Peak Oil – Sept 28
Oil Shortages? It’s Happened Before. And It Will Happen Again
The Peak Oil Crisis: The Perfect Storm
Year: 2006
Biofuels – Sept 27
Jatropha fuelled car tours Indonesia
France prepares for post-oil fuels
Uganda to make fuel blending compulsory
Close the CAFE loophole
Climate – Sept 27
Earth’s temperature nears million-year high
ExxonMobil hits at ‘unfair’ attack by scientists
Australia: We’re drying up fast
Changed climate will cook elderly people
Gas is down – go back to sleep
We are used to gas prices going up and down in the short term, but in the last six weeks, we’ve seen a dip of fifty cents or more in the price of a gallon. We haven’t seen anything this precipitous in a long time and it has excited a lot of comment.
Economics: avoiding the Y2K fallacy
Discussions of the impact of peak oil on the global economy have been bedeviled by the insistence that the only alternative to business as usual is complete collapse. There are other possibilities.
Oil Industry – Sept 27
OPEC supply down in September
Oil man is awarded disputed Mexican election
Chavez drives a hard bargain, but Big Oil’s options are limited
ExxonMobil hits at ‘unfair’ attack by scientists
Hyundai wins billion dollar UAE facility contract
Peak Oil Passnotes: Why Is Oil at $60?
When a commodity or a stock moves fast we tend to get very excited. We hope to discover whether or not it has made some kind of quantum leap or is just part of a long term trend. So what the heck is happening to crude oil? Is this a slip? A correction? Or gigantic profit taking? Or none of the above?
Since we last wrote this column oil has continued its most excellent nosedive, actually breaching the $60 at $59.80 intraday this week. Just six weeks ago it was busting out at $78 and everyone – this commentator included – thought it was only a matter of time before $80 oil arrived.
Nuclear – Sept 26
Sellafield reprocessing plant failing
Early check for nuclear plant amid safety fears
Egypt to build nuke plants
Russia to start building nine nuclear power units in 2007
Russia, Iran agree on launch date of nuclear power plant
Shale and oil sands – Sept 26
Nuclear power required for oil sands production?
Aboriginal support of oil sands fracturing over water
Environmentalists want oil sands slowed
Chevron, Los Alamos to Study U.S. Oil Shale Deposits
Get ready for oil supplies to dwindle, experts warn
Kjell Aleklett, a Swedish professor of physics, sees inescapable similarities between the steady depletion of the world’s most coveted energy source and the foraging habits of berry afficionados.
(First in an excellent series on energy by the Vancouver Sun.)
Backyard Aquaponics
Aquaponics is a system of integrated fish tanks and hydroponic vegetable beds, which may have a lot to offer for high intensity urban food production.
Solutions & sustainability – Sept 25
Making the Tarmac bloom
Towpaths and bicycle commuting
High Point: Seattle’s green community
Wal-Mart grows ‘green’ strategies
The religious war on bottled water
