Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Powerless New Zealand ‘The real point is not so much the exact date of peak but the statement that the First Half of the Oil Age, which was characterised by growing production, is about to be followed by the Second Half when oil production is set to decline along with all that depends upon it.’
Given the public’s ignorance about energy issues, and the entrenched interests that dominate the industry, many analysts are skeptical about the prospects for change. Jaffe believes that it will take a repeat of what happened in the seventies to force meaningful reforms.
Sharing oil reserves among Asian nations could be an option for countries in the region if crude prices stay high, Japanese Trade Minister Shoichi Nakagawa said on Tuesday as oil soared to a record above $50 a barrel.
Much to the consternation of the European Union, which now numbers several former Soviet bloc nations among its members, Russia through its natural gas monopoly, Gazprom, has spun a web of control over energy supplies extending from Estonia on the Baltic Sea to Bulgaria on the Black Sea.
Oil giant BP has reported buoyant trading in the three months to September, with production up by 11%, on the back of soaring crude prices.
The world’s largest wind power project will begin construction this month near Beijing, bringing green energy and cleaner air to the 2008 Summer Olympics and city residents coping with some of the worst air pollution in the world.
The technical and policy difficulties of harnessing ocean energy.
Bremerhaven, Germany: A former coastal tanker is being adapted for a new role as a wind plant-fitted, hydrogen production ship. Following completion of the conversion scheme by the end of 2004, the 66 m Hydrogen Challenger will be put into service in the German Bight. It will lie off the wind-scoured Niedersachsen coast or in the vicinity of the island of Helgol, produce hydrogen and oxygen through electrolysis, and transport the gaseous cargo to industrial buyers on the mainland.
When Bush seized Iraq – using Saddam as an excuse – it was the first step in an endgame for the remaining oil reserves necessary for the American way of life. According to Stan Doffish, this horrible logic may lead the Bush administration to attempt to ‘depopulate’ Asia
Minimizing carbon emissions can be shown to produce healthy ripple effects throughout the economy. Thus, arguments for fundamental changes in the way we derive and use energy should be made on all fronts to build the support needed to confront human-caused global warming.
Article discusses the energy efficiency, large scale production feasibility and cost of biodiesel production from algae, draws favourable comparisions with Hydrogen production and infrastructure costs.
For the past century or so, the biological origin of oil seemed to be the accepted norm. However, there remained a small group of critics who pushed the idea that, instead, oil is generated from inorganic matter within the earth’s mantle. Ugo Bardi concludes that the theory is false, or at best irrelevant.
