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DrumBeat: November 25, 2006
Posted by threadbot on November 25, 2006 - 9:30am
Topic: Miscellaneous
Iran Invites Sinopec Head to Sign $100 Billion Oil, Gas Deals
Iran has invited the managing director of China Petrochemical Corp. to Tehran to sign the development contract of Iran's Yadavaran oil field as well as oil and gas purchases worth as much as $100 billion.
U.S. must not forget need for alternative fuels
Remember a few months ago when gasoline was selling for $3 a gallon and everyone was talking about ethanol and biodiesel? It's funny, isn't it, that gasoline prices started coming down and the talk about alternative fuels went away. This week, gasoline has been selling for $2.20 to $2.30 a gallon in the Huntington area, and no one is talking about ethanol.That's a mistake. Alternative fuels are still part of the nation's energy future. We can't go to sleep now just because gasoline prices are more tolerable.
Sustainable development: Big not boring
"If you want to keep your guns, your property, your children and your god, then sustainable development is your enemy!"I just love that quote from the American Policy Centre.
IAEA blocks aid for Tehran reactor
Vienna - The United Nations nuclear watchdog's board of governors on Thursday indefinitely blocked Iran's bid for technical aid for a reactor project over concerns it could be secretly used to yield bomb-grade plutonium.
U.K.: North Sea 'absolutely critical' to UK energy security - Darling
U.K.: City leader's 'disaster' alert on road pricing
CONGESTION charging will be disastrous for Yorkshire unless the Government pays for alternatives to driving to work, a council leader warned yesterday.
"Sustainability" is the new green buzzword - the rallying cry of a groundswell of people across the globe concerned about the viability of our planet, both in the near future and for generations to come. In 1987 a report from the United Nations' World Commission on Environment and Development defined a sustainable society as one that "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."
Peak Oil Passnotes: Where Is the Money?
Some people are calling this the most boring crude oil market for ten years. Since the decline in August and September the market has remained fixed solid. Stuck between $55 and $61. It is easy to see why, as we have gone over these problems many times.Despite many instances of scaremongering, and many genuine problems, nothing has convinced the herd to move off from its current watering hole. Each news event fails to stir the loins of the market makers. Sure this is a good thing for small businesses, consumers and those who wish to plan fuel consumption long term. But they are not important in the oil market. What’s important is profits.
Saudi Aramco is to develop the offshore Karan gas field with the hope of producing 1bn cubic feet per day of gas by 2011, reported Reuters. The Khursaniyah gas plant will double its capacity to 2bn cfd in order to process the Karan gas. The Karan field, which lies 160km north of Dhahran, was first discovered back in April.
Iran Finds New Oil, Gas Reserves in Ahvaz Field
Iran has discovered new onshore oil and natural gas reserves in the oil-rich southwestern province of Khuzestan with an estimated value of $7.3 billion, an Iranian oil official said Wednesday.
No ‘Miracles’ in the Desert: America’s Kingdom: Mythmaking on the Saudi Oil Frontier, by Robert Vitalis
...Vitalis argues that the American oilmen who built their empire early last century did so, in part, by instituting a “Jim Crow system” in the Dhahran oil camps. Further, he argues that social progress and change was enacted at the camps only because the oil powers’ hand was forced—and not because its leaders were progressive thinkers.
Solution to Guinea, Senegal, Gambia energy crisis in sight
Households and the business environment in Guinea, Senegal and The Gambia are increasingly plagued by frequent power outages, to such a degree that it has become a top political issue. Now, technicians from the Gambia River Basin Development Organisation, OMVG, promise that a "final solution" to the regional energy crisis is in sight.
Forget the fable of Chicken Little — the sky is indeed falling. The upper zone of Earth’s atmosphere is cooling and shrinking, an international team of scientists said today.
