News from November 2009

Natural Gas: Powering the Dubai Overshoot

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Scientist: U.S. effort on climate ineffectual

Prominent climate scientist James Hansen on Monday dismissed President Barack Obama’s recent pledge that the United States would cut its carbon dioxide emissions as

Big freeze plunged Europe into ice age in months

In the film, ‘The Day After Tomorrow’ the world enters the icy grip of a new glacial period within the space of just a few weeks. Now new research shows that this scenario may not be so far from the truth after all. William Patterson, from the University of Saskatchewan in Canada, and his colleagues [...]

Peak Oil: The Eventual End of the Oil Age

The Industrial Revolution changed the fundamental organization of human societies. Agrarian communities became eclipsed by modern industrial cities. Transportation, industry, agriculture, communications, leisure, services, and nearly every facet of daily life have been revolutionized by the harnessing of fossil fuels. Currently, living a typical modern lifestyle is more dependent upon the combustion of hydrocarbons in [...]

Antarctic melt may push sea levels to 1.4 metres: study

PARIS But studies since then show huge loss of ice mass, mainly as a result of warmer ocean temperatures, according to the review by more than 100 experts on the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research. The new evidence suggests that West Antarctica in particular will add “tens of centimetres” to the global ocean watermark, which [...]

Dec. 1, 1942: Mandatory Gas Rationing, Lots of Whining

1942: Nearly a year after the Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor that brought the United States fully into World War II, the Americans get around to imposing nationwide gasoline rationing. A fuel shortage was not the problem. America had plenty of that. What it lacked was rubber. Both the Army and Navy were in desperate [...]

U.S. Navy Prepares for Militarization of Arctic

While hoping for a future of cooperation with other nations, the U.S. Navy is simultaneously planning for potential combat situations that may arise once global warming has melted the Arctic Ocean Rob Huebert, associate director at the Centre for Military and Strategic Studies at the University of Calgary, told the Ottawa Citizen:

Defense Solutions Holding, Inc. / DFSH Building Opportunity to Contract in Iraq

EXTON, Pa., Nov. 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Defense Solutions Holding, Inc., announced today that it is expanding operations in Iraq to assist other American firms to contract directly with commercial and government organizations in Iraq. “Iraq is a country of 30 million people sitting on 22% of the world’s oil. Iraq needs virtually everything,” said Defense [...]

Equatorial Guinea: Ruler beset by corruption and abuse wins new term

Possibly the least surprising result in a year of predictable elections in Africa was another victory for Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. It was another election in which the voters had a gun held to their heads …The electoral charade confirms another seven-year term for Obiang, whose government is rated by Human Rights Watch [...]

U.S. Sept oil demand estimate cut 2.7 pct

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. oil demand in September was 2.74 percent less than previously estimated, the government said on Monday, dampening the outlook for a strong recovery in petroleum consumption. September U.S. petroleum consumption was lowered 518,000 barrels per day to 18.362 million bpd, the Energy Information Administration said in its monthly petroleum supply report. [...]