Environment – Aug 14
There’s Money in Thirst /
Plasma screens threaten eco-crisis /
Java sinks deeper into toxic crisis /
Pacific’s ‘dead zone’ is larger than first feared
Biofuels – Aug 14
Due Diligence: An Oil Drum reader’s response to Khosla (on biofuels) /
Deconstructing the Virdian case for ethanol /
China Targeting Growing Biofuels 12x by 2020; 15% of Transportation Fuels /
Biodiesel Boom brings Demand for Vegetable Oil to Record heights
Peak oil – Aug 14
ASPO 5 – The two distinct paradigms within the peak oil movement /
Saudi oil production revisited /
Kuwait’s reserves queried again / Oil price spike to end, you can bet on it / Pipeline cowboys: rustling for oil
Terra Preta: black is the new green
Amazonian Dark Earth, or terra preta do indio, has mystified science for the last hundred years. Three times richer in nitrogen and phosphorous, and twenty times the carbon of normal soils, terra preta is the legacy of ancient Amazonians who predate Western civilization…Claims for biochar’s capacity to capture carbon sound almost audacious.
Senate Fiddles While America Sizzles
In the midst of the midsummer heat wave that scorched the eastern United States, the Senate voted 71-25 to allow oil and gas drilling in a section of the Gulf of Mexico now off-limits to such activity.
Is just-in-time nearly out of time?
In the coming years we may be faced with [hoarding] in many markets. The most devastating and far-reaching effects could come in the energy markets. Will the just-in-time religion which swept the world in the 1990s survive such a dynamic?
Interview with Chris Cook, originator of the Iranian oil bourse
“We were looking at a truly international solution, it was never an Iranian solution in the first place, it was a middle-eastern solution, and we see that in the context of a global market, which has got worse than in June 2001, it has become more volatile, more risky and is leading to more profits at the expense of the producers and consumers, the trouble is that none of these profits are really visible to producers and consumers because of the opaque nature of the market operation.”
Food & agriculture – Aug 13
Hope has withered for India’s farmers / Acid rain in China threatening food chain / Cuba’s agricultural revolution an example to the world
Solutions – Aug 13
Tories plan radical green transport tax / The greenback pack (rich greens) / Green tech’s growth / What’s a clean Earth worth (to your business) ?
Biofuels or Biofools?
Biofuels could only play a meaningful role in a society that lived with some ecological modesty argues Dana Visalli
Solar cells change electricity distribution
In separate announcements over the past few months, researchers at the University of Johannesburg and at Nanosolar, a private company in Palo Alto, have announced major breakthroughs in reducing the cost of solar electric cells. While trade journals are abuzz with the news, analysis of the potential implications has been sparse.
Peak oil – Aug 13
UK organisations that recognise peak oil / Designing the future (PO & systems engineering) / Ripe for revolution / The real price of oil / “400,000 barrels here, 400,000 barrels there. Pretty soon, you’re talking about a lot of oil.”
