» 2007 » August

On July 18, the National Petroleum Council delivered a blockbuster report to the US Secretary of Energy. The council advises the US federal government on energy issues. Chaired by Lee Raymond, the hardnosed former CEO of ExxonMobil, it’s composed largely of representatives of the U.S. oil and gas industry.

The council’s report — entitled Facing Hard Truths about Energy — assesses the “future of oil and natural gas to 2030 in the context of the global energy system.” Its 400 pages reveal a major shift in the energy industry’s publicly stated views about humankind’s energy prospects: We’re running out of cheap oil. The same shift is apparent in another report also issued in mid-June by the Paris-based International Energy Agency. This one covers trends in oil supply and demand till 2012.

Source: www.homerdixon.com/… (PDF)

LS » In one regard it is good that ‘the age of cheap oil is ending’, it is time to move on to cleaner and more sustainable types of energy sources and as the price of oil goes up then the cost of the alternatives, new developments included, goes down. On the other hand the significantly rising cost of the energy in the near future is going to have some serious implications to the global economy and our day-to-day lives. Things could start to get interesting around here.

The presidential contender wants to create a million environment-friendly jobs, and end a destructive oil addiction.

John Edwards has gone to great lengths to outshine the top Democratic candidates with an aggressive environmental platform. On the 2008 campaign trail, this blue-collar defender has painted himself as a bleeding-heart greenie.

The first candidate to call for an 80 percent reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050 and the first to make his campaign carbon neutral, Edwards has had a pied-piper effect on the other Dem contenders, prompting them to make similar pledges. He has also set himself apart with his call for a freeze on all development of coal power plants until they can be outfitted with carbon-sequestration technology. But the former senator from North Carolina runs with the pack in his enthusiasm for corn ethanol, and his green mantle is a fairly new accessory.

How committed is Edwards to his new green vision? To find out, I caught up with the candidate on his cellphone as he hurtled through the fields of rural Iowa in his campaign bus.

Source: www.salon.com/…

LS » Edwards says a lot of good environmental things here, maybe there is another Democratic presidential candidate than the Obama-Clinton juggernaut.

The most ubiquitous consumer item on Earth, the lowly plastic bag is an environmental scourge like none other, sapping the life out of our oceans and thwarting our attempts to recycle it.

On a foggy Tuesday morning, kids out of school for summer break are learning to sail on the waters of Lake Merritt. A great egret hunts for fish, while dozens of cormorants perch, drying their wings. But we’re not here to bird-watch or go boating. Twice a week volunteers with the Lake Merritt Institute gather on these shores of the nation’s oldest national wildlife refuge to fish trash out of the water, and one of their prime targets is plastic bags. Armed with gloves and nets with long handles, like the kind you’d use to fish leaves out of a backyard swimming pool, we take to the shores to seek our watery prey.

Source: www.salon.com/…

LS » Someone needs to figure out how to cheaply make biodegradable plastic bags. But as that probably isn’t as easy as it sounds I am going to have to try to start going shopping with a canvas bag or two. And so should you.