OPEC Could Be Powerless To Cool Crude

"OPEC has been under a lot of pressure to increase its output," said Lawrence Poole, analyst with Global Insight, adding that he expected the cartel to freeze production on Wednesday. "But the problem is that for the first and second quarters, you usually tend to see demand fall slightly."

Even if OPEC does decide to turn on the taps, argues Poole, the race into commodities like crude oil will be far from tamed. Crude prices hit a record high on Monday, just shy of $104 per barrel, with the U.S. dollar's unprecedented weakness fueling investment in safer commodities like gold and oil.

"In our opinion, oil will go as high as the dollar goes low," said Deutsche Bank analyst Paul Sankey. "Name your target."

Bush Warns OPEC on Energy Prices

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush is chiding OPEC for failing to pump more oil as energy prices soar and the U.S. economy slumps.

After an Oval Office meeting Tuesday with Jordan's King Abdullah II, Bush said the OPEC countries should understand the consequences of high energy prices. Bush said it's a "mistake to have your biggest customers' economies slowing down as a result of higher energy prices."

Imports from Latin America may help US meet energy goals, study finds

OAK RIDGE, Tenn. -- Latin American nations could become important suppliers of ethanol for world markets in coming decades, according to an Oak Ridge National Laboratory study released recently.

The report, “Biofuel Feedstock Assessment for Selected Countries,” presents findings from research conducted in support of a larger study of “Worldwide Potential to Produce Biofuels with a focus on U.S. Imports” by the Department of Energy. The ORNL study highlights the importance of Brazil’s dynamic sugarcane industry in future world trade in fuel ethanol.

Speculation Adds to Oil Price Surge

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Market speculation on energy prices may have added as much as 10 percent to crude oil costs and the peak may be yet to come, a top Energy Department official said Tuesday.

Guy Caruso, head of the department's Energy Information Administration, told a Senate hearing that supply and demand would suggest a price of about $90 a barrel.

Will global warming increase plant frost damage?

Widespread damage to plants from a sudden freeze that occurred across the Eastern United States from 5 April to 9 April 2007 was made worse because it had been preceded by two weeks of unusual warmth, according to an analysis published in the March 2008 issue of BioScience. The authors of the report, Lianhong Gu and his colleagues at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and collaborators at NASA, the University of Missouri, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, found that the freeze killed new leaves, shoots, flowers, and fruit of natural vegetation, caused crown dieback of trees, and led to severe damage to crops in an area encompassing Nebraska, Maryland, South Carolina, and Texas. Subsequent drought limited regrowth.

Rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide are believed to reduce the ability of some plants to withstand freezing, and the authors of the BioScience study suggest that global warming could lead to more freeze and thaw fluctuations in future winters. This pattern is potentially dangerous for plants because many species must acclimate to cold over a sustained period. Acclimation enables them to better withstand freezes, but unusual warmth early in the year prevents the process. A cold spring in 1996, in contrast to the 2007 event, caused little enduring damage because it was not preceded by unusual warmth.

Oil Tops Inflation-Adjusted Record Set in 1980

Capping a relentless rise in recent years, oil prices hit a record high during the day on Monday, then pulled back to close below the record.

The day’s highest trading price, $103.95 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, broke the record set in April 1980 during the second oil shock. That price, $39.50 a barrel, equals $103.76 today, when adjusted for inflation.

US urges oil producers to keep market 'well supplied'

WASHINGTON (Thomson Financial) - The White House urged OPEC to keep world markets 'well supplied' ahead of the cartel's production meeting tomorrow.

Spokeswoman Dana Perino declined to comment specifically until OPEC formally announces a decision, with record oil prices sparking consumer calls for increased production.

But she reiterated past US appeals that 'oil producing countries should work to keep the markets well supplied, and right now we have extremely high demand and tight supply, it's worldwide demand.'

For Qatar, relations with West are a balancing act

DOHA, Qatar: For Sheik Hamad bin Jasim bin Jaber al-Thani, Qatar's prime minister and chief diplomat, it's natural to play host to the U.S. military while sharing one of the world's largest natural-gas fields with Iran.

Qatar's royal leadership has learned to balance contradictory political interests as a means of national preservation for the tiny country. Saudi Arabia, a kingdom friendly to the United States, looms on Qatar's western border, and Muslim clerics rule Iran just across the Gulf.