George Monbiot: Drastic Action on Climate Change is Needed Now - and Here's the Plan
It is a testament to the power of money that Nicholas Stern's report should have swung the argument for drastic action, even before anyone has finished reading it. He appears to have demonstrated what many of us suspected: that it would cost much less to prevent runaway climate change than to seek to live with it. Useful as this finding is, I hope it doesn't mean that the debate will now concentrate on money. The principal costs of climate change will be measured in lives, not pounds. As Stern reminded us yesterday, there would be a moral imperative to seek to prevent mass death even if the economic case did not stack up.
Chinese investment slump threatens oil prices
Chinese investment flows are slowing down which could spell the end of the current investment cycle, and signal a recession ahead. Given the importance of emerging markets like China in sustaining oil price growth in recent years this is unwelcome news on top of the continuing crisis in US housing.
Bigger Push for Charging Drivers Who Use the Busiest Streets
Congestion pricing, the idea of charging drivers for bringing vehicles into the busiest parts of Manhattan, has become a kind of holy grail for transportation advocates and urban planners in New York — a coveted prize that has remained out of reach.
Think-tank gives doomsday scenario for Hong Kong transportation
A local think-tank examining the possible effects of global warming painted a doomsday scenario Thursday for Hong Kong's MTR system with thousands of passengers left stranded for hours at a time.In a 45-page report on climate change, Civic Exchange also warned sudden storm surges and rising sea levels could destroy roads and flood the runway at Hong Kong International Airport. Alexandra Tracy, lead author of the Civic Exchange report, said the subway system is vulnerable to flooding, while power outages will mean commuters will be trapped.
Now hot in Brazil: 'carbon credits' to fight global warming
SAO PAULO (AFP) - Programs aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions are blossoming in Brazil, with the "carbon credit" system winning interest from companies in industrialized countries.
Plastic paper to 'cut' emissions
Toshiba has developed a printer that uses plastic "paper" that can be re-used hundreds of times.
Natural building, the way of the future
The pressing question for anyone contemplating their fate in a post-heated, post-peak oil world is "How am I going to live?"
Brunei: Public Urged To Adopt Low Energy-Consuming Lifestyle
Bandar Seri Begawan - The government is calling on the public to adopt a "low energy consumption lifestyle" and on parents to instill it on their children early on. Minister of Energy at the Prime Minister's Office Pehin Orang Kaya Seri Utama Dato Seri Setia Awang Yahya Begawan Mudim yesterday said educating the public should not be limited to schools only but also in families."What better way to start than in the homes and with the parents? We must inculcate low energy-consuming lifestyle", Pehin Yahya urged in his remark at the opening of an exhibition on sustainable energy use, after noting "the complacency of those in Brunei regarding the use of hydrocarbon resources, even though such energy sources are in finite supply".
The handwriting on the greenhouse wall: Energy firms coming to accept regulation of warming gases as inevitable
While the political debate over global warming continues, top executives at many of the nation's largest energy companies have accepted the scientific consensus about climate change and see federal regulation to cut greenhouse gas emissions as inevitable.The Democratic takeover of Congress makes it more likely that the federal government will attempt to regulate emissions. The companies have been hiring new lobbyists who they hope can help fashion a national approach that would avert a patchwork of state plans now in the works. They are also working to change some company practices in anticipation of the regulation.
I only skimmed the article, but I don't suspect that the author is not also aware that our ability to keep our lives going will have to work with neighbors combining their effort on many of these projects, and get the benefit of some economy-of-scale (ie, 'barnraising') to make a self-sufficient approach somewhat managable.
She mentions the 'salt' question, for example. I can't look at our prospects, even if we have to reinvent great swaths of our suburban lives, without knowing that there will be people on the coast who will be producing salt, and it will be sold at markets, in towns, and where he'll buy some of her neighborhood's Maple Syrup or Honey. Trading and some specialization are not a product of Crude Oil, and will not be peaking with it.
I have to say it really warms my heart when people make an attempt to become even partly self-sufficient. There's just so much personal reward from it.
Ron Patterson
I will not reply again to this thread. I tried, but failed in this instance, to follow my ideal of never argueing with religious people. They deserve to be ignored, not argued with.
Ron Patterson
So peace, man.
It may even be in our nature, but is there such a thing as evil?
