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Discussions about Peak Oil and Our Future
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The midpoint of global
hydrocarbon production
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 You can't win, you can't break even, and you can't get out of the game. Those kernels are my favorite descriptors of the Three Laws of Thermodynamics. Respectively, the clauses mean (1) energy is conserved (First Law), (2) entropy never decreases, thus precluding perpetual motion machines (Second Law), and (3) it is impossible to cool a system to absolute zero (Third Law). The Second Law in particular puts insurmountable, irreversible constraints on everything we do. Without the Second Law, there would be no heat losses in energy systems, and electricity would be far too cheap to meter and commodify.
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Posted by Leanan on Tuesday, February 09 @ 07:19:03 PST (143 reads)
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 Within the past week, Russia's energy giant OAO Gazprom has announced it is delaying the development of the Shtokman natural gas field, while at the same time trotting through major investment centres saying the company is poised for growth. Is it another sign of the rapidly changing nature of the world's natural gas markets or a fresh instance of Russia looking to flex its muscles using its natural resources?
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Posted by Leanan on Tuesday, February 09 @ 06:02:54 PST (127 reads)
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| UK: Green energy labels launched by Ofgem |
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 The power regulator Ofgem is bringing in a new scheme designed to show if a supplier is making real cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.
Its "green energy certified" label is designed to give users a real guide to who is doing most to source renewable power.
The idea is to reassure householders and small businesses that paying for green energy is actually worth it.
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Posted by waegari on Tuesday, February 09 @ 05:24:55 PST (97 reads)
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 Hugo Chavez had a crummy January. Hammered by a slugging economy and 24 percent a year inflation, the Venezuelan president prepared for his 11th anniversary in office with 61 percent of his countrymen believing they’re on the wrong path. But there ought to be at least one opportunity for Chavez’s salvation: his country’s plentiful oil reserves. A study by the U.S. Geological Survey last week found the Orinoco oil belt to have almost twice as much black gold –- 513 billion barrels in full -- than previously thought.
What would be a boon to most other countries has become a shame for Chavez, who seems to have shot himself in the foot.
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Posted by waegari on Tuesday, February 09 @ 05:22:04 PST (177 reads)
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| Exploring 'uncivilisation' |
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 The exhaustion of the planet and existing ways of life presents a creative challenge: exploring “uncivilisation”. Paul Kingsnorth introduces the Dark Mountain Project.
I often wonder how we would act if we really believed it. How we would act and how we would write.
Every day, we are hit with more news about the human impact on the non-human world. For decades, the evidence has been piling up. If you want to know about deforestation, species extinction, ocean acidification, overfishing or (the granddaddy of them all) climate change, you doubtless know where to look by now. And if you don’t want to look – because you don’t want to hear it – then nobody can make you.
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Posted by waegari on Tuesday, February 09 @ 05:17:20 PST (189 reads)
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| Making Solar Power Portable |
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| Last year, when Jonathan Smith was still the president of Earth911.com, a Web site dedicated to recycling, he said he would often board a plane after a speaking engagement or a day of meetings with a dead cellphone in hand.
With limited recharging options available, “it was really frustrating,” he said. “Having access to a working port or finding an open plug during layovers at the airport was just too unpredictable.”
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Posted by waegari on Tuesday, February 09 @ 05:10:37 PST (81 reads)
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| Year of the Tiger, electric vehicles and wind power |
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| Perhaps the most worrying recent example of this is how China has been preparing for a forthcoming peak oil energy crisis. Whilst much of the rest of the world has been asleep, China has been doing the sums and getting ready to react.
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Posted by waegari on Tuesday, February 09 @ 05:06:30 PST (103 reads)
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| U.S. Oil Consumption Remains Weak |
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| The U.S. Energy Department's weekly inventory release showed a surprise climb in crude stockpiles, while distillate supplies posted a smaller-than-expected draw. The agency’s bearish report further added that refiners continued to cut production, and are currently operating at their lowest rate in two decades.
This has instilled renewed doubts about the health of the U.S. economy, and pulled down oil prices to a seven-week low of around $71 per barrel. The only saving grace came in the form of gasoline supplies, which defied market expectations and fell from the week-ago period.
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Posted by Leanan on Monday, February 08 @ 22:53:56 PST (267 reads)
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| UK: The government has the power, it could make us all pay into a green bank |
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| One thing Lord Browne knew better than most was that the energy world is all about power, not money. Sadly, this fact only just seems to have caught up with a British political establishment that thought open markets were all that was necessary. Last week's bombshell from energy regulator Ofgem calling for an end to the UK's liberalised market experiment is still reverberating around Westminster.
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Posted by Leanan on Monday, February 08 @ 22:50:18 PST (106 reads)
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| UK: Meaner politics is in the gas pipeline |
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| Some commentators believe Ofgem was off target with its diagnosis of the perils faced by the UK energy market in its Project Discovery document.
Possibly, but the regulator seems rather more prescient than its detractors, given the news that Gazprom, and its joint venture partners, are mothballing the enormous Shtokman gas field under the Barents Sea.
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Posted by Leanan on Monday, February 08 @ 22:31:41 PST (95 reads)
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| U.N. Climate Panel and Chief Face Credibility Siege |
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| Just over two years ago, Rajendra K. Pachauri seemed destined for a scientist’s version of sainthood: A vegetarian economist-engineer who leads the United Nations’ climate change panel, he accepted the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the panel, sharing the honor with former Vice President Al Gore.
But Dr. Pachauri and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are now under intense scrutiny, facing accusations of scientific sloppiness and potential financial conflicts of interest from climate skeptics, right-leaning politicians and even some mainstream scientists. Senator John Barrasso, a Wyoming Republican, called for Dr. Pachauri’s resignation last week.
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Posted by Leanan on Monday, February 08 @ 22:04:50 PST (242 reads)
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| Iran Tankers Idle in Persian Gulf |
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 Iran, OPEC’s second-largest crude producer, has at least three supertankers idling in the Persian Gulf, as oil prices decline five weeks before the group’s next meeting, vessel-tracking data show.
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Posted by admin on Monday, February 08 @ 17:48:20 PST (183 reads)
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| Chavez declares "electricity emergency" in Venezuela |
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| CARACAS (Reuters) - President Hugo Chavez inaugurated a folksy new radio talk-show on Monday by declaring an "electricity emergency" in oil-rich Venezuela.
Despite its huge crude reserves, the South American OPEC member relies on hydro-electricity for 70 percent of its power needs, and a drought has hit supply since late 2009.
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Posted by Leanan on Monday, February 08 @ 17:33:31 PST (143 reads)
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| It's Official: The Oil Export Crisis Has Arrived |
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| Last March, my study of the effect of peak oil on U.S. imports had brought Mexico to the fore (“The Impending Oil Export Crisis”). As our #3 source of imports, the crashing of its supergiant Cantarell field had put the future of our oil supply into serious jeopardy.
The possibility that Mexico’s oil and gas exports to the U.S. could go to zero within seven years looked very real.
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Posted by Leanan on Monday, February 08 @ 16:37:29 PST (499 reads)
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| Urban growth, farm exports drive tropical deforestation |
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| vox_mundi writes " Under December's Copenhagen Accord, rich countries are pledging some 10 billion dollars over the next three years to help poor countries tackle climate change.
A big but so far unspecified chunk of the cash will go on programmes to prevent loss of tropical forests, which is a major source of greenhouse gases
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Posted by Leanan on Monday, February 08 @ 16:14:46 PST (297 reads)
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