Around 23 million people currently face starvation across east Africa as successive failed rainy seasons have decimated crops, livestock [...]
Around 23 million people currently face starvation across east Africa as successive failed rainy seasons have decimated crops, livestock [...]
On one level, there's something to give thanks for. Menu items for that classic dinner — turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie and [...]
The State Council announcement ahead of next month's Copenhagen climate summit pledges that China will cut carbon dioxide emissions per unit of gross [...]
Production is falling at Mexico's old, shallow-water offshore fields and the country has yet to exploit is potential deep-water reserves. [...]
Ivan Ayolov, chief executive of the state electricity system operator (ESO) said in an interview [...]
So say researchers at E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., which alongside Seattle-based Bio Architecture Lab (BAL) has secured $9 million from the Department of Energy to explore seaweed's potential as a feedstock [...]
"Consultations are ongoing to select the best mechanism that fairly guarantees the rights of both sides and serves" [...]
HONG KONG (MarketWatch) -- A sharp rise in Chinese car sales and vehicle ownership hasn't been reflected in nationwide gasoline consumption this year, an anomaly that has some analysts scratching their heads in the search for answers.
The disconnect has sparked a' [...]
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar fired back at critics of the federal government's oil and gas leasing program on Tuesday, saying the oil industry was acting “like an arm of a political party.”
In a conference call with reporters to announce oil and gas lease sales on federal land for 2010, Salazar [...]
Two weeks before President Obama visited China, two senior White House officials traveled to Beijing on a "special mission" to try to persuade China to pressure Iran to give up its alleged nuclear weapons program.
If Beijing did not help the United States on this issue, the consequences could be [...]
We are so often told about the problems of climate change by the various political parties in Britain, but in fact the changing climate is just one of a number of factors [...]
1. Production and prices
2. Will China continue to grow?
3. Copenhagen
4. Uranium
Quote of the Week
The Briefs [...]
Scientist: ‘Coin-flip odds for serious outcomes for our planet’
MAUNA LOA OBSERVATORY, Hawaii - The readings at this 2-mile-high station show a troubling upward curve as the world counts down to crucial climate talks: Global warming gases are building in the atmosphere at record levels from emissions that match scientists' worst-case' [...]
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Purse strings are loosening, new bets are being placed, and cautious optimism has caught on in the green technology sector.
With oil prices up sharply and the U.S. economy steady, the emerging green technology industry is seen moving back to a growth path from a sheer survival [...]
LONDON (Reuters) - How much does a barrel of oil cost? With billions of dollars at stake, sometimes the answer depends who is doing the asking.
The most visible answer is the figure flashing up on futures screens across the financial globe. [...]
NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) - Offshore crude storage, which has declined sharply from record levels in April, may rise again in the U.S. Gulf as front-month U.S. oil futures trade at a steep discount to barrels for later delivery.
The volume of crude oil stored in tankers globally has dipped to between [...]
A team of 26 climate scientists from Australia, Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States have published the “Copenhagen Diagnosis”, an interim synthesis report on developments in climate change science from mid-2006 to the present day. The report points out that many key harbingers of [...]
As the politics and philosophical arguments about “Peak Oil” continue to rage, science continues to move steadily onward, progressively creating new and better ways to both find and extract oil that we never could have previously discovered, as well as get a lot more bang for our buck by more [...]
President Barack Obama will pledge to reduce America's greenhouse gas emissions "in the range of 17 per cent below 2005 levels" by 2020 when he attends next month's climate change summit in Copenhagen, the White House said Wednesday. [...]
After years of over promising and under delivering, the solar industry is finally starting to show some interesting developments that have the potential to make solar power as cheap as fossil fuel on a cost-per-watt basis within five years.
Getting us to that state, called grid parity, would require solar companies [...]
With the Copenhagen climate summit two weeks away, best-selling journalist Naomi Klein examines the grass-roots movement behind the climate debate proposal that argues all the costs associated with adapting to a more hostile ecology—everything from building stronger sea [...]
