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Indonesia urged to promote low-carbon economy
Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post
Green groups proposed Tuesday the government push the country’s transportation, energy and forestry sectors to promote a low-carbon economy. The three sectors are known as the major contributors of greenhouse gas emissions.
“Indonesia can shift its development concept to the low-carbon model to boost the country’s economic growth by emitting less carbon,” Fitrian Ardiansyah, the WWF-Indonesia director for climate and energy, told a discussion on developing visions for low carbon economy in Indonesia. The event was jointly organized by the Institute for Essential Services Reform (IESR) and WWF Indonesia.
Fitrian said Indonesia should not emulate policies of rich nations, which in the past relied much on fossil fuels to spur economic growth.
… IESR Director Fabby Tumiwa said the low-carbon economy could be promoted through the use of energy efficiency measures and substitution to renewable energy sources.
“There are strong reasons why Indonesia must shift to a low carbon economy because otherwise there will be over exploitation of conventional energy resources in a short period,” he said.
Indonesia has experienced peak oil consumption since the 1970s, with the peak of coal use expected to come in the next two decades, he said.
“If we don’t shift soon to alternative or renewable energies, economic development will become more costly,” he said.
A government study shows the country will become a net importer of energy in 2030.
(30 January 2008)
Rep. Bartlett responds to Bush’s SOTU
Monica Trauzzi, E&E News
Last night, President Bush delivered his final State of the Union address, highlighting the importance of clean energy innovations both internationally and domestically. In his remarks, the President proposed a $2 billion international clean technology fund and called for increased funding for carbon capture and sequestration technologies in the U.S. He also urged the completion of an international climate agreement. During today’s E&ETV Event Coverage of the State of the Union 2008, members of Congress including Congressman Roscoe Bartlett reacted to the President’s comments on energy and climate immediately following the speech.
(29 January 2008)
Rep. Bartlett manages to get in a few plugs about peak oil. Reactions by other figures are also available at the original. -BA
The end of oil is just a game
Steve Hargreaves, CNNMoney.com
New combat videogame depicts a world at war over rapidly dwindling crude supplies. But what’s the message players walk away with?
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On a futuristic battlefield littered with broken oil wells, burnt-out electric cars and dilapidated wind turbines, you are leading crack military unit on a mission to secure the world’s last remaining oil supplies.
Your enemies are the Russians and Chinese, who are of course after the same prize.
Suddenly machine guns rattle, men are hit, the helicopter goes down, and you’re in the middle of an intense firefight in Central Asia.
Over the last two decades prior to 2030 oil production has peaked and is declining rapidly, renewables never panned out, plagues hit, and starvation ensued. In other words, things have been very bad, at least according to Kaos Studios, the maker of this video game you’re playing.
“It’s a mess, it’s a real wreck in there,” said Frank DeLise, Kaos’ general manager.
While Frontlines: Fuel of War is one of the first video games to capitalize on the doom-and-gloom scenario of what might happen when the world runs out of oil, it’s not the only video game focusing on energy as oil prices rise, developing nations use more and more crude, and the world grapples with global warming fears.
…The peak oil theory – that is, that oil production has already peaked or will do so in the next few years, followed by widespread social disruption – has been gaining ground in recent years.
…Experts say video games can be fun as well as educational, although the outcome largely depends on the content.
“They could in fact lead to changes in attitudes, beliefs, and ultimately, changes in behavior,” said Craig Anderson, a professor of psychology at Iowa State University who studies the effects of video games on people. … [he] is concerned about the message that violent games like Fuel of War may send to players.
“It may well change attitudes towards the use of these tactics as a political tool,” he said. Players may think “of course we have to use military tactics to go take oil.”
DeLise dismisses such concerns, saying nations go to war all the time over resources, and that the game is merely a reflection of reality.
“When it comes down to it, it’s about what countries will do to survive,” he said. “That’s not going to change.”
(19 January 2008)
Video that accompanies the story.
Reporter Steve Hargreaves wrote a piece last September on peak oil: The end of oil
Good on Hargreaves for raising the issue of how games can romanticize violent responses. Oil wars are a profoundly lose-lose situation.
Suggested by reader termoil.
-BA
Biggs’s Tips for Rich: Expect War, Study Blitz, Mind Markets
James Pressley, Bloomberg
Barton Biggs has some offbeat advice for the rich: Insure yourself against war and disaster by buying a remote farm or ranch and stocking it with “seed, fertilizer, canned food, wine, medicine, clothes, etc.”
The “etc.” must mean guns.
“A few rounds over the approaching brigands’ heads would probably be a compelling persuader that there are easier farms to pillage,” he writes in his new book, Wealth, War and Wisdom.
Biggs is no paranoid survivalist. He was chief global strategist at Morgan Stanley before leaving in 2003 to form hedge fund Traxis Partners. He doesn’t lock and load until the last page of this smart look at how World War II warped share prices, gutted wealth and remains a warning to investors. His message: Listen to markets, learn from history and prepare for the worst.
(29 January 2008)
Contributor Greg Jeffers writes:
Barton Biggs (yes, that is his real name) is as establishment and Yankee Republican as a Wall Streeter can get. He is a second generation chief strategist for a major Wall Street firm (his Dad was the chief strategist for the Bank of New York).
His clients are the super rich, and when he speaks, “people listen.” Biggs is not prone to hyperbole. This is a guy that influential folks respect. I wonder what set him off? A little “Peak Oil” in his morning coffee?
