Sharon Astyk: Reconsidering Cities

There are cities I think have little or no future in the face of climate change and energy depletion, and ones I think have quite a bright future. How do you know which kind of city yours is? Well, there are a few questions to ask yourself: 1. Was this a major city before 1900? […]

Can we survive with peak oil fast approaching?

Matthew Simmons, in order to produce his report on Saudi Arabia He believes that very soon, the amount of water being pumped into these wells will take its toll in a sudden and dramatic way. No amount of shale oil or drilling of new wells will account for anywhere near the amount that is produced […]

A nuclear reactor project of the federally-owned Tennessee Valley Authority The T.V.A. had stopped work on the two-reactor project, in northern Alabama near Hollywood, in June, 1988, after spending $2.5 billion

Saudi Arabia and the oil bank

…The only way to manipulate commodity prices is through the ability to secure supply. In the oil markets, funds, whether ETFs or hedge funds, are categorically unable to make or take delivery of the underlying commodity, and are therefore unable to manipulate the price. It is only “end user” producers and distributors, or the few […]

That Other Inflation

WASHINGTON — No one expected December’s inflation numbers, announced Friday by the Labor Department, to be greeted with as much anticipation as last week’s unemployment report. But with so much government spending through stimulus efforts and economic rescue programs in 2009, inflation remains a lingering concern. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unadjusted […]

Murkowski's Motives Draw Scrutiny

Sen. Lisa Murkowski has built a reputation in her eight years in Washington as a moderate Republican willing to engage with Democrats and environmentalists in the climate change debate. But Murkowski, who last year took on a much higher profile in the GOP leadership, is now at the center of a storm by pushing to […]

Chinese Transportation Growth

The Chinese National Bureau of Statistics has a lot of interesting data. The web site is hard to use, at least in my browser, but after poking around in the html source of the pages, I’ve managed to figure out how to get to all the annual data, which let me make some graphs. I […]

Iraq Oil & Gas Production: Geopolitical Compromises and Kurdish Autonomy

As Royal Dutch Shell and other majors increase their investments in Iraq, some oil market analysts argue that Iraq could export over 12 mb/d (million barrels per day) within a decade, significantly shifting global production closer to 100 mb/d from the present 83.5 mb/d inventory supply. Are Iraqi oil production estimates too ambitious or perhaps, […]

IEA sees world oil use in 2010 highest since 2007

LONDON (Reuters) – Global oil demand this year will reach the highest level since 2007, with rising consumption led by faster growth in emerging economies in Asia, the International Energy Agency said on Friday. The Paris-based adviser to 28 industrialised economies trimmed by 20,000 barrels per day (bpd) its expectations for the rise in global […]

How Do You Prepare For The Unimaginable?

…Sharon [Astyk] says she is not a survivalist, and most of her commentariat claims not to be as well – they say they are something much more positive. But some of the stuff that runs through the comment threads leans toward survivalism, albeit with a heavy na Maybe I’m wrong, and they are right. Maybe […]

Stanford study shows gain in African solar-powered irrigation

The dry season in sub-Saharan Africa is a brutal six months of minimal rainfall, widespread malnutrition and community dislocation. However, according to a study by Jennifer Burney, a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford …Burney

Large Changes in Climate Likely Over Next Century

ScienceDaily Moustafa Chahine, the instrument’s science team leader at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, unveiled the new measurements at a briefing on recent breakthroughs in greenhouse gas, weather and climate research from AIRS at this week’s American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco. The new data have been extensively validated against both aircraft and […]

Most Norwegians want Arctic drilling study: survey

OSLO (Reuters) – An industry-backed survey published on Thursday shows most Norwegians favor an impact study that could pave the way to open a pristine, fish-rich Arctic area to oil activities and prolong Norway’s energy boom. The oil industry says the waters near the Lofoten and Vesteraalen islands in the Arctic now have the most […]

John Michael Greer: The Costs of Community

…I suspect many of my readers have encountered Robert Putnam’s widely discussed book Bowling Alone (2000), which traced the collapse of social networks and institutions straight across American society. The implosion of the old grassroots-based party system is simply one example of the trend Putnam documented. Putnam’s book sparked a great deal of discussion, some […]

How High Will Seas Rise? Get Ready for Seven Feet

As governments, businesses, and homeowners plan for the future, they should assume that the world The ramifications of a major sea level rise are massive. Agriculture will be disrupted, water supplies will be salinized, storms and flood waters will reach ever further inland, and millions of environmental refugees will be created

QUOTEBOX – Washington's take on new CFTC energy position limits

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Thursday proposed new rules that would limit big traders’ speculative positions in energy futures. Congress took a hard look at excessive speculation after energy and food prices surged in 2008, prompting CFTC to increase oversight of the markets. Here are some comments from political figures on the CFTC’s proposal. […]

Arctic permafrost leaking methane at record levels, figures show

Scientists have recorded a massive spike in the amount of a powerful greenhouse gas seeping from Arctic permafrost, in a discovery that highlights the risks of a dangerous climate tipping point. Experts say methane emissions from the Arctic have risen by almost one-third in just five years, and that sharply rising temperatures are to blame. […]

