|
| |  |
| Sustainability and Social Justice: Do the Math |
|
 According to data compiled by the UN, the Global Footprint Network, and Dr. William Rees at the University of British Columbia, total human consumption already exceeds the Earth's capacity by 30 per cent. This is known as biological 'overshoot'. The UN estimates that most natural services to human societies - forests, fish, fresh water and clean air - decline annually. As human population and consumption grow, our collective overshoot increases.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| America's Pending Collapse |
|
| In an essay, written by Richard Heinberg entitled “Should We Prop-up a Dying Economy” (19 October 2009), he argues that the economists and the people who follow physical science disagree sharply about where this economy is going. Peak Oil, whether it is present now or just years away, will mean that the economy will contract. The economists state that growth can happen in any environment, yet it is apparent that when oil prices spiked in 2008, the auto industry and the airline industry almost went belly-up. Shrinkage of energy means shrinkage in the economy, we have all been under the notion that we can borrow against a growing economy. The facts are that if the economy does not grow, there will be very little in the growth of capital to repay debts that are leveraged at an average of an average of 350% of debt to GDP ratio. Where will new capital come from?
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Matt Simmons: Water and Energy Crisis Looms on Horizon |
|
| Ocean Energy Institute founder and energy investment banker Matthew Simmons gave an hour-long keynote address at the Island Institute's 2009 Sustainable Island Living conference on Saturday morning at the Strand Theatre in Rockland. Simmons titled his talk "The Gulf of Maine: What Lies Beyond the Fossil Fuel Horizon," but his presentation ranged far outside the Gulf to encompass the globe.
Sporting a delicate windmill as a lapel pin, Simmons started off by reflecting on the concept of sustainability, a current buzzword among energy development experts. "More and more people around the world are beginning to wonder, "Does the globe have a sustainable strategy?'" Simmons said. "It's all about sustainability. Sustainability means protecting or improving our living standards. And without abundant water and energy, we are not sustainable," he said. "There's no question that our oceans are energy's last frontier."
|
|
|
|
|
|
| U.N. Report Calls for More Environmental Protection in Wartime |
|
| Kethaney writes " A report released this month by the United Nations Environment Program and the Environmental Law Institute calls for stronger international laws to protect the environment during times of war.
The report found that although existing laws of war — including aspects of the Geneva Convention — address environmental protection, their wording is imprecise. Strengthening, enforcing and clarifying existing legislation could help protect “natural assets” during wars, the study says."
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Thomas Friedman: What They Really Believe |
|
| If you follow the debate around the energy/climate bills working through Congress you will notice that the drill-baby-drill opponents of this legislation are now making two claims. One is that the globe has been cooling lately, not warming, and the other is that America simply can’t afford any kind of cap-and-trade/carbon tax.
But here is what they also surely believe, but are not saying: They believe the world is going to face a mass plague, like the Black Death, that will wipe out 2.5 billion people sometime between now and 2050. They believe it is much better for America that the world be dependent on oil for energy — a commodity largely controlled by countries that hate us and can only go up in price as demand increases — rather than on clean power technologies that are controlled by us and only go down in price as demand increases. And, finally, they believe that people in the developing world are very happy being poor — just give them a little running water and electricity and they’ll be fine. They’ll never want to live like us.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| John Michael Greer: How Relocalization Worked |
|
| One of the points that I’ve tried to make repeatedly in these essays is the place of history as a guide to what works. It’s a point that deserves repetition. A good many worldsaving plans now in circulation, however new the rhetoric that surrounds them, simply rehash proposals that were tried in the past and failed repeatedly; trying them yet again may thus not be the best use of our limited resources and time.