BP to stay in Sakhalin project despite move to temporarily stop drilling

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - BP PLC will remain in the Sakhalin project in Russia despite the joint venture's decision to temporarily stop drilling work on the gas fields.

Qatar Shell GTL plant to start 2010 - Attiyah

VIENNA (Reuters) - The first train at Qatar's gas-to-liquids plant will start in 2010, Qatari Oil Minister Abdullah al-Attiyah said on Tuesday.

The Pearl GTL plant to make super-clean fuels is Shell's largest foreign investment and will be the world's largest such plant. Spiralling costs have taken the price to $18 billion from an original budget of $5 billion.

PetroChina Eyeing Singapore As Refining Base

HONG KONG - China's largest oil firm, PetroChina, is reportedly planning to build a multibillion-dollar refinery in Singapore, seeking an overseas production base to meet its home country's rising energy demand.

Vehicle Sales Fell by 10% Last Month

DETROIT — Sales of cars and trucks in the United States fell 10 percent in February as oil prices climbed past $100 a barrel and worries about a recession rattled consumer confidence.

Outlook '08: Biofuel to drive record coarse grain demand

The US demand for feedstock for ethanol will ensure that worldwide demand for coarse grains remains at record levels, according to ABARE.

The forecaster has predicted last year’s production and consumption records will again be smashed as farmers clamour to get a piece of the high prices, all driven by the US hunger for corn.

Outlook '08: Biofuel to drive up sugar prices also

The worldwide demand for sugar continues to be very strong, thanks increasingly to biofuel production.

Add a reduction in beet production in Europe and you have an estimated 11pc increase in sugar price to US13c a pound for this current financial year, according to ABARE.

The strength in this price has surprised the economists as it comes despite a 17pc increase in global production this year.

Helping developers map out renewable energy source

Remember the thrill of checking out your house from outer space with Google Earth? Now a Seattle company wants you to know whether there's enough wind to power it with renewable energy.

3Tier, a weather-consulting service geared toward renewable-energy developers, is expected to release a global wind map, available free on the Web.

Tesla: Little electric roadster that could

Tesla's groundbreaking distinction is under its carbon-fiber skin. The $98,000 Tesla is the first production high-performance electric car. It is powered entirely by electricity, a plug-in that will never use a drop of gasoline. And it's billed as being able to go 221 miles in mixed city/highway driving on a full battery charge.

Rush of investors to oil costly for all

The surge of mainstream investors into commodities is driving record crude prices - and we're all feeling the pain.

NEW YORK (CNN) -- The economy is stumbling, energy supplies are rising, yet oil prices are hitting new records. What's going on here?

Oil's surge to an all-time high of nearly $104 a barrel Monday is the latest evidence that speculative investment flows are driving crude prices more than physical supply and demand for the commodity.

"This has gone beyond reason," said George Littell, an analyst with Groppe, Long and Littell in Houston. He believes oil should be trading in the range of $60 a barrel.

Oil touches an all-time high

Daniel Yergin, chairman of Cambridge Energy Research Associates, said the oil-price gusher "has more to do with the turmoil in the credit markets and the weak dollar than it does with the flow of oil in and out of refineries."

"This time the cause and effect isn't the fall of the shah of Iran," said Yergin, author of "The Prize," a Pulitzer Prize-winning history of oil. Instead of OPEC, oil companies such as Exxon Mobil Corp., Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez or even the supply and demand for oil, Yergin said, "the people who are driving this bus are in the financial markets."

Priced Out of the Market

The world’s food situation is bleak, and shortsighted policies in the United States and other wealthy countries — which are diverting crops to environmentally dubious biofuels — bear much of the blame.

Australia wheat crop seen doubling, more iron ore

CANBERRA (Reuters) - The wheat crop in Australia, the world's second biggest exporter, could double this year to near its biggest ever, a top government body forecast on Tuesday, helping ease anxiety about a world shortage of staple grains.

It also predicted that thermal coal exports would rise by the most in seven years and that shipments of iron ore, the country's biggest earner, could climb by more than 12 percent for a second year in a row. With both prices now at record highs, commodity revenues are expected to rise by 30 percent, it said.

