Proven reserves may decline 2.8 percent to 13.9 billion barrels this year, Vinicio Suro, director of planning at Pemex Pemex, as […]

Shooting heightens tensions in Nigerian oil delta

PORT HARCOURT, Nov 17 (Reuters) – Nigerian militants accused the army of threatening a ceasefire in the oil-producing Niger Delta on Tuesday by raiding a former rebel commander’s home, but the military said it was just responding to reports of shooting. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said the military joint […]

Led by China, CO2 gases rise despite economy

It’s growth meant another increase in 2008; ‘09 should see global drop WASHINGTON – Pollution typically declines during a recession. Not this time. Despite a global economic slump, worldwide carbon dioxide pollution rose 2 percent last year, most of the increase coming from China, according to a study published online Tuesday. Carbon dioxide emissions, the […]

IEA says sees little OECD oil demand recovery

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Oil demand in wealthy countries has not improved much and the patchy state of global recovery could prompt OPEC to keep output steady at its next meeting, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Tuesday. High distillate stocks in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the group of 30 rich nations, […]

Peak oil review – Nov 16

1. The day of the whistleblower 2. A New focus for the World Energy Outlook 3. Production and prices 4. Oil and the recovery Quote of the Week The Briefs 1. The day of the whistleblower The International Energy Agency captured headlines nearly all week. The publication of the IEA

The developing scandal around the IEA and peak oil

The IEA …The full impact of these developments has not yet been appreciated by the world economic community. For many years (up until its 2008 report) the IEA has predicted future world oil output based on what would be required to support future predicted economic growth. This is putting the cart before the horse since […]

No Plan for Oil Shortages in North America

At the 2009 ASPO Peak Oil Conference, the security outlook for North America was given a surprising twist by Rick Munroe, a Canadian farmer who learned about peak oil some years ago and decided to find out if the military or the government was doing any planning to address the problem. His efforts turned up […]

Group Wants Government to Jump-Start the E.V. Revolution

Calling for what amounts to a Marshall Plan to start manufacturing plug-in hybrids and battery-electric cars, a group of executives from the auto and utility industries, and prospective plug-in fleet buyers laid out a strategy on Monday at a roundtable in Washington. The new group, called the Electrification Coalition, envisions significant federal assistance in jump-starting […]

Summary Presentation for Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization

The Challenges: Food Insecurity and Climate Change The Response: Plan B We have the tools to reverse these negative trends and can choose to stabilize climate, eradicate poverty, restore the earth These facts, and more, are featured in this guided tour through the Plan B blueprint to move the world onto a sustainable path. Based […]

Carving up Africa for Food and Fuel

The landgrab heats up, and the neocolonialists stake their claims. Fifty million acres: gone! It These are just a few of the published deals, and they might represent just the

The New Natural Gas Paradigm: 30,000 Trillion cubic feet (and counting)

…While the peak oil debate will surely rage on for years to come, perhaps the more important finding in the IEA report was completely ignored. In the executive summary, the IEA concludes that Indeed, the new estimates provide evidence of a new natural gas paradigm, one that is based on abundant supplies of methane in […]

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