China needs to cut use of chemical fertilizers: research

BEIJING (Reuters) – China, the world’s largest grain producer and top consumer of fertilizers, should reduce its reliance on chemical fertilizers by as much as 50 percent because excessive use has resulted in serious pollution, according to a research report. …The report said farmers, particularly in northern China, used 40 percent more fertilizers than crops […]

Colorado drilling permits down 36% in 2009, but still ahead of neighbor states

The number of drilling permits issued in Colorado dropped 36 percent in 2009 from the year before, but Colorado still issued more drilling permits than surrounding states, according to the Colorado Oil & Gas Conservation Commission. Colorado issued 5,159 drilling permits in 2009, down from 8,027 issued in 2008. But that According to the report, […]

North Korean Starvation Still Seen As A Factor In 2010

Hyok Kang, born 1986, escaped from North Korea with his family in 1998 and then spent four years in China before going to South Korea. This is Paradise is the story of his life up to that escape – surviving famine in his hometown of Onsong (northeast N.K.) on tree-bark soups, rat hunts, and night-time […]

Emissions Rules are On the Way

The Copenhagen summit aimed at limiting greenhouse gases ended with a whimper. Climate legislation in Congress is stumbling. But curbs on U.S. emissions from power plants and factories are coming anyway. The Environmental Protection Agency is poised to take an historic step at the end of March, issuing the first-ever national rules to fight climate […]

The Rome-Tehran Axis

When it comes to appeasing the Islamic Republic, no other Western nation has stooped lower than Italy. Amid the international outrage over the Iranian regime’s brutalization of its own people, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini warned Europe “must not burn every bridge because Iran is a key figure” in the region. While rejecting any military […]

Tough to Free Troops From Oppressive Tyranny of Fuel

What will it take for the military to be greener? If $400 a gallon fuel, incalculable logistics burdens and losses of human life don At the Pentagon, officials are fully aware of the situation but are not sure what to do about it. At least the Defense Department can

CO2 in the air could be green fuel feedstock

Carbon dioxide could soon be ready for a PR makeover. With a bit of clever chemistry, the gas could become a feedstock for alternative fuels or find a role in cooling freezers rather than warming the atmosphere. Carbon capture and storage schemes propose to snatch CO2 from industrial chimneys and bury it in ocean basins […]

Fuel technology could make military vehicles more viable for commercial use

Military vehicles that use advanced vehicle energy technology cut their own exorbitant fuel costs, and could help make the product more accessible to private commercial buyers, according to industry leaders in a panel discussion today at the North American International Auto Show at Cobo Center in Detroit. The panel, Keith Cooley, CEO of Detroit-based NextEnergy […]

CFTC Proposes Position Limits on Energy Speculation

(Bloomberg) — The Commodity Futures Trading Commission today proposed limits on energy speculation that may curtail the investment of large banks and swaps dealers in the markets for oil, natural gas, heating oil and gasoline. Speculators in the futures market will no longer be lumped in with commodity-linked businesses like airlines and oil companies that […]

Global threats in 2010 revealed by report

Underinvestment in energy and agriculture are among the biggest economic threats facing the world in 2010, according to a report. The World Economic Forum’s Global Risks study also says the implications of chronic diseases such as diabetes are at risk of being underestimated. The study says the financial crisis has revealed a need to change […]

Natural gas dips after supply report

NEW YORK Even people turning up the heat at home to battle the elements, and utilities using more natural gas because prices have fallen so far, hasn’t been enough to offset weak industrial demand. That’s been a big break for consumers who have had a relatively cheap winter to date. Natural gas futures remain about […]

Is Antarctica melting, or not?

NASA notes that one new paper states there has been less surface melting recently than in past years, and has been cited as “proof” that there …Since the early 1990’s, European and Canadian satellites have been collecting radar data from West Antarctica. These radar data can reveal ice motion and, by the late 1990s, there […]

Chavez suspends power cuts in Caracas

CARACAS The government announced sweeping power cuts Tuesday across wide swathes of Caracas, as well as the whole country, amid a drought-driven energy crisis. “I have noticed that there have been undesirable effects from the planned cuts announced yesterday (Tuesday),” Chavez told state television VTV in comments aired early Thursday. “I want to tell the […]

« Previous Page — Next Page »

LATEST NEWS HEADLINES

• Why the IEA is Wrong About Peak Oil Demand
• Did we inadvertently speed global warming?  
• Venezuela’s Oil Monopoly Eases
• Why Germany is Choosing Natural Gas Over Nuclear Power
• U.S. coal-fired electricity generation decreased in 2022 and 2023

• America Cracks Down on Methane Emissions from Oil and Gas Facilities
• Meet America’s Newest Oil Trader Extraordinaire: Joe Biden
• Is It Time To Refill America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve?
• Oil prices set to end year 10% lower as demand concerns snap winning streak
• What’s Driving America’s New Oil and Gas Boom?
• China’s peak oil demand bombshell eviscerates Danielle Smith’s energy strategy