Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
In his State of the Union speech, President Bush said “America is addicted to oil” and set a goal of replacing 75 percent of the nation’s Mideast oil imports by 2025 with ethanol and other energy sources. This is not a “goal,” it is a prophesy. There is no way that the US will be importing as much oil from the Mideast in 2025 as it imports today. And there is no way that the nations of the Mideast will be exporting as much oil in 2025 as they are exporting today.
Our economic system is unsustainable by its very nature. The only response to climate chaos and peak oil is major social change
Russia’s largest oil discovery in a decade /
Exxon comes to Madagascar /
Arctic defrost opens resources and divisions /
Thailand: gasohol pumps may soon run dry /
Energy research sputters /
Ethanol and the environment /
Bush speech to outline energy alternatives
A senior White House aide I spoke to over the weekend says the president will focus on new energy technologies, which means alternatives to oil production.
Squeezing the last drop of oil /
Radio Ecoshock covers peak oil /
Oil reserves discussed on Radio New Zealand /
The carbon economy – in-depth /
Iran and energy news roundup /
Iran: Of nukes and oil /
The guerrilla oil cartel /
Chavez on Peak America
Talk turns to change in Ashland, Oregon /
Lives recycled in Argentina /
Two studies: Urban sprawl adds pounds, pollution /
Agricultural sustainability = agricultural productivity /
Pay as you pollute /
Web 2.0 and the new corporate watchdogging
Support for a carbon tax and emmissions trading, from a surprising corner.
Thirty years ago, the scientist James Lovelock worked out that the Earth possessed a planetary-scale control system which kept the environment fit for life. He called it Gaia, and the theory has become widely accepted. Now, he believes mankind’s abuse of the environment is making that mechanism work against us. His astonishing conclusion – that climate change is already insoluble, and life on Earth will never be the same again.
To insiders, the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate is a real world, mature-person’s solution to climate change. No economic pain, no mandatory targets, no international commitments and no need for open, accountable negotiations. To other observers, it’s an empty vessel; a fig-leaf to cover the embarrassment of George Bush and John Howard, the only western leaders to have reneged on commitments their predecessors made at the UN Kyoto conference in 1997.
Demand destruction is at the core of misconceptions by economists about the likely course of events leading up to and following an oil peak.
Incompatibility of automobility-centric lifestyles with a healthy, resource-frugal future
Two big-state governors have hit the headlines last week with grand plans for the future. In California, Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed a massive infrastructure construction program, while in New York, George Pataki has called for a renewable energy program. Both plans were developed by comparatively moderate Republican governors with an eye to the challenges of tomorrow. Unfortunately for the residents of these states, both wind up missing the larger point.
