Divided Venezuelans United on Costly Policy of Cheap Gas

CARACAS, Venezuela -- Jesús Vivas drives a 26-year-old clunker with rusted fenders, ripped upholstery and a tattered carpet. With a wheeze, a plume of smoke and a walruslike roar, the wreck he calls a taxi accelerates down congested streets. About the only thing that works well is a new radio, which blares accordion-laced folk music.

But he's not worried. Operating his four-door Malibu across Caracas, day and night, costs less than $4, thanks to gasoline that, at 17 cents a gallon, is considered the cheapest in the world.

2005 Another Record Year for Global Carbon Emissions

"In 2005, carbon emissions from the burning of fossil fuels climbed to a record high of 7.9 billion tons, an increase of some 3 percent from the previous year. Annual global emissions have been increasing since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the late eighteenth century, when humans first began burning fossil fuels on a large scale to produce energy. Since the early 1900s, emissions have been rising at an increasingly rapid pace. Annual emissions have grown by a factor of fifteen since 1900, advancing nearly 3 percent a year over that time," says Joseph Florence of the Earth Policy Institute.

Ask the experts: Averting climate change

An Interview with Michael Meacher MP on peak oil and relocalisation

Hong Kong 'climate change threat'

A leading Hong Kong think-tank has released the first study examining the likely impact of climate change on Hong Kong and the Pearl River delta.

The Civic Exchange study concludes that even small water-level rises combined with extreme weather could cause flooding across the low-lying delta.

Death toll from Indonesia blast climbs to 11

SIDOARJO, Indonesia - Three more bodies were found on Friday near the scene of a gas pipeline explosion in Indonesia's East Java province which was linked to a devastating mudflow, pushing the overall death toll to 11.

The blast late on Wednesday, which disrupted gas operations in the region covered by state oil company Pertamina's East Java Gas Pipeline, occurred in the area where hot mud has been gushing unchecked from near the Banjar Panji exploratory gas well since the end of May following a drilling accident.

Missing keys, holes in fence and a single padlock: welcome to Congo's nuclear plant

The IAEA is worried that lax security could lead to enriched uranium falling into the wrong hands

Give us non-polluting energy — starting now

November 2006 promises to be a momentous month in the history of human influence on the earth’s climate. First there was the Stern report, which presented the first fully coherent economic analysis of climate change, challenging the wilful misrepresentation of reality on both sides of this debate. Then came the US election, which inflicted a crushing defeat on the one important global leader who persisted in denying the importance of climate change. Then, last Tuesday came an even more significant, though far less publicised, event: the signature in Paris of a €10 billion international agreement to build the world’s first nuclear fusion reactor at Cadarache, in the South of France.

Pipelines key to preventing Las Vegas-area fuel crisis

New petroleum pipelines from California and Arizona could shore up southern Nevada's precarious fuel supply within a few years, if someone builds them, the head of a southern Nevada fuel supply task force said.

Battle of the blades

The view to Arran from the Ayrshire coast is one of the most cherished in Scotland. Yet turn your head and a new horizon opens up. Stark against the skyline are the turbines of a giant wind farm.

Graceful and mesmerising? A necessary investment for our future? Or just a blot on the landscape?

Shell Canada to spend $4-billion in 2007

Shell Canada Ltd. unveiled plans to hike its 2007 investments by 48 per cent to $4-billion, as it proceeds with the expansion of its vast oil sands project in Northern Alberta.

North Korea focusing on developing wind energy. Meanwhile, the sanctions may be pushing North Korea into famine again.

Sea reveals new source of energy

Scientists searching for exotic life forms living around seafloor methane seeps have also recovered chunks of frozen methane from along the edge of the continental shelf.

EU hedges its bets on energy saving

"Europe has a vast potential to stop wasting energy, but EU ministers constantly fail to agree concrete steps to tap into that potential. Europe's governments must swap their grand words with real action, based on binding targets and powerful legislation."

Russia to boost crude oil thru pipelines

MOSCOW, Nov. 23 - Russia has agreed to boost supplies of its crude via Ukrainian oil pipelines next year in a move that may further strengthen its position as the dominant energy supplier to European markets.

OPEC’s rivals set to pump more oil in 2007

LONDON - A rise in oil production from the Caspian, Africa and North America will ease OPEC’s burden in meeting world oil demand in 2007, but an anticipated supply surge may not materialise.

Producers outside OPEC may pump enough new oil next year to meet growth in world demand, unlike this year or in 2005, according to the International Energy Agency, as new fields come on stream.