You really didn’t think that the oil industry would just roll over and give up without a fight on the US Waxman-Markey Climate Bill did you? Just a couple of days ago I blogged about how many people had lobbied the climate bill. Although they are pouring in serious cash to defeat the Bill, its … Read More
Month: August 2009
Shell Enters British CCS Race
Twelve years ago the oil giant Shell announced it had established a fifth core business – called Shell International Renewables or SIR- which was designed to exploit the growing renewable market. Over a decade later, the oil company has beat a humiliating retreat out of the main renewable market. In March this year Shell came … Read More
Why Don’t We Act on Climate Change?
You know you are worried about climate change, but you do nothing. If that describes how you feel you are not alone. A new report highlights the perverse dichotomy that although about 80 percent of us believe climate change is really important, we rank it last in a list of 20 issues of concern such … Read More
Over 1000 Groups and Companies Lobbied Climate Bill
Whatever happened to the clean-up of politics that was promised by the Obama Administration. Didn’t he promise to rid Washington of the secretive, sleazy and all encompassing world of lobbying? Well if he did, he failed. The lobbyists are busier than ever. A new analysis of lobbying records by the Center for Public Integrity has … Read More
Clinton’s African Scramble
First it was President Obama who delighted his audience when he undertook a whistle-stop tour. Now Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is embarking on a seven-country tour of Africa. Why is she going? It couldn’t be so crude to be about crude could it? The answer is yes. The visit could be construed as the … Read More
Copenhagen: Australia Accused of Selling-out Pacific Islands
Australia has been accused of watering down demands for radical action at the Pacific Islands States conference, that has just finished in Cairns, Australia. At the start of the conference the Pacific Island states were demanding a 45 per cent cut by 2020 and 85 per cent by 2050.
Copenhagen Countdown: China Tells West to Double Cuts
One thing is for sure about the negotiations in the run up to the Climate conference in Copenhagen – there is going to be intense arm-twisting and diplomatic manoeuvring. Central to any deal will be China. China is keeping up the pressure on the developed countries, by insisting that the West should at least double … Read More
UK Refuses to Intervene to Save Turbine Factory
When the financial crisis hit and the global economy plunged into recession, many people argued that it would be a perfect opportunity for a “Green New Deal”, were the recovery would be built by green sustainable jobs. You could solve the financial and climate crisis in one. But governments around the world have poured trillions … Read More
California: Words of Wisdom or Just Words on Paper?
The pictures in the report tell a graphic story – they show the historical temperature rise in California from 1961 to 1990, and then give future projected rise from 2035 to 2099. Progressively the state gets redder and redder, especially in the South East corner and middle. It’s going to get hot.
What About the Demand-Side Warning?
It’s interesting how peak oil continues to grab the headlines. If you log on to the Independent newspaper this morning the “Exclusive” headline is “Warning: Oil supplies are running out fast.” The paper’s story was based on an interview with Fatih Birol, the lead economist with the International Energy Agency (IEA) who talked how depletion … Read More
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