Audio: Andrew Nikiforuk on High Noon for Fossil Fuels
Enagaging series that examines the wealth generated from fossil fuels in Alberta, how Canadians are consuming and exporting these natural resources, and what Canada’s energy future holds
Enagaging series that examines the wealth generated from fossil fuels in Alberta, how Canadians are consuming and exporting these natural resources, and what Canada’s energy future holds
Oil energy (gasoline and diesel) can be likened to the fruit of a cherry tree that bears but once in our tiny lifetimes.
Oil prices spiked to record levels last week, propelled by a rally in petrol prices and a cold snap in the northern hemisphere, against the backdrop of a tight balance between supply and demand. Yes, that’s right, basic “supply/demand,” not “political turbulence in the Middle East.”
Oil demand this year will rise faster than expected because of cold weather and growing economies in the U.S. and China, straining the ability of producers to keep pace, the International Energy Agency said.
Opec does not have the oil production capacity to enable it to lift supply quotas at next week’s meeting in Iran, Algeria’s Energy Minister said yesterday.
Demand for power and water in the Middle East is expected to skyrocket over the next ten years as rapid economic development, construction and tourism place an increased burden on the region’s infrastructure, experts averred.
The Hirsch report on “peak oil” is unprecedented in US government circles. It is not just the existence of the report itself that is such a landmark in the current oil debate. Its conclusions also pull no punches.
London : The International Monetary Fund will recommend that Opec more than double its spare capacity to cushion the oil market against shocks, the Financial Times reported yesterday.
If per capita income in China grows at eight percent per year — a reduction from the red-hot pace of 9.5 percent it has grown since 1978 — it will overtake the current per capita U.S. income in just over 25 years, according to the latest analysis by the Earth Policy Institute (EPI).
Commodity prices surged to a 24-year high, led by gains in copper and crude oil, on concern that global economic growth is eroding inventories of raw materials faster than supplies can be replenished.
The US Deptartment of Energy raised its outlook for oil prices this year to nearly $50 a barrel. This time last year, it predicted a price of only $29.40 in the forecast for 2005.
When it [Peak Oil] does hit, and when oil famine is joined with the other problems on the way, we will need to respond to it as to an avalanche. There is no point in trying to stop it; instead: survive; think; start again on safer ground and on totally different principles.