Monday, October 15, 2007

Biofuel Plans to Hit Water Supply in India, China
UN Rapporteur Calls for Moratorium on Biofuels
Peering Into Investors' Skulls
Who's Ben Chatting With About the Economy?
Inconvenient Truths About Al Gore
How Global Warming Will Save Us From Peak Oil
Tongue-in-cheek response in Salon to New York Times article critiqued in this blog several weeks ago.
Five Ex-Communist Countries Sign Oil Pipeline Deal Bypassing Russia

New Frontiers in Computer Technology

16 comments:

Rice Farmer said...

Crude Oil Rises to Record on Turkey Border Tensions With Iraq
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20602099&sid=asfwjP8jmUxU&refer=energy

Interesting article. Would Turkey attack the Kurds to gain control of their oil?

Also, news items like this show more and more that, faced with peak oil, governments are considering increasingly desperate measures to secure energy supplies.

Anonymous said...

just out of curiosity, what are some of the most reliable, unbiased sources for news? Are there any? I know nothing is 100% unbiased but... all the major news sources seem to have major agendas...

A peon said...

Plame's Book Faults Bush,Journalists

gaelicgirl said...

Interesting:

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7120

Rice Farmer said...

Reliable, unbiased sources of news? The perennial question! Look at the links on blogs like this one for a start. As far as bias goes, all news and opinion sources are going to have their biases. What it comes down to is whether that bias agrees with your own. And you can glean valuable nuggets of information from the mainstream media, too. There is a lot of chaff (and outright propaganda), but also some wheat. The mainstream media are pretty tightly controlled, but there are competing interests behind the scenes, and some useful stories get out. Further, some information is likely purveyed without the connection to any agenda, but is useful to us nevertheless.

So while some news sources match our own biases and offer information which is more useful for getting at the truth, if you learn to recognize propaganda and pick through the crap to find useful items, just about all news sources can be useful to an extent.

Rice Farmer said...

Are the airlines on the ropes? Read the letter from a pilot on Kunstler's site:
http://www.kunstler.com/

Rice Farmer said...

For the past couple of days, the oil-related message from the Japanese media has been "feel the pain." On a morning news program, there was talk of how expensive heating fuel (kerosene) could get this winter. And the financial news features ask grave questions about how the economy might suffer. Nevertheless, it seems to me that the Japanese public as a whole still thinks/hopes the government is going to do something to save the day. And since the Japanese are great lovers of technology, there is widespread belief (wishful thinking?) that biofuels, hydrogen, renewables, and whatnot will substitute for oil.

I think speculation and the weak dollar are responsible for adding about $10 to the price of oil, considering we are between the summer driving season and winter heating season. But I also think that when the winter heating season kicks in, there will be a lot more pain. If it's a cold winter, oil could hit $100 before the year is out.

D! said...

Rice Farmer,

I am not sure, but I think that natural gas and crude are manufactured quite differently... i.e, we can't get natural gas from overseas. Ideas anyone?

Last night at work I had a quick conversation with a co-worker that truly believes that "they" will find a solution, or an alternative for oil and gas. Come to find out, he had never heard of ERoEI... The lack of public knowledge relating to peak oil, or even current factual events relating to the industry is absolutely astounding. Most people, I am realizing, NEVER take into account fundamentals like total energy infrastructure replacement. Nor did he seem to have any sort of grasp on current events in either oil discoveries or production/consumption models.

And they all think that I'm weird... The horror...the horror...

Rice Farmer said...

New Theory Predicts Location Of Oil And Gas Reserves
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071020082836.htm

This might have implications for the abiotic oil theory.

Rice Farmer said...

Global Sourcing: Is It Really Worth It?
http://www.sdcexec.com/web/online/SourcingProcurement-Trends/Global-Sourcing--Is-It-Really-Worth-It/13$9940

Some time ago, MCR remarked that peak oil would kill globalization. This article raises energy costs as one of the factors to be taken into account when deciding whether to source globally. Remember, if oil were cheap, this would not even be mentioned.

Unknown said...

Is it possible you could add an RSS feed to this blog? Thanks!

Rice Farmer said...

David -- Natural gas is extracted from several sources, including oil fields.

And you are right about the ignorance of energy issues among the general public. It's astounding how easily they are ready to believe in a fleet of hydrogen cars or some other technological magic.

Tyler Havlin said...

Canadian Gas - Decline Sets In

http://canada.theoildrum.com/node/3095#more

"Since the year 2000, total Canadian production has been maintained at about 480 million cubic meters per day. This has been achieved only by a very considerable increase in the number of wells drilled each year. For details, see a posting I wrote in January. It is evident that such increases cannot be continued indefinitely. Under these circumstances, when drilling levels off, output begins to fall, and an actual decrease in drilling leads to even faster decline. When gas prices were in the region of $15 per gigajoule in late 2005, there was considerable enthusiasm for drilling, but in the last year the price has wandered erratically in the range of $5 to $9 per gigajoule, and costs have been high. At $7 per gigajoule, drilling has been falling, and companies are laying workers off."

Rice Farmer said...

The Energy Watch Group will supposedly come out with a new report shortly:

Steep decline in oil production brings risk of war and unrest, says new study
http://www.scenta.co.uk/Nature/1707771/steep-decline-in-oil-production-brings-risk-of-war-and-unrest-says-new-study.htm

Apparently it'll be posted here:
http://www.energywatchgroup.org/Reports.24+M5d637b1e38d.0.html

D! said...

Rice Farmer,

Take a look...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_gas

Rice Farmer said...

Yes, it is just as I said: natural gas comes from a number of sources including oil fields. Or am I missing your point?