Outlook '08: Wheat's perfect storm to continue

The perfect storm that has led to the record increases in wheat prices over the last 12 months is set to continue virtually unchecked, according to Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resources Economics (ABARE).

From wheat to tea, inflation hits hard

In Pakistan, the prohibitive price of tea became an election issue; Mexican housewives have rioted to protest the shortage of affordable tortilla; Swaziland is facing famine, even as it exports cassava to feed the rich world’s hunger for biofuel.

Rising agricultural inflation, or “agflation”, is a global phenomenon that touches everyone, and almost every day it seems to intensify.

South Africa: Blackouts plunge PMI to 2003 level

Johannesburg - The purchasing managers' index (PMI) fell to a four and a half-year low of 46.4 last month, knocked by slowing demand and the power shortage, sponsor Investec said yesterday.

The fall in the measure of manufacturing activity from 52.1 in January reflects fewer new sales orders and marks the first decline below the 50 mark, which separates expansion from contraction, since 2003.

Kenya: Food Reserves Won't Last Long

Agriculture PS, Dr Romano Kiome, says only 15 to 50 per cent of agricultural land had been prepared in the North Rift.

Under normal circumstances, 50 to 80 per cent of the land in these areas would be prepared by this time of the year in readiness for planting.

Besides the post-election chaos, erratic weather and high prices of inputs have complicated the food status.

Ethanol changing future of consumers' gasoline needs

In the five minutes it takes you to read this column, the United States will consume 70,000 barrels of oil. According to the Energy Information Administration, we burn 6.2 billion gallons of oil in a single day. Our insatiable appetite for petroleum, which is both expensive and finite, has economists and scientists worried.

Where will we turn when the oil wells run dry? When will the price of crude oil finally prove too expensive to run our cars, produce our plastics and manufacture our chemicals? In the debate over energy and carbon emissions, an unlikely hero has emerged in corn-based ethanol.

The energy answer

While the governor and others in Annapolis are demanding cuts in electricity consumption, there's a better way: increasing the supply through nuclear power.

MMS: Central GOM Sale 205 Nets More Than $2 Trillion in High Bids

The Minerals Management Service (MMS) has accepted high bids valued at $2,829,926,881 and awarded 683 leases to the successful high bidders who participated in Central Gulf of Mexico Oil and Gas Lease Sale 205. Funds from the total high bids will be distributed to the general fund of the U. S. Treasury, shared with the affected States, and set aside for special uses that benefit all fifty states.

Venezuela Gets OPEC's Ear, Secures Some Support In Exxon Row

Venezuela managed to make its battle with Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) a point of discussion in this week's meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, hoping for support in a commercial dispute that could set a milestone in conflict resolution between oil-rich nations and oil companies.

Several ministers arriving in Vienna expressed support for Venezuela's position and agreed the Andean country's case against Exxon will be heard, though it's unclear what that would mean.

Jean Laherrere: Revisiting “The End of Cheap Oil"

The strongest argument in the article was the huge difference between the confidential technical backdated mean reserves and the published political current proved reserves as shown in Figure 1 for conventional oil. Nine years later, the updated data (Figure 2) confirms the trend we forecast, despite the fact that the political data now includes some unconventional oil (tarsands). Our guesses, indicated by the two arrows, were not too bad, despite the fact that the growth in political reserves was more than anticipated, thanks to the changed definition of oil. Figure 2 helps explain why many economists, who have no access to the technical data, are wrong; it is not bad analysis on their part, but bad data.

In Hungry Zimbabwe, Pet Food as a Priority

NORTON, Zimbabwe -- Meals come only once a day for Helen Goremusandu, 67, and the six children she is raising. With prices for the most basic food products increasingly beyond her reach, that daily meal often consists of nothing more than boiled pumpkin leaves, washed down with water.

About a mile away, a Zimbabwean government grain mill is churning out a new product: Doggy's Delight. Announced by its creators in January, the high-protein pet food is aimed at the lucrative export market, one of the dwindling sources of foreign exchange in a collapsing economy.

Fears of a commodity crash grow

Crude oil has surged to $104 a barrel, yet US gasoline inventories are at the highest level in 14 years. Oil stocks have been rising for the last seven weeks, even though we are at the top of the winter season when inventories normally fall. The tsunami of pension money is beginning to distort the market for energy futures. Texas oilman T Boone Pickens said investment froth has pushed up prices by $15.