And you are welcome to say you don't believe in an abstract, religiously grounded framework, but my question is not based on an abstract, religiously grounded framework either, not that my curiousity requires an answer.
And to be fair - I definitely believe there is such a thing as evil, regardless of any explanation of what it is or why it exists. I also believe that evil is not punished in any form in any supernatural sense, so believing in it doesn't make life more comforting.
Hehehe, that's funny!
Ron Patterson
I believe in beauty, regardless of any explanation of what it is or why it exists.
I believe in self-awareness, regardless of any explanation of what it is or why it exists.
'The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao.
The name that can be named is not the eternal name.'
A lot of discussions bog down in details - I was merely trying to avoid those detours.
Worse, a lot of discussions bog down because the words are not what is discussed, they are the means.
But my question was merely idle curiousity, nothing more.
For instance, the tsunami of December 2004 killed almost 300,000 people. Was evil involved? If one says it was an act of God, how then can evil be denied for this event? See what I mean? But then I do not believe in God. Well, not a personal god anyway. As to a higher intelligence, I am an agnostic. At any rate I do not believe any kind of God caused the tsunami therefore no evil was involved. But if you believe in God, then he caused it and therefore he is evil.
But to answer your original question, I am a determinist. Not a genetic determinist, nor an environmental determinist, just a determinist. If you know what that means then you have your answer. If you do not, then look it up.
Ron Patterson
Which is why I also believe in evil - though I see a mistake in my question. I should have said do you believe humans commit evil - it never even occurred to me to describe any event not done by thinking beings (just limiting things here, nothing else) to be evil. The world just is, and only those elements capable of self-awareness and thus volition or choice can make moral/ethical distinctions which are more than merely metaphysical discussions.
No need to answer - you are quite right, a deterministic view is an explanation, and a valid one in itself.
A good example is the war in Iraq (my opinion) because we have killed nearly 700,000 humans over "Weapons of mass distruction", or "regime change", or bringing "democracy" to the people of Iraq, or whatever position the Kaliedescope of rationalisation has brought us to this week. What kind of narcicism makes us the rulers of the world and enforcers of morality? If that isn't evil, what is?
And although I'm a Christian, I'm totaly sure that God is a lot happier with Australian Aborigines dancing at a fire in the bush and telling tales of the Dream Time than he is with any church or mosque praying for victory.
Well, in a philosophy of decision a deterministic approach may be rewarding, but I'd like to point out to you a general problem regarding determinism. What was the first cause?
This question is particularly dazzling if one is into ontological determinism, i.e. not just as one views among many.
Many here probably know this, but for those of you interested in issues like determinism I'd like to add that quantum mechanics is probabilistic. Doing an identical experiment several times, one may get a lot of different results. But the distribution of results always stays the same, given that the experiments are identical.
Determinism, in physics, deals with physical causes. And first cause is a problem. Determinism in philosophy deals entirely with acts of the human will! In acts of the human will first cause is not a problem. Think about it. You were determined to wish this or that because of some cause, and that cause had another cause, on back to infinity. (Before the human will existed.) Or, it need not go back near that far. The cause of your wish might originate entirely from the physical, like a storm or lightening bolt, and have no human cause. But your every desire must have cause. But since that first cause need not necessarily originate with the human will, yours or anyone else's, first cause is not a problem.
Just remember, when speaking of determinism in philosophy, determinism deals with acts of the human will and absolutely nothing else.
Ron Patterson
(Many philosopher enjoy the Heisenberg uncertainly relation and the probabilistic quantum nature, and think the key to understanding free lie in those topics.)
But i understand what where you want. Free will in a materialistic reality is perhaps what most philosophers address. The context above was human behavior, and perhaps you're right, that first cause is not problem - i don't know. Either way, what's really being discussed here is the mind/body problem, a discussion that i'm not very qualified to discuss.
"Shut up and calculate!"
