President Vladimir Putin has denied that Russia is acting like a superpower by throwing its weight around to control prices and supplies of oil and gas to countries like Ukraine. “We’re not behaving like an energy superpower,” he said yesterday at the Russian-organised Valdai Club. “We just want negotiations that are fair. We don’t need … Read More
Blog Post
Can We Transition Away From Oil?
Slowly but surely people are beginning to talk about a taboo- what happens when the oil runs out. What are we going to do? How are we going to live? How will we feed, power and house ourselves? How can we transition our society away from oil to a secure energy future? These kind of … Read More
Bubbling Tundra Spells Disaster
So what do you know about methane? Yes, yes, we have heard all the old jokes about farting cows, but have you heard the one about the bubbling tundra? New scientific research shows that thawing Siberian bogs are releasing more of the greenhouse gas methane than previously believed.
Vortex of Violence Continues in the Niger Delta
If anyone still denies the existence of the “resource curse”, maybe a trip to the Niger Delta wouldn’t go amiss. They should also read the Stakeholder Democracy Network’s latest depressing news on what happened in August in the Niger Delta:
BP’s Day of Reckoning
Later today, some of BP’s most senior executives will face their first Congressional grilling over their corrosion problems at Prudhoe Bay. Although BP’s embattled CEO Sir John Browne won’t be testifying, Bob Malone, the new head of BP America will be grilled by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. The hearing is called “BP’s … Read More
Chad Orders Oil Firms to Quit
Chad has become the latest country to expel foreign companies operating in its country, after the country’s president kicked energy giants Chevron and Petronas, out of a World Bank-backed project. Ironically, Chad-Cameroon pipeline project was meant to serve as a model for oil extraction in Africa. The President, Idriss Déby accused the American and Malaysian … Read More
Largest Rise in CO2 for 800,000 Years
The last two centuries have seen the biggest rise in greenhouse gases in 800,000 years, according to a study of the oldest Antarctic ice core. Air bubbles trapped in ice for hundreds of thousands of years have revealed that humans are changing the composition of the atmosphere in a manner that has no known natural … Read More
20 Years Until Climatic Point of No Return
A leading expert has warned that the world has just 10 years to develop and implement new technologies to generate clean electricity before climate change reaches the point of no return. Peter Smith, a professor of sustainable energy at the University of Nottingham, said the UK and other countries had to embark on a strategy … Read More
Listen to the BBC’s Great New Programme “Driven By Oil”
Anyone interested in oil politics should listen to the BBC’s great new series on oil, by Tom Mangold, called Driven By Oil. Today’s first programme was on Peak Oil. Asked when we should have started to worry about peak oil, Matt Simmons, author of Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the … Read More
Climate Change Linked to Increased Flood Risk
British climate scientists have found that rainfall almost equivalent to monsoon levels has become increasingly common in Britain over the past 40 years. As the rain has increased, so too has the risk of flooding, especially in areas close to rivers which were previously considered high enough to avoid damage. Some five million people could … Read More