Yet another blow to the climate sceptics. A new study by climate scientists who were behind the controversial 1998 “hockey stick” graph suggests their earlier analysis was essentially correct.

Michael Mann’s team from Penn State University analysed data for the last 2,000 years, and concluded that Northern Hemisphere temperatures now are “anomalously warm. Continue reading ‘The hockey stick is “alive and well”’

There is something absurdly silly about threatening a country with sanctions if it has something that you are completely dependent on. But that has now happened with Russia and the West over the crisis in Georgia.

With the EU threatening Russia with sanctions, the Daily Telegraph reports that “fears are mounting that Russia may restrict oil deliveries to Western Europe over coming days.” As the paper notes dryly “Any such move would be a dramatic escalation of the Georgia crisis and play havoc with the oil markets.” Continue reading ‘Russia “may cut off oil flow” to West’

As the Western oil majors squabble with Iraq over technical contracts, they have been out-maneuvered by the Chinese in the greater race to sign the first significant contract with the war-torn country.

The first major oil deal Iraq has signed since 2003 is not with BP or Shell but with China’s biggest oil company, state-run CNPC in a deal that could be worth $3 billion. Continue reading ‘Iraq Signs $3bn Oil Deal With China’

Every now and then you get a small, but significant shift in the battle against climate change and this could be one of those moments.

One of the America’s largest builders of coal-fired power plants has been forced to now give investors detailed warnings about the risks that climate change poses to its business. Continue reading ‘A New Precedent to Tackle Climate Change’

Although the oil price has now dipped significantly from its highs of the summer, its relatively high price is having an effect on both oil consumption and production.

Take the UK: The rising cost of running a car has caused traffic on Britain’s major roads to drop for the first time since congestion was measured, a new report has revealed.

Elsewhere in the UK, the oil price is having a different effect as a record number of prospectors for oil are scouring scores of sites across the East Midlands, Yorkshire and a swathe of southern England. Continue reading ‘A Nodding Donkey in your Back-Yard’