This is not to downplay the powerful reasons behind the oil boom. Output has been flat for four years despite efforts by BP, Shell and peers to find new supplies, yet China's oil imports rose 14pc in 2007. The era of 'peak oil' is certainly with us. But it was with us a decade ago when oil prices fell to $10 a barrel.

Commodities on Fire: It's more than just a dollar implosion story

Despite the skyrocketing prices, the inventories of many commodities are lower than they were during the 2001 recession. Discovering, permitting, extracting and shipping natural resources can take years, even decades. It will take time to overcome the past two decades of massive underinvestment in resource exploration and development. This is why commodity bull markets can run 15 years or more before significant new supply brings prices back down. In addition this is the first commodity bull market with the specter of Peak Oil looming ahead, if not already knocking on the door. That alone can have huge implications in terms of supply, price, and future expectations of market behavior.

Hedge funds have new opportunities in global market: Experts

According to the Monaco-based Hedge Funds Research Institute (HFRI), the industry has grown rapidly, with global hedge fund assets now estimated to exceed $1.8 trillion, almost double from $1 trillion in 2005.

Clarke said that long term macro trends - like demographic shift, climate change and peak oil production - are also expanding the opportunities.

Shallow Water Ahead for Panama Canal (audio)

The Panama Canal is the shortcut between the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans. As the Earth's climate changes, the canal will face changes, too. It depends on rain, not seawater, to fill its locks, and changes in rainfall might mean the canal could run out of water.

Police bust copper theft racket

Victoria Police have cracked the state's largest copper theft racket, which they say is valued at more than $1 million.

The copper wiring, believed to be stolen from a variety of locations including rail tracks, power stations and scrap metal depots, was destined for the Asian black market, police said.

Can We Stay in the Suburbs?

Will these places simply devolve into slums with roving bands of thieves stripping building materials and other valuables from abandoned homes and formerly homeless drug addicts burning them down while trying to keep warm? They’ll probably be some of that especially if the housing crisis worseness (and it will) and the government continues to address it largely by bailing out banks.

Is Oprah Our Only Hope? Or, If Humanity Doesn’t Grow Up Fast, Can We Survive?

Eckhart Tolle has a new book out called “A New Earth.” Actually, it came out in 2005, but Oprah recently discovered it and put it on her list, which means instant best-sellerdom. (Though Tolle was doing quite well before Oprah’s endorsement.)

The central question is this: Do we humans need to take an evolutionary step in order to continue to exist? It is not only Tolle who raises this question; many spiritual people have suggested we cannot survive unless we grow up.

Review: World Made by Hand by James Kunstler

World Made by Hand comes at a time when the subjects of high gasoline prices and soaring heating and electricity bills—as well as the looming energy shortages that are driving those high prices—are slowly starting to enter the realm of public discourse. The novel presents a view of what the world might look like not so many years from now, when the cheap flow of fossil fuels that keeps modern life running has dried up once and for all.

Ken Livingstone - Peak oil “opportunity” for London Mayor

Peak oil is not a threat but an opportunity to force through the policies needed to combat climate change, according to London Mayor Ken Livingston.

Why a Carbon Tax Would Hit Living Standards

All I have done is to apply "Austrian" capital theory to the proposed carbon tax. The Austrian school correctly see capital as a heterogeneous structure consisting of complex stages of production with a time dimension. From this they conclude that shortening the structure lowers living standards. This is something that Machlup lived through:

Austria has a most impressive record in five lines: she increased public expenditures, she increased wages, she increased social benefits, she increased wages, she increased bank credits, she increased consumption. After all these achievements she was on the verge of ruin. (Fritz Machlup, The Consumption of Capital in Austria, Review of Economic Statistics, January 15, 1935).

Kjell Aleklett: Uninvited observations

I understand that the Association for the Study of Peak Oil & Gas (ASPO) will not always be invited to speak at CERA Week (Cambridge Energy Research Associates annual conference in Houston), but if I had been invited I could have discussed the CERA 2006 forecast of future oil production.

Australia: Radical plan to drive cars from key roads

SPEED limits will be dropped on key routes, lanes removed and traffic lights changed to favour public transport and pedestrians under a new strategy for Melbourne's inner north to be launched by Public Transport Minister Lynne Kosky today.