Paul Dirac when being asked philosophical questions about the interpretation of Schroedinger's equation. (from my memory)
Dead Wrong! When you are discussing the determinism-free will debate, you are talking only about acts of the human will. Free will is acts of the human will by definition. You are talking about why you wish to this or that. Why you choose to do this or that. You are not talking about determinism in the physical world, you are only talking about acts of the human will. That is the very definition of free will!
Wow! You really are confused. The determinism-free will debate has absolutely nothing to do with the mind/body problem. How on earth did you make that connection? Whether the mind is seperate from the brain (body) has absolutely nothing to do with whether you have free will or not.
And you really do not need any qualifications to discuss the mind/body problem because if you believe they are two seperate things, then you are discussing faith, not science. Anyone can believe anything they wish where only faith is concerned. Science is an entirely different matter. There is absolutely no evidence that the mind is seperate from the body.
Ron Patterson
I referred to determinism in general, not suggesting that bricks and stones are subject to a free will debate. BTW the definition from Biology online does not explicitly tie free will to humans, and therefore seems to be more general than your approach in defining free will. (But for what it's worth, i tend to agree with you)
I must admit often being confused, sometimes also on topics regarded as simple, yes.
You are somewhat correct, but stating that there is absolutely no connection is a bit strict. It's a very common connection to make and it felt natural for me to do. I did a google on "mind body problem", and observe for example that wikipedia also make such connection.
There are two subjects that, in connection with the philosophy of the mind, have aroused special attention: free will and the self....In the context of the philosophy of mind, the question about the freedom of the will takes on a renewed intensity. This is certainly the case, at least, for materialistic determinists.[1] According to this position, natural laws completely determine the course of the material world. Mental states, and therefore the will as well, would be material states bla bla bla
This is enough philosophy for me. If you insist, please correct me (preferably citing someone if possible) and I'll happily stand corrected.
And even more to the point, as a determinist, why should you even care whether we share your point of view, since any consequences of our beliefs will will be irrelevant to any event that happens in the future.
Are you predetermined to care about inconsequential matters?
Tony Verbalis
I've read Susan Neiman's "Evil In Modern thought: An Alternative History of Philosophy" (Princeton, 2002). It's a good one for all to read -- check it out!
Basic Outline:
1. "Fire From Heaven" -- Leibniz, Pope, Rousseau, Kant, Hegel and Marx.... Is the wish to be God the "Driving force behind much of metaphysics"? (p. 110) And is a need for certain Knowledge an attempt to be God? Where does morality come from, if not from God? Do we have values or "dignity"? And so forth....Reason challenges religion....
2. "Condemning the Architect" Whoooo boy! Here we go...as a fundamentalist preacher's kid, this section was quite a ride of a read! -- Bayle, Voltaire, Hume, de Sade, Schopenhauer....interesting quote from Schopenhauer:
"Every fulfillment of our wishes won from the world today is only like the alms that keep the beggar alive today so that he may starve again tomorrow. Resignation, on the other hand, is like the inherited estate; it frees its owner from all care and anxiety forever."
So we go from theodacy to a nihilism that expresses "the kind of decadence only rich men's sons enjoy." (p. 200 -- Note: not "rich man's daughters"!)
3. "Ends of An Illusion" Nietzsche, Freud... the world is fukll of pain and of "obstacles that thwart our desires" and this is usually what we think of as "evil" or "bad." We try to manage ourlives to get what we want in spite of this. Fulfillment of our desires is "good."
4. "Homeless" -- Earthquake; mass murders; losses; intentions; terror (after September 11); Remains: Camus, Arendt, Critical Theory, Rawls; Origins: Sufficient Reason...
Neiman concludes that we do not find reason or meaning in the world, and we create it ourselves.
Most interesting is her treatment of the infamous "911" attacks (pp 281-288). Our shared morality tries to prevent death and fear. Terrorism brutally violates that shared convention. Those who believe in God, Satan, and Demons felt their beleifs to be confirmed. Some aboard flight 93 acted like heroes in light of our shared morality, and attempted to stop the spread of fear and death, even though they had little or no hope of saving themselves...?
