November 21, 2014 Uncategorized No Comments

Coal Rush in India Could Tip Balance on Climate Change
The New York Times
India’s coal mining plans may represent the biggest obstacle to a global climate pact to be negotiated at a conference in Paris next year. “If India goes deeper and deeper into coal, we’re all doomed,” said Veerabhadran Ramanathan, director of the Center for Atmospheric Sciences at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and one of the world’s top climate scientists. “And no place will suffer more than India.”

UN report: Climate change has permanently ruined farmland the size of France
The Independent, UK
There may be those who feel the apocalyptic plot of the new Hollywood film Interstellar seems a bit far-fetched, with humans forced to look for an alternative planet because this world can no longer feed them. But it has been given credence by a new United Nations report that has found that the destruction of the environment has left an area of farmland the size of France useless for growing crops.

NASA Shows Stark Year in the Life of CO2
Climate Central
This animated video shows what your atmosphere looks like in carbon dioxide (CO2). And it’s not a pretty sight. Nasa provides a stark and stunning view of a year in the life of our planet as humans continue to emit greenhouse gases that warm the planet. The animation comes courtesy of one of the highest-resolution computer models in existence.

Oil Prices Are Dropping. So What?
Politico Magazine
The global oil supply has increased and demand has weakened, prices are down to about $80 a barrel, a more than 25 percent drop since June, and recently fell to a three-year low. What should we make of this shakeup? Will it scramble the economy or upend global politics? The United States’  leading energy thinkers on how dropping oil prices matter the most—or don’t—for Washington.

The Future of Oil Supply: An Interview with Dr. Richard G. Miller
Steve Andrews, ASPO-USA
Dr. Richard G. Miller, trained as a geologist, joined BP as a geochemist in 1985. He studied peak oil matters since 1991, when BP asked him the following year to devise a wholly new way to estimate global oil resources. In 2000, he was tasked with creating an in-house projection of global future oil demand and supply to 2030. The model he created was updated annually through 2008; then the effort was disbanded and he moved on to his present work consulting on peak oil.

Eight Pitfalls in Evaluating Green Energy Solutions
Gail Tverberg
Does the recent climate accord between US and China mean that many countries will now forge ahead with renewables and other green solutions? I think that there are more pitfalls than many realize.

Don’t Ask How to Feed the 9 Billion
Mark Bittman, The New York Times
The difference between you and the hungry is not production levels; it’s money. There are no hungry people with money; there isn’t a shortage of food, nor is there a distribution problem. There is an I-don’t-have-the-land-and-resources-to-produce-my-own-food, nor-can-I-afford-to-buy-food problem.

Questions We Should Have Asked about Technology
Jerry Mander, originally published by Between the Lines
The transcript of Jerry Mander’s talk at the recent International Forum on Globalization “teach-in”, Techno-Utopianism and the Fate of the Earth, which took place October 25th-26th in New York City

 

 

Written by AbdulGilo