Climate report fails to highlight extent of global warming, Flannery says

Professor Tim Flannery says the report's findings are conservative and the real impact of global warming will be felt much sooner.

"The actual trajectory we've seen in the arctic over the last two years if you follow that, that implies that the arctic ice cap will be gone in the next five to 15 years," he said.

"This is an ice cap that's been around for 3 million years."

Global warming obstructionism

Word from participants who shall remain nameless is that China has taken the lead in global warming obstructionism in 2007.

China Warns of Disasters from Warming Tibet Plateau

Chinese scientists have warned that rising temperatures on the Qinghai-Tibet plateau will melt glaciers, dry up major Chinese rivers and trigger more droughts, sandstorms and desertification, state media reported on Thursday.

Oil giant primes the biofuel pump with $500 million

Oil giant BP will give $500 million to a partnership led by UC Berkeley to develop new biofuels and reduce environmental harm caused by the use of fossil fuels, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and company officials announced Thursday.

Fuel Economy Has Backers; Details to Come

President Bush has surprised skeptics by proposing dramatically tougher fuel economy standards for cars and trucks. Starting in 2010, gas mileage would have to improve by 4 percent each year — in most cases, that's a one-mile-per-gallon increase every year.

Siemens sells clean technology to U.S.

The project will allegedly be one of the cleanest and most efficient coal-fired power plants in the United States. Longview Power LLC, a subsidiary of GenPower, is purchasing the equipment from the German power company. The order from Siemens is worth $405 million.

In Love With the Lusty Wind

Today, peak oil and global warming are beginning to change the economics of power generation and the world is looking to these pioneers for solutions.

Top Energy Scientists Agree, Bush Wrong on Alternative Fuels

"...witnesses from three of America’s premier energy research institutions cast grave doubt on the feasibility of reaching President Bush’s State of the Union goal of manufacturing 35 billion gallons a year of alternative fuels by 2017."

Telecommuting as energy saver

Cutting out that round-trip commute to the office - which averages about 23 miles - can save nearly $1,000 a year in gasoline and avoid putting more than 6,000 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Food Fight: peak oil and food security radio - Several episodes, including "100 Million Farmers," "Until you change the way money works, you change nothing," "What will we eat as the oil runs out?", "Peak oil and permaculture in Cuba," "Biogas and Dream Farms," and "The Salvation of Suburbia."

Bolivia Suspends 14 Contracts Signed with Foreign Oil Firms

The Bolivian government suspended 14 oil contracts signed between state-run oil company YPFB and foreign oil firms, saying that the foreign sides violated state rules of presentation and legalization for their businesses, according to news reaching here on Wednesday.

China faces pressure achieving energy-saving goal

China is under great pressure and facing many challenges if it hopes to achieve its goal of cutting by 20 percent the amount of energy it uses to produce a unit of GDP, according to a official of the State Council research center.

Putin Gives Blessing to Russia-Ukraine Gas Integration

Russian President Putin confirmed Thursday that Ukraine may gain access to Russian gas fields in exchange for a stake in the Ukrainian gas transit system. Ukrainian energy officials have offered Gazprom three plans to bring this idea to life, Kommersant’s sources report. Russia favors the option under which will let a joint venture buy the Ukrainian gas transit assets. Kyiv is willing to say “yes” in exchange for access to Russian natural resources with the guaranteed supply of up to 50 billion cu. meters of gas annually.

Switzerland: Cash drain hits renewable energy drive

Families seeking to switch from fossil fuels to renewable energy face an increasingly desperate struggle for financial aid because of budget cuts.

CO2 Cloud Hangs Over European Carmakers

The earnings drag from stepped-up spending to curtail greenhouse gases and the sales impact from higher prices for almost all new cars would provide a double whammy that analysts agree has not been priced into the market.

Weekly Offshore Rig Review: Mess in the Med: Cyprus Gets Serious About Oil & Gas

As the eastern Mediterranean has become a more and more attractive region for hydrocarbon exploration, the Greek Cypriot government has made some important moves towards establishing oil and gas exploration within the waters surrounding the island nation, which have thrust the tiny nation into the international spotlight in recent weeks.

Nigeria: PHCN alerts on power rationing

The Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) yesterday alerted the nation of an impending mass power rationing, saying its generation capacity had slumped by 50 per cent.

Iran Formally Offers 17 Oil Blocks to Investors

Iran formally offered 17 onshore and offshore oil blocks for development at conference in Vienna that attracted many non-U.S. international oil companies despite rising international pressure on Tehran over its nuclear program.

Russia: Oil Output Disappoints

The Industry and Energy Ministry said Thursday that it had cut its oil output growth forecast for 2007 to 2.1 percent from the 2.5 percent it had expected earlier.

The ministry said Russian crude oil production would rise to 490 million tons from the 480 million tons produced last year, when the growth rate was the same 2.1 percent. Oil output growth has slowed to 2.7 percent in 2005 following big spikes in previous years, including a 9 percent growth in 2004 and a record 11 percent in 2003.

Chavez Expects to Have Control of Oil Ventures By May

Venezuela intends to take control of "no less than 60 percent" of four heavy-crude-oil joint ventures in the country's eastern Orinoco Belt by May 1, President Hugo Chavez said.

Alternative Energy Boom Has Its Limits

There are significant limits that alternative energy will face that may not be given full consideration today in the headlong rush of politicians promising change, activists demanding change and investors speculating on change. If it were all that easy, you might expect major energy companies to have taken a bigger bite by now.

Apache CEO: Reducing North American Exploration Budget by $600M

Apache Corp. (APA) will reduce its 2007 exploration and development spending in North America by $600 million, with further cuts possible if costs don't keep pace with falling gas prices, Chief Executive G. Steven Farris said Thursday.

Putin Says Russia May Consider Forming a 'Gas OPEC'

Russia, which has the world's largest natural-gas reserves, will consider coordinating policy with other major producers of the fuel, such as Iran, President Vladimir Putin said today.

Group opens 'terror-free' gas station

Claiming U.S. dollars used to purchase gasoline made from Middle East oil funds terrorism, a group called the Terror-Free Oil Initiative opened the nation's first "terror-free" gas station.

The Coral Springs, Fla.-based group opened its first station Thursday in west Omaha, seeking to sell only gas that originates from countries that do not support terrorism and from oil companies that don't do business in the Middle East.

Nigeria Oil Workers' Unions Threaten Strike Over Violence

The two main Nigerian oil workers' unions on Thursday threatened a strike next week to protest against rising violence in the country's petroleum-producing southern region.

Warming to worsen droughts, floods, storms this century: UN panel

UN scientists have delivered their starkest warning yet about global warming, saying fossil fuel pollution would raise temperatures this century, worsen floods, droughts and hurricanes, melt polar sea ice and damage the climate system for a thousand years to come.

In its first assessment in six years, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) dealt a crippling blow Friday to the shrinking body of opinion that claims higher temperatures in past decades have been driven by natural, not man-made, causes.

France Tells U.S. to Sign Climate Pacts or Face Tax

President Jacques Chirac has demanded that the United States sign both the Kyoto climate protocol and a future agreement that will take effect when the Kyoto accord runs out in 2012.

...He warned that if the United States did not sign the agreements, a carbon tax across Europe on imports from nations that have not signed the Kyoto treaty could be imposed to try to force compliance. The European Union is the largest export market for American goods.

How You Can Fight Global Warming

How climate change hits India's poor

People like Bashunto Janna. He is 81 now and says he has not got long to live.

His family used to farm 85 acres on the vanished island of Lochachara. Now they have one acre in a village for displaced people on a nearby island, which itself is under threat from the waves.