Darebin Council's new transport plan — the first in Melbourne to explicitly give priority to trams, pedestrians and cyclists on key roads — could lead to the removal of clearways on some routes in a bid to discourage drivers.

US State Dept oks pipeline to ship oil from Canada

WASHINGTON, March 3 (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department on Monday published approval of a presidential permit for the $5.2 billion Keystone Pipeline to ship crude oil from Alberta to U.S. Midwest.

Nigeria police: Foreign worker kidnapped

Gunmen attacked a highway construction crew and kidnapped a foreign worker Tuesday in southern Nigeria, police said, marking the first seizure this year of an expatriate worker in the restive oil region.

StatoilHydro Seeks Thrills In Brazil

LONDON - Five months after StatoilHydro became the world's largest offshore operator, the Norwegian, state-controlled oil and gas major has announced $1.8 billion worth of acquisitions in Brazil and the Gulf of Mexico as it compensates for declining reserves in the North Sea.

Nigeria: Bwari Residents Protest Over Power Outage

Residents of Sabongari quarters in Bwari Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory at the weekend protested over constant power outage in their area.

The group took to the streets carrying placards that had different inscriptions, condemning Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) for their failure to supply electricity for the past three months.

Mexico Sets Stimulus Plan

MEXICO CITY - President Felipe Calderon announced a 60-billion-peso ($5.6 billion) package of tax breaks, utility-rates discounts and spending programs Monday to help Mexico's economy weather the slowdown in the U.S. economy.

Poll: Mexicans split on possibility of private investment in oil sector

MEXICO CITY: Nearly two-thirds of Mexicans oppose foreign investment in state-owned oil company Petroleos Mexicanos, according to a poll published Monday, although less than half object to a similar role for private Mexican firms.

"Eat whale and save the planet" - Norwegian lobby

OSLO (Reuters) - Eat a whale and save the planet, a Norwegian pro-whaling lobby said on Monday of a study showing that harpooning the giant mammals is less damaging to the climate than farming livestock.

NANSEN G. SALERI: The World Has Plenty of Oil

Many energy analysts view the ongoing waltz of crude prices with the mystical $100 mark -- notwithstanding the dollar's anemia -- as another sign of the beginning of the end for the oil era. "[A]t the furthest out, it will be a crisis in 2008 to 2012," declares Matthew Simmons, the most vocal voice among the "neo-peak-oil" club. Tempering this pessimism only slightly is the viewpoint gaining ground among many industry leaders, who argue that daily production by 2030 of 100 million barrels will be difficult.

In fact, we are nowhere close to reaching a peak in global oil supplies.

OPEC not moving to ease high oil prices

VIENNA, Austria - OPEC has virtually ruled out pumping more oil to ease record-high prices, key oil ministers signaled Tuesday on the eve of a cartel meeting.

Chakib Khelil, president of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, said the 13-nation group is shying away from boosting production because of the U.S. economic slowdown, political turmoil in the Middle East and expectations of slackening global demand for crude.

Aramco Official Calls to Develop New Technologies

MANAMA, 4 March 2008 — Saudi Aramco’s operations chief challenged the world’s leading geoscientists to hone existing technologies and help create new ones to maximize oil reservoir recovery and take exploration activities to a new level of performance and sophistication. Khalid A. Al-Falih, executive vice president of operations, made the remarks Sunday at the opening session of the 8th Middle East Geosciences Conference and Exhibition being held over three days in Manama.

OPEC oil output to fall in Feb-Reuters survey

VIENNA (Reuters) - OPEC oil supply is set to fall slightly in February because of lower output from Iran and Nigeria, a Reuters survey showed on Monday.

OPEC's 12 members bound by output targets, all except Iraq, pumped 29.78 million barrels per day, down from a revised 29.89 million bpd in January, according to the survey of oil firms, OPEC officials and analysts.

The drop reflects lower exports from Iran and supply outages in Nigeria. Some analysts said there were also signs that OPEC members were trimming output to prepare for seasonally lower demand in the spring.

Nigeria oil reserve to last 43yrs

Nigeria’s strategic oil reserve, put at 36.2billion barrels, is expected to sustain her for the next 43 years, statistics have shown.