I have seldom felt so alone. Confronted with crisis, most of the environmentalists I know have gone into denial. The emails hacked from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia, they say, are a storm in a tea cup, no big deal, exaggerated out of all [...]
The Alaskan government has announced plans to auction oil and gas exploration rights in a disputed section of the Beaufort Sea along the Yukon-Alaska border — a move that has also prompted Canada to lodge a protest with Washington, Canwest News Service has learned.
Foreign Affairs officials acknowledged Tuesday that the [...]
(Reuters) - Pirates attacked an oil tanker off the coast of Benin on Tuesday, killing a Ukrainian officer and stealing the contents of the ship's safe, the head of the West African country's navy said.
Africa's Gulf of Guinea nations have been struggling with mounting threats from piracy and kidnappings [...]
The accelerating rise in commodities prices may leave energy behind. Even if the economy recovers next year as expected, energy consumption in the industrialized world fell so far, so fast, that it will struggle just to meet 2007 levels.
Barclays Capital estimates that oil demand [...]
The government's multibillion-dollar push into energy research is reinvigorating 17 giant U.S.-funded research facilities, from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory [...]
It's high time we had a plan to replace imported oil with domestic natural gas.
My father once said that a fool with a plan can beat a genius with no plan. Well, when it comes to energy--especially oil--China is certainly giving the U.S. a drubbing.
The U.S. is the largest economy [...]
This is a guest post by Jean Laherrère on gold. Although of little relevance to our economies in the present day, this precious metal has been used as money for many thousands of years, and still retains its importance and value. In a two part article, Jean analyses how gold [...]
FRESNO, Calif. - While Californians worry about the three-year drought dragging on another season, researchers say climate change soon could create much longer dry spells - lasting decades or even centuries.
Scientists from the University of California, Davis, this month announced the first proof of such mega-droughts after studying mineral formations [...]
Groups and individuals speaking out about forthcoming world oil supply challenges are frequently stereotyped as a fringe element with little knowledge about the oil industry. But their warnings [...]
I was quite tickled that Mr Tony Buckingham, the shrewd ex-mercenary and chief of Heritage Oil, is set to make £80million (Shs240 billion) from selling its lucrative oil fields in Uganda.
Buckingham has done a deal to flog his companyÂ’s oil fields in western Uganda to Eni of Italy for a [...]
"Iran has considerably reduced the total of US dollars in its currency basket," said Mahmoud Bahmani in Tehran at the 3rd Seminar [...]
Environmental campaigners warn that a lawsuit over fraud against a company claiming to be the worldÂ’s largest manufacturer and distributor of biochar presents a stark warning of the dangers of the scramble for funding for unproven climate change techno-fixes. [...]
OSLO (Reuters) - Global warming is happening faster than expected and at worst could raise sea levels by up to 2 meters (6-1/2 ft) by 2100, a group of scientists said on Tuesday in a warning to next month's U.N. climate summit in Copenhagen.
In what they called a "Copenhagen Diagnosis," [...]
LONDON - Nuclear power — long considered environmentally hazardous — is emerging as perhaps the world's most unlikely weapon against climate change, with the backing of even some green activists who once campaigned against it.
It has been [...]
"Kuwait could look at it definitely because we don't think'" [...]
COTONOU — Pirates attacked an oil tanker off the coast of west Africa, killing a Ukrainian seaman, the commander of Benin's naval forces told AFP Tuesday.
"The death that we have is the chief mechanic, who is responsible for the engines. He is Ukrainian. The captain, a Lithuanian, is not hurt," [...]
MICHES, Dominican Republic — From a development perspective, this town has a few problems.
It is 60 miles from the nearest airport, a three-hour drive on roads so bad the trip can be nauseating. Electricity is erratic, drinking water is contaminated, the beach in town is littered with trash and nearby [...]
