Politics & economics – May 17

Saudi oil facilities: Achilles heel of the Western economy / OPEC `doing enough’ to meet demand as states miss output quotas /
Chavez sees oil at $100 a barrel if U.S. hits Iran /
As oil prices go up, companies struggle to contain their costs / Mayors sound alarm on rising fuel costs, energy crisis / Oil colors U.S. push for democracy / When two poor countries reclaimed oilfields, why did just one spark uproar?

Environment – May 17

Glaciers in Africa expected to disappear / Legal battle to get feds to act on global warming / India says to tackle poverty before global warming / House Science Chairman Boehlert looks back at his environmental legacy

Environment – May 16

McKibben: Global warming about to hit high gear / The Great Coral Reef disaster /
World Bank: China, India are fast-growing polluters / CO2levels accelerating / Christian Aid: climate change ‘will kill 182m Africans’ /
Long-haul breaks spell bad news for the climate /
Meltdown fear as Arctic ice cover falls to record winter low / WSJ: Scientists explain climate-change data / Report: Americans and climate change

NYT doing Cheney’s dirty work again

It’s a big disappointment to see papers like the New York Times or the Guardian peddle the Cheney/Blair “war of the worlds” vision of energy markets. This is the vision whereby, in order to make people forget that it is … their refusal … to reduce demand through conservation or efficiency that has brought about the current energy crisis, they invent external enemies to blame for that situation.