The statistics also show that the nation has the lowest reserve life span among the members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

Gazprom set to cut gas supplies to Ukraine by another quarter

MOSCOW (RIA Novosti) - Russian natural gas giant Gazprom announced on Tuesday it would reduce gas supplies to Ukraine by a further 25% to half their normal level, due to an unresolved dispute over the country's debt.

Ukraine can cope with 50 pct gas reduction

"At the moment, the situation is not critical," Naftogaz spokesman Valentyn Zemlyansky told reporters. He said conditions were helped by sufficient reserves and mild weather.

Ukraine says it could cut Europe's gas

KIEV, Ukraine - Ukraine's natural gas company on Tuesday warned that if Russia further cuts its gas supplies, it could begin diverting shipments intended for western Europe.

Analysis: Russia, others eye Iran ties

While it has been a cornerstone of U.S. foreign policy since the 1979 Iranian Islamic revolution to contain and isolate Iran, Washington's increasingly factious relations with Moscow and record-high oil prices are beginning to ripple through the relations of the five Caspian nations, producing several developments that all point to the increasing failure of Washington's containment policy against Tehran. The Bush administration's rising hostility against former "Evil Empire" Russia and charter "Axis of Evil" member Iran has infuriated both nations and driven them closer together.

Venezuela's War Talk Suggests More Trouble For Andean Oil

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez raised the possibility of a war between Andean neighbors Sunday in a heightening of political tensions that may spell trouble for the oil industries of two OPEC member nations.

China's natural gas output to double in 10 years

BEIJING (Xinhua) -- China's natural gas output would at least double the present volume in the coming decade to reach 150 billion to 200 billion cubic meters, PetroChina Vice President Jia Chengzao said on Tuesday.

U.S. retail gasoline price nears record: government

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. retail gasoline prices rose closer to record levels last week, up 3.2 cents from the previous week due to higher crude oil costs, the government said on Monday.

The national price for regular unleaded gasoline averaged $3.16, up 66 cents from a year ago and about a nickel away from the record $3.22 reached last May, the Energy Information Administration said in its weekly survey of service stations.

Russia, China Block UN Iran Resolution

VIENNA, Austria (AP) -- Russia and China on Tuesday scuttled a Western attempt to introduce a resolution on Iran's nuclear defiance at a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency, diplomats said.

The decision appeared to be the result of lingering unhappiness by the two world powers about not being informed earlier of plans for such a resolution.

Will dams again rise across the West?

SPOKANE, Wash. - The Western states’ era of massive dam construction — which tamed rivers, swallowed towns, and created irrigated agriculture, cheap hydropower and environmental problems — effectively ended in 1966 with the completion of Glen Canyon Dam.

But the region’s booming population and growing fears about climate change have governments once again studying construction of dams to capture more winter rain and spring snowmelt for use in dry summer months.

Weather Channel Founder Blasts Network; Claims It Is 'Telling Us What to Think'

TWC founder and global warming skeptic advocates suing Al Gore to expose 'the fraud of global warming.'

EU nations voice objections to climate change plan

While most ministers and officials representing the 27 EU countries gave broad backing to a package of measures proposed by the European Commission, some warned it could lead to job losses and rising energy costs.

The main split appeared to be between former Soviet-bloc states in eastern and central Europe -- traditionally heavy users of coal -- and older members.

UN warns of climate change in Mideast

CAIRO, Egypt - Climate change is likely to reduce agricultural production and exacerbate water shortages in the Middle East, threatening the region's poor, the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization warned Monday.

Many countries in the Middle East already suffer from a shortage of arable land and limited access to water necessary to irrigate crops. But climate change could bring higher temperatures, droughts, floods and soil degradation, according to a new report released by the agency.

Climate change's most deadly threat: drought

Events once considered anomalies, such as the current drought gripping metro Atlanta, could be commonplace and the kind of social mayhem witnessed during the aftermath of hurricane Katrina widespread. Globally, he points to the millions upon millions of people in Asia who rely upon fresh water emanating from glaciers in the Himalaya that are now disappearing and desert areas of Africa where drought events are foretelling larger disasters.

The imperative for policymakers, he says, is a massive and unprecedented intervention on a global scale. Civilization depends on it.