The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged two companies – including a Colorado-based financial planning firm – with conning senior citizens out of their retirement money with outlandish claims about investing in a shady bio-tech startup.
According to the SEC complaint, advisory firm Speed of Wealth convinced more than 300 investors, [...]
First I should confess to a strong bias toward the content of this book. As readers of my blog, Question Everything, will realize, I have been moving inexorably toward the same conclusion as the author, so you will perhaps forgive me if you think I may be suffering from a [...]
It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement surrounding renewable energy technology. After all, what homeowner wouldn’t want to reduce — or even eliminate — his or her electric bill with a backyard wind turbine, or a rooftop solar array?
As readers might imagine, however, becoming a small-scale power producer [...]
This series was based on the analysis of Canadian economist and author Jeff Rubin, whose recent book examined the implications of peak oil (Why Your World Is About to [...]
According to a Reuters poll of ten top oil-tracking analysts and organizations, oil [...]
As it is, humanity each year uses resources equivalent to nearly one-and-a-half Earths to meet its needs, said the report by Global Footprint Network, an international [...]
Fitch Ratings downgraded Mexico's credit rating Monday, saying dependence on a flagging oil sector has weakened the country's ability to weather financial problems. Mexico's rating remained at investment grade, but the downgrade will bring a rise in the government's borrowing costs.
Fitch said decreased oil production has already accentuated economic problems [...]
At least a hundred icebergs have trekked from Antarctica toward New Zealand, arriving at islands off New Zealand in recent weeks after being set adrift perhaps 9 years ago.
"The larger icebergs seen from Macquarie Island are tabular in shape, which indicates they have calved relatively recently, probably from one" [...]
GENEVA Reuters - Concentrations of greenhouse gases, the major cause of global warming, are at their highest levels ever recorded and are still climbing, the U.N. World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said on Monday.
The head of the agency, Michel Jarraud, said the trend could be pushing the world towards the most [...]
A growing number of companies are turning their attention to creating renewable products — such as adhesives and plastics — from the animal parts that can't be sold on supermarket shelves.
For years, those parts have ended up in cosmetics, soap, pet food and animal feed. Now, meat companies are putting' [...]
BEIJING (Reuters) - Natural gas supplies for China's industrial users will have to be further cut in coming months to divert supply for residential demand, the in-house newspaper of top gas supplier CNPC reported on Tuesday.
Gas for household needs and for heating can be guaranteed in the winter and spring [...]
The US will announce a target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions before next month's UN climate summit, according to a White House official.
The target is expected to be in line with figures contained in legislation before the Senate - a reduction of about 17-20% from 2005 levels by 2020. [...]
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A team of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has developed a new modeling methodology for determining the capacity and assessing the risks of leakage of potential underground carbon-dioxide reservoirs.
One strategy for mitigating greenhouse gases is to inject compressed carbon dioxide into natural aquifers made of [...]
Africa is poised to experience a surge in civil wars, causing nearly 400,000 additional battle deaths by 2030 – all as a direct result of rising temperatures. This bold prediction is one of the most alarming results yet to emerge from attempts to discover how climate change will affect patterns [...]
Of all global carbon dioxide emissions, less than half accumulate in the atmosphere where it contributes to global warming. The remainder is hidden away in oceans and terrestrial ecosystems such as forests, grasslands and peat-lands. Stimulating this "free service" of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems is considered one of the main, [...]
SALT LAKE CITY – In a provocative new study, a University of Utah scientist argues that rising carbon dioxide emissions – the major cause of global warming – cannot be stabilized unless the world's economy collapses or society builds the equivalent of one new nuclear power plant each day.
"It looks" [...]
A kilowatt of electricity costs three times as much here as it does in the United States, supercharged with high [...]
...But the risks of that infrastructure breaking down and the scale of the consequences are growing, due to random and non-random sources such as climate change, potential over-dependence on high-technology infrastructure, and increasing urbanisation - in both [...]
