Renewables – Apr 30
X Prize: $100 million for clean fuels
Feed-in tariffs to encourage renewable energy
TOD: the energy return of (industrial) solar
Under-road radiators may beat the ice
Staff
Fertilizers: prices high and rising – Apr 30
Last big push for phosphate mining in Florida
More volatility in heated fertiliser market
Help phosphate-producing Western Sahara gain independence
Vietnamese fertiliser prices to rise this week
Peak oil – Apr 30
OPEC and peak oil
Hamish McRae: We will never have cheap oil again
Gwynne Dyer: Climate change could fend off peak oil crisis
Guardian’s science course covers energy
Food & agriculture – Apr 30
UN chief warns of civil unrest amid world food shortage
Scientist: we need a new agricultural revolution
Suburbanites turn yards into cash with minifarms
Sharon Astyk’s food independence challenge
Afghan famine
Sleepwalking toward the oil precipice
The time has come to discuss what we can expect from OPEC as it relates to our prosperity in the coming decade. After 2010, crude produced outside the cartel will plateau and gradually decline, so any growth in the conventional oil supply must come from OPEC.
Climate – Apr 30
Potent greenhouse-gas methane has been rising
Anglican leader brings climate to the pulpit
We should warm to the idea of melting poles
Urban design – Apr 30
Highlights from the 7th EcoCity World Summit
CNN covers Transition towns
New book: Growing Cooler: The Evidence on Urban Development and Climate Change
Prices & supplies – Apr 30
Shell’s Hofmeister on gas prices and PO
Qatar: Oil to hit $200 a barrel
Gold isn’t buying as much oil as it used to
167 billion barrels of oil in Bakken, but …
Keeping fed
In spite of the monumental failures of Soviet agriculture, the overall structure of Soviet-style food delivery proved to be paradoxically resilient in the face of economic collapse and disruption. The combination of local food stockpiles administered by politicians conditioned to treat bread riots as career-ending calamities, the prevalence of government institutions that attended to the sustenance of their employees and plenty of kitchen gardens, meant that there was no starvation and very little malnutrition. But will fate be as kind to the United States? (Book excerpt)
Oil & gas industries – Apr 30
Iran dumps U.S. dollars in oil transactions
ExxonMobil row masks true green dilemma
Oil majors rapped over secrecy, corruption
Australia and natural gas – the future of fuel?
Not the end of the world
It’s a good sign that things are heating up when both sides of a controversy declare victory at the same time. Proclamations that the peak oil problem has been solved by recent oil discoveries and announcements that a “fast crash” is already overtaking industrial society have crossed paths with increasing frequency in recent weeks. A more nuanced look may be in order.
Food & agriculture – Apr 29
Ban Ki-Moon to chair UN task force on food crisis – hunger threatens ‘more than 100 million’
Recession Diet just one way to tighten belt
The future of dirt