Of course there’s another side to history that’s more hopeful: something that worked well in the past can be a useful guide to what might work well in the future. I’d like to spend a little time discussing one example of this, partly because it ties into the theme of the current series of posts – the abject failure of current economic notions, and the options for replacing them with ideas that actually make sense – and partly because it addresses one of the more popular topics in the ongoing peak oil discussion, the need for economic relocalization as the age of cheap abundant energy comes to an end.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| The IEA’s “Whistleblower” Is Irrelevant |
|
| ...Halfway through the article, we perceive the glimmer of the real agenda. To get some substance to the story and to get somebody to go on record, The Guardian spoke to John Hemmings a Member of Parliament, and chair of the UK all-party parliamentary group on peak oil and gas. (You can tell from the group’s title how alarmist Peak Oil theory is already a mainstay of British political thinking.) Mr Hemmings weighs in that, “this” – by which he means the IEA whistleblowers’ personal opinions – “all gives an importance to the Copenhagen [climate change] talks and an urgent need for the UK to move faster towards a more sustainable [lower carbon] economy.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
| The Emerging US-China Strategic Alliance on Clean Energy |
|
| Graeme writes " The bilateral relationship between the United States and China has begun to take on a more pragmatic and secure quality under the Obama Administration, a welcome contrast to the past, when the U.S. was mostly uneasy about the rise of China and China was often uncertain about assuming its emerging role as an economic and political center of gravity. Though disagreements over the value of the Yuan, trade restrictions and human rights issues will continue to be present in the Sino-U.S. relationship, the exigencies of the worldwide economic downturn and the opportunities for cooperation in the development of a new energy future, are paving the way for a sustainable and productive bilateral relationship."
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Energy chiefs warn crisis stifling investment |
|
GENEVA — The economic crisis is jeopardising key energy industry investments that are needed to cope with future growth in demand and shifts to cleaner energy, executives and officials warned on Wednesday.
Executives from gas, oil and power generation firms said at a UN conference here that they were delaying and cutting back investments due to the credit crunch, the economic downturn and volatile oil and gas prices.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| COP15 failure and Peak Oil success: Why exaggerate Global Warming? |
|
| OECD leaders go far out of their way to never, ever mention Peak Oil. This in fact is the biggest real world driver for worldwide Energy Transition away from CO2 emitting fossil fuels. Due to limited world oil reserves and production capacity, moving away from fossil fuels is necessary, whether or not there is climate change or global warming. Complicating this, world pipeline and LNG gas supplies are now entering a period of large or massive increase, depending on country and region, perhaps able to last 5 years or more. While oil can get very expensive, natural gas will likely remain cheap, and international traded coal will likely remain low cost on delivered energy terms.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 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 foreseeable. The uproar will come amidst very high gasoline prices and still greater economic difficulties and, hopefully, widespread understanding that the final energy crisis has begun.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 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 — together with the United States — set the world's agenda, Beijing has not yet embraced the idea that it has the power and responsibility to shape events far beyond its borders. "Beijing is interested in domestic stability first, and stability on their frontier after that," says a senior East Asian diplomat based in Beijing. "The notion that they are ready and willing to stand up and run the world with the U.S. now is very premature." Adds Willem van Kemenade, an expert on the China-U.S. relationship at the Netherlands Institute for Security Studies, on the question of Iran sanctions, "[China's] first instinct will be to look to see what the Russians do."
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Mexico Not Considering Pricing Change for Oil Exports |
|
| Kethaney writes " (Bloomberg) -- Mexico’s government isn’t considering changing how it sets prices for oil exports to the U.S. after Saudi Aramco abandoned West Texas Intermediate as the pricing reference.
New crude indices aren’t “mature” enough to be used as a reference for Mexican oil, Petroleos Mexicanos said today in an e-mailed statement. Pemex, as the Mexico City-based company is known, is the country’s state oil company. "
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 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 — the term used to describe a global limit of oil production — its timing, and its implications.
Oil is the lifeblood of modern economies. Without it, the world as we know it would cease to exist. That is not journalistic hyperbole. Given our petroleum dependence, or in the more candid words of former President George W. Bush, our “addiction,” we would be foolish to ignore warnings about the future supply of this precious commodity.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 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 stands at about 66.5 million liters per day.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
News
Discussions
Resources
Members
