Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
People are consuming the earth’s natural resources 20
percent faster than nature can renew them–a dangerous imbalance that is
fueling the loss of species and may lead to critical resource shortages
in the years ahead, according to a World Wildlife Fund study released on
Thursday.
“The US makes dollars; everyone else makes things to get dollars.” Stan Goff explores the role of the US dollar as the standard reserve currency in the context of capitalism’s intrinsic need to expand and the global peak in oil production.
Scores of Iraqi oil workers have been killed or maimed since last year’s invasion after they defied death threats and remained in their posts, Oil Minister Thamir al-Ghadhban says.
Pressed for time, Ahmad Hussein refuses to spend hours queuing for petrol at one of Baghdad’s teeming gas stations so he takes his car to a street vendor where it costs six times as much to fill up.
Crude oil prices are likely to stay near the record $55.33 a barrel reached this week in New York because global supplies of the raw material are peaking, Dallas oil investor Boone Pickens said.
As the world’s known deposits of fossil fuel are being run down, not least because of the growing demand of economies such as China’s, the day may come when the big consuming countries will have to fight – literally, in the worst case scenario – for supplies. But it does not have to turn out that way if the far-sighted in Asia can persuade their countrymen to put aside the past and work together to ensure energy security for all.
Federal Reserve Governor Ben Bernanke said the days of cheap oil are likely over, although he expects the economic consequences of higher energy prices will be “manageable.”
According to a report by the London-based Centre for Global Energy Studies, most members of OPEC are pushing the limits of their oil production capability, and some probably are finding that their sustainable capacity is not as high as originally thought.
Just like rising energy demand, global warming, and racial distrust, America’s population boom is escaping serious attention from both presidential candidates. This is happening —or rather, not happening — even though the United States is growing more rapidly than it ever has before.
The month of November in a US presidential-election year is not supposed to be particularly eventful, but this year may be an exception, in the light of the gathering storm over Iran’s nuclear program, due to be reviewed by the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in late November.
China’s Communist rulers have a blunt message for anyone who frets about the planned Chinese takeover of Canada’s biggest mining company: Get ready for more to come.
Short of radically altering America’s driving habits, the United States cannot achieve energy independence without spending billions of dollars on new initiatives. And no political consensus exists to spend those sums despite decades of promises to cut oil imports. But new plans are emerging that might sway lawmakers.
