A question of scale
The relocalization efforts of sustainability-oriented groups could easily be put in great peril by corporate interests seeking to squeeze out the last possible profits before the inevitable decline.
Kurt Cobb
Coal – Mar 5
There’s change in the air at Drax
Industry closes anti-coal website
Sasol cools on South African imposts
Gujarat power plants may triple coal imports
Dethroning King Coal
Can the military go green?
The Pentagon runs on oil. Since the so-called Global War on Terror has started more than half of US military oil consumption has been occurring outside continental US.
Food & agriculture – Mar 5
Challenges, threats, and opportunities for sustainable agriculture
And on This Farm She Found a Future
Has Real Estate Lost Its Sizzle? Not on the Farm
NYC Fast-Food Chains Pull Calorie Info
Malaysia Proposes New Fast Food Rules
Peak oil & depletion – March 5
Appalling (“Last man standing” has failed)
Jay Hanson essay “Thermo/gene collision: On human nature, energy, and collapse”
Shell safety record in North Sea takes a hammering
Metal thieves steal kids’ slides, toilet roof in Japan
China – Feb 5
China goes for green before growth
High temperatures leave five million Chinese short of water
China soon to pass US as biggest GHG emitter
Why the free market fails consumers in sustainable energy innovation
The free market will ignore solutions that can’t turn a profit. The corollary is that the free market will ignore any solution that cannot be controlled, either through property interests (enforceable intellectual property, monopoly licenses, etc.) or because economies of scale demand centralized operation. This means that free market innovation is structurally incompatible with a huge portion of the universe of possible energy solutions.
Oil innovations pump new life into old wells
The subbhead (“Reports of oil’s demise are greatly exaggerated,”) indicates the point of view of the reporter: anti-peak oil, echoing CERA.
How to change the world in 10 easy steps
Because I am not a nice girl, or maybe not merely a nice girl, I feel that I should point out that the peak oil movement and the climate change movement are losing the race to plan the future, and to a large degree it is because we are refusing to be practical, also known as Machiavellian. Like all high minded people, we’re getting our asses kicked by the low-minded ones.
Oil producers – March 4
Fierce competition for Libya’s black gold
Russia, pumped – the new petro empire
Selling Iraq by the barrel
Envoy warns Chavez about oil takeover
Chávez exploits oil wealth to push IMF aside
Energy policy – March 4
Car-addicted Italians lag Europe on environment
B.C. energy plan pushes conservation, technology
China targets 9 countries for oil investment
A review of 2006 EIA Data; Expectations for Year Ahead
Oil prices set new records and the industry maintained a historically high level of activity in 2006. Energy agencies issued consensus forecasts that production would rise. Yet crude oil production was down and total liquids production was flat. The economists should be shaking in their boots.
