Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Welcome to the last ODAC Newsletter, the final news roundup from the Oil Depletion Analysis Centre…2012 saw US oil production grow to its highest level in 15 years, largely because of surging tight oil production by fracking, and many pundits such as Ed Morse of Citi are claiming “peak oil is dead”. So has ODAC been worrying its silly little head entirely unnecessarily for the last five years, and could all our energy troubles soon be over? We continue to think not…
2012: is it really the end of the world? Are the tectonic plates going to tilt, like in the movie, and dump us off? Will the earth crack open and the seas split? Unlikely. You can breathe a qualified sigh of relief. Mayan shamans and scholars tell us that the close of this great cycle of the Mayan calendar is not the cue for apocalypse but rather a new beginning, another turn of the wheel.
So the actual end of the world probably shouldn’t worry us overmuch just yet. But the end of the world as we know it probably should.
•Leaked IPCC Draft Report: Recent Warming Is Manmade, Cloud Feedback Is Positive, Inaction Is Suicidal •What leaked IPCC report really says on climate change •Why Climate Change Denial Is Just Hot Air •States Threaten EPA Over Petroleum Industry Methane Emissions •Ask Bill McKibben Anything
As economic activity and populations continue to expand in coastal urban areas, particularly in Asia, hundreds of trillions of dollars of infrastructure, industrial and office buildings, and homes are increasingly at risk from intensifying storms and rising sea levels.
•Coming soon: 100% renewable power – Chris Nelder •How Data and Social Pressure Can Reduce Home Energy •Use Fatih Birol: Energy efficiency is one of last options after Kyoto •Solar Mamas – movie trailer
The announcement on Thursday that the government is lifting its moratorium on fracking held all the surprise of turkey on the Christmas menu. The decision, which allows the resumption of test drilling by Cuadrilla in Lancashire and opens the way to fracking across the UK, was inevitable following the government’s gas generation U-turn last week…
•Drilling spills reaching Colorado groundwater; state mulls test rules •Shale Shocked: Studies Tie Rise Of Significant Earthquakes In U.S. Midcontinent To Wastewater Injection •Ignore the doom merchants, Britain should get fracking •Shale gas is not a game changer •The fracking dream which is putting Britain’s future at risk
Paul Gilding is calling for a complete reset on the climate debate, saying we will not get a global agreement on climate change and it’s a waste of time to think we ever will.
But unfortunately, the United States is like the most obdurate bully in this—in this room. It is the elephant in the room that we don’t want to talk about. And it is the elephant that refuses to recognize the fact that it is living in a world that is interdependent.
If last week’s energy bill announcement was about building the low carbon power system of the future, this week’s gas strategy and autumn statement felt like a blast from the past.
•Imagining Cities That Can Save The Planet: Alex Steffen Talks About Carbon Zero •Wean transport off fossil fuels, or grind to a halt •Build inter-city cooperation to stave off resource fights – experts •Sustainable cities will be more resilient in extreme weather