Or you didn't believe in it.
What could you conclude from the recent history of price and global oil supply? [...]
Climate change wonÂ’t be a smooth transition to a warmer world, warns the Tipping Points Report by Allianz and WWF. Twelve regions around the world will be especially affected by abrupt changes, among them the North Pole, the Amazon rainforest, and California.
We tend to think of climate change like the [...]
PARK FALLS, Wis. — Forests are a treasure trove of limbs and bark that can be made into alternative fuels and some worry the increasing trend of using that logging debris will make those materials too scarce, harming the woodlands.
For centuries, forests have provided lumber to build cities, pulp for [...]
Joe Witte, a meteorologist for News Channel 8 in Virginia and Maryland, hopes that people watching his television forecasts will think about more than just the weather.
Two years ago, Mr. Witte started to include phenomena linked with climate change in his reports, like how warmer conditions affect life in Chesapeake [...]
World oil production peaked in July 2008 at 74.74 million barrels/day (mbd) and now has fallen to about 72 mbd. It is expected that oil production will decline at about 2.2 mbd per year as shown below in the chart. The forecasts from the IEA WEO 2008 and 2009 are [...]
There's been a lot of stale argument recently about oil – is it running out? Are we approaching/at/passed Peak Oil (the point when global' [...]
The world's largest ice sheet has started to melt along its coastal fringes, raising fears that global sea levels will rise faster than scientists expected.
The East Antarctic ice sheet, which [...]
RENOVO, Pa. - For decades, natural-gas drilling has been part of the landscape in Sproul State Forest, a vast timberland in northern Pennsylvania pocked with hundreds of shallow wells and crossed by [...]
Contributing to his prediction of lessened demand is greater use of biofuels and increased [...]
An IPO filing from the six-year-old start-up, best known for its $109,000 all-electric Roadster, is expected any day, said [...]
Civilization is on the cusp of the Third Industrial Revolution and "our Second Industrial Revolution is on life support," according to Jeremy Rifkin, president and founder of the Foundation on Economic Trends said.
We are in [...]
Today I want to talk a little more about perforating the wall of a well, and a bit more about hydrofracing. They are not necessarily used together, but both are ways of getting cracks out from the immediate wall of the wellbore so that the valuable fluid on the other [...]
Perhaps this week you heard news reports about Venezuela bombing a couple of bridges that connected it with Colombia, and have been wondering what all the tension is about.
If so you should run to read this report in UK's The Independent about America's role (surprise!) in fomenting tension. (via Forexlive) [...]
The News Journal Editorial Board has long opposed drilling within 100 miles of Gulf Coast beaches — even 150 miles, as proposed during congressional negotiations in 2006. Certainly not in state waters, within 10 miles of the coastline.
We see no reason to change that opinion. [...]
Mexico's oil industry has funded a significant portion of government spending since the discovery of massive offshore reserves in the 1970s. Oil export revenues pay for nearly 40 percent of government spending and are for the most part spent as they come into federal coffers. The country's deep economic recession [...]
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission says later today it is sending two radiation specialists to the plant near Harrisburg. [...]
Reporting from El Consejo, Venezuela - Power outages are hitting Henrique Vollmer's rum distillery several times a week, interrupting production, damaging equipment and jeopardizing the jobs of his 375 workers.
President Hugo Chavez blames the [...]
Reporting from Oxford, England - With the global climate change summit in Copenhagen just a few weeks away, gloom has settled [...]
Since then, America has exhausted its hydrocarbon supplies. Repeatedly. [...]
The hens' owner, Jennifer Rudin, wasn't sure at first whether her city neighbor would appreciate the chickens' free-ranging,' [...]
MexicoÂ’s daily El Universal reports that the contracts are the result of concern [...]
The study – "Windfall for All: How Connected, Convenient Neighborhoods Can Protect Our Climate and Safeguard California's Economy" – was conducted by Oakland-based TransForm, formerly the Transportation [...]
