Shell oil company which has made a big deal out of its commitment to alternative energy for the past decade, has decided to deemphasise its investment in wind, solar and hydro technologies. Their rationale is economic and we may therefore conclude that the drop in consumption symptomatic of the economic recession is driving this decision. …
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Category:4 Energy
Batteries as good as petrol.
Researchers have come up with a battery design that appears to have the charactistics required for rapid charging, thus allowing fast refuelling at refuelling stations. There may remain issues of weight and recycling but in the balance they are looking like a good energy replacement for petrol in the transport industry. Clean too. (Though humanity …
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Oil companies must be making loads of money
The price of oil has dropped to $73 a barrel. Pump prices have hardly moved in the past few months. Demand is virtually constant. Oil companies are profiting from that wide margin.
Home, green home
It seems that the wave of sustainable initiatives is growing. As we accelerate our eco-village development, it appears to dove tail with a growing demand for green homes. In the latest Technology Quarterly by The Economist the subject is covered in Home, green home and Another green revolution. This article highlights the trend to new …
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Go greased lightning – car crosses Europe on cooking oil.
A converted old Peugeot has just completed a journey across Europe fuelled by waste cooking oil scavenged from restaurants along the way. The statistics of the odyssey are impressive. The distance travelled was more than 3,200 km, using about 200 litres of chip fat. The car did more than 40 miles to the gallon. And …
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Understand the energy that goes in to putting food on your plate
This article discusses the energy required to put food on our plates, comparing industrial production and distribution (aka agribusiness and supermarkets) with sustainable models (traditional small holding and organic style systems). Its an easy read to understanding the economic dynamics and consequences for our living planet of industrialised food systems based on fossil fuels. It …
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A very worrying World Oil Outlook 2008
OPEC’s World Oil Outlook 2008 is a realistic but very worrying analysis of the global energy picture. It discusses the recent gyrations of the price of oil and its underlying drivers, in particular the growth of speculation, and outlines demand and supply parameters. While it projects a sufficient supply for the coming decades, whether or …
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G8 co2 goals – a lot of hot air?
So the G8 is talking about the cost of food and oil. And they’ve proclaimed that they will cut carbon emissions in half. This is a good start and if nothing else the propaganda will encourage people, businesses and politics to accelerate conversion to low energy-high value technology. Its good to see the US beginning …
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Changing Games in the Global Casino
Hazel Henderson has pioneered natural capitalism for several decades and writes tirelessly on the dysfunctioning of iniquitous economic systems. In mid-June she published a summary and analysis of current events which is reproduced below and on EthicalMarkets.com here. Changing Games in the Global Casino © Hazel Henderson, 2008 Ever since the 1980s when Britain’s Margaret …
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Another giant is waking up to the urgency of biosphere preservation – IEA
The International Energy Agency is finally beginning to realise that consumption patterns and technology must change if we are to avoid a natural catastrophe. The IEA announced that $ 45,000,000,000,000 (trillion) must be spent to change the pattern of consumption of fossil fuels. It is a long overdue public recognition only catalysed by the current …
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