Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
The greatest mistake that they did before Copenhagen was to focus the spotlight only on climate. If the world situation is to develop in a positive way in the future then this one-lane track must be broadened into a four-lane highway. One only needs to examine the global welfare equation (HWB) to understand what those four lanes are: Food and water, climate, economy, and peace on Earth.
As ODAC News went to press, hopes of a deal in Copenhagen were finally rising, after two weeks of chaos and acrimony.
-‘Obama Doctrine’ Edges Toward High Concept
-The Post-Imperial Presidency
-The Great Game: U.S., NATO War In Afghanistan
-President Obama warns leaders over climate summit deal
-Obama’s Copenhagen Speech: Some Reactions
-Copenhagen climate summit: talks to go on overnight
-Copenhagen heading for meltdown as stalemate continues over emission cuts
-Obama as White Knight: Naked Ambition at COP15
-Better to have no deal at Copenhagen than one that spells catastrophe
A weekly review including:
– Production and prices
– Trouble in Copenhagen
-Iraq strengthens hand at OPEC with oil deals
-Iraq Auctions Development Rights to Oil Fields
-Majnoon win gives Shell a boost
-Shell, Lukoil to Join Iraqi Top Producers Based on Winning Bids
-Shell’s promise of a bright future turns out to be yet another false dawn
-Dramatic American intervention brings climate deal closer
-Greenland Glaciers: Water Flowing Beneath Ice Plays More Complex Role
-Chimerica Against the World
-Clinton Promises Climate Aid; Leaked UN Report Sees 3 C of Warming
“as mankind proceeded to get bigger and bigger we silently crossed a threshold”
…I feel like I shouldn’t be here, that none of us should be. . .that there should be 200,000 Cuyetano Huanca’s and Shorbana Khatun’s in Copenhagen, not 25,000 NGO reps and media reps. It’s a bit of a disgrace, and a reminder of our hubris, to think we represent the interests of the people most hurt by overconsumption (btw – this should not be a “climate conference” but a “capitalism/ overconsumption conference-;we should be focusing on the cause, not the effect)…
-This is bigger than climate change. It is a battle to redefine humanity
-Oil sands emissions polluting waterways, study finds
-Brown offers £1.2bn in a bid to break climate deadlock
-A Second Life For Orbiting Carbon Observatory?
-Sunspots do not cause climate change, say scientists
-Cooling the Asphalt Jungle
-‘At this rate, Copenhagen will be a disaster’
There is a huge amount of oil which theoretically can be extracted, but the question is whether the cost will be cheap enough for us to be able to afford to extract it. If the oil is too expensive to extract, the shortage of oil seems to cause a recession, similar to what we are having now. I discuss this in purely monetary terms, but it is also an issue with respect to low energy return on investment (EROI), for those of you used to thinking in EROI terms.
In a commentary published in The Times this week to coincide with the Copenhagen climate talks, Fatih Birol, Chief Economist of the International Energy Agency wrote that on existing energy demand projections “the world faces the prospect of a peak in conventional oil production in about 2020…
