Most of these are older links, but I just haven’t had the time to post them.
In case you missed it: A White House official who once led the oil industry’s fight against limits on greenhouse gases has repeatedly edited government climate reports in ways that play down links between such emissions and global warming. Oh, right after this came out he took at job at ExxonMobil. Classy.
“An accelerating Arctic warming trend over the past quarter of a century has dramatically dried up more than a thousand large lakes in Siberia, probably because the permafrost beneath them has begun to thaw, according to a paper to be published today in the journal Science”. Most people don’t know this, but permafrost is very important in the north. Without it, a lot of the land would be bogs, and the buildings would sink.
The CS Monitor takes a look at hybrids & demand.
A wind map of the world. It is interesting to note that the US looks pretty good for wind potential.
Unlimited energy. Fast-growing fruit. Free air-conditioning. John Pi�a Craven says we can have it all by tapping the icy waters of the deep.
Biomass vs. Corn – Producing ethanol from corn grain generates about 1.4 times as much energy as the process consumes, when pesticides and fossil fuels are factored in, she said. “The energy yield from cellulosic materials is like 10-to-1.” enzymes to break down the cellulose found in the leaves, stalks and walls of plants into simple sugars that are then converted into ethanol. Can’t help but think this will be a fight in the midwest, even though they could benifit.
Wired takes a look at peak oil – Petroleum Joyride Almost Over.
Want more Peak Oil? The Oil Drum – “We are in the process of putting together a community of bloggers to facilitate frank discussions on ideas related to Hubbert’s Peak/Peak Oil, sustainable development and growth, etc., as well as the implications of these ideas on politics, economics, and our daily lives”
An interesting read from Robert Bryce on Salon:
America is such a major energy user and the energy market is so complex that we can never be independent. America simply sucks up too much oil (25 percent of world production), too much natural gas, and too much coal to ever cut itself off from the global market. The price for these commodities is set by global market forces like booming economies in China and India, and by the ever-increasing energy needs of citizens everywhere to power their cars, fax machines, computers and air conditioners. In short, there’s no silver bullet when it comes to energy. Pretending that there is only obscures the magnitude of the problem.
Salon interviews James Howard Kunstler on his new book, The Long Emergency. As you can read bellow, he is pretty drastic in his conclusions, but still interesting.
“Suburbs will collapse into slums. Farmhand will be a more viable career choice than public relations executive. And avoiding starvation will replace avoiding boredom as the national pastime… In Kunstler’s world, a teenager will be better off learning how to yoke up a horse-drawn buggy than how to change the oil in a car. Woodshop will be more important than computer literacy… The South will devolve into agricultural feudalism and the Pacific Northwest will be beset by a plague of pirates from Asia. Forget about sleek hydrogen-powered cars coming to the rescue. For that matter, quit tilting your hopes toward wind power.”
Some more good stuff from Salon – Email exchange between James Howard Kunster, doomsayer of the oil age and alternative energy guru Amory Lovins, CEO of the Rocky Mountain Institute. JHK had sassed Lovins for promoting the Institute’s ultralight Hypercar as a panacea for the coming oil crunch.