My questions: Was this terrorism moral or natural evil? Is there a difference? Why or why not? Is "Shock and Awe" warfare good or evil? Who can know beforehand whether an act of violence will do more to prevent death and fear than to incite further death and fear?
Are wars ultimately a matter of animals fighting over a carcass, with no moral element at all?
How does the problem of evil relate to peak oil? Is peak oil good or bad, or simply the way it is? Can human responses to Peak Oil be said to be good or bad, or are they simply whatever they are?
Whoa, have you guys goen philosophical today! Gotta' love it, folks actually thinking about goals, values and aesthetics, the driving engines (or as the guy who walked the walk as well as talked the talk, Albert Schwietzer said,, "What the West faces is essentially an ethical crisis."
Sadly, even he seems to have someone overlooked that great driving engines of philosophy, aesthetics, politics, organized religious dogma, engineering and design, and most of all economics....THE SHEER POWER OF HUMAN STUPIDITY. Great philosophical question: How often has what was seen as evil been nothing more than just plain stupidity?
Could it be that Schwietzer would have been more accurate to say, ""What the West faces is essentially a stupidity crisis."
Gotta' love it, then we could take things a bit less seriously and just enjoy the "play" of learning! That sounds childish. Indeed, our nation is becoming a nation of the old. Playing at learning and design and taking care of each other is becoming a lost art.
I have trouble trusting even an "old" kid who refuses to at play a little.
Roger Conner known to you as ThatsItImout
If one accepts the premise that good and evil are real, then Arendt's observations seem spot on to me.
If one accepts that "good" is the reduction of death, suffering, and fear, then "evil" might be seen as the proliferation of death, suffering, and fear. Our culture is good to the extent that we do the first, and evil inasmuch as we do the latter.
Jacques Ellul points out that the problem of evil in our complex culture is that evil is so diffuse throughout that we are unable to effectively identify or address evil.
That fits what I call "intentional ignorance" which is a reduction of one's field of focus to include only the bubble of personal peace and affluence of one's tiny life. Without context of the larger habitat as a reference, one's tiny "normal" life may be wreaking enourmous evil, especially together with others doing the same.
So evil is diffuse and banal and any who dare to point that out are marginalised or excluded from discussion. sometimes quite violently.
"The world would not be in such a snarl, if Marx were born Groucho instead of Karl"
-- nothing personal to the 'fellow travelers' out there. I don't think communism or democracy are failed ideas. We should try them sometime. (Maybe together)
That decision can be expensive. Fuel subsidies are expected to chew up about $7 billion of Egypt's annual budget this year, or 15% of total planned spending."
15%!!! I can't even imagine 15 percent of an entire country's budget being spent on fuel subsidies....
From where i seat, we're hearing a lot of european news, and the latest in the energy field was the russian refusal to sign the european energy charter at the Helsinki summit.
IMO this is a sign that, although the european leaders may not understand the full scope of the incoming supply drop, they are starting to think about and to stress about!
Therefore, they're trying to get the russian tied to their internal energy free trade market, what, i'm convinced, the Russia will never do, they have too much to lose (or too much to win if they stay independant!)
Today, the North Sea supplies 60% of the NG in Europe and RUssia 23%(seen in Euronews) but tomorow, what will it be?
I think the idea Russia supplying 80% of the NG makes the european leaders pale....(except the ones of switzerland, they live in another planet it seems....).
see this
And keep up the good work all and especially the regular contributors, u are indispensable!
Also, Swiss domestic heat. How much geothermal heat pumps, how much oil, natural gas, gas fired central heat and power plants.
Best Hopes,
Alan
BTW, the safest post-Peak Oil investments may be a Swiss hydroelectric utility. Low return but safe.
Any thoughts ?
No spot on the planet is immune to global warming. Switzerland already being hit.
Most theories of GW have changes in the distribution of rain, but total rainfall (world wide) is supposed to increase.
I understand the risks but there are no riskless investments.
Best Hopes,
Alan
i will try to give you the most precise information that i can get.
You're talking about the Lötschberg tunnel, due to be completed next year indeed.
The average height is 825 m, down from 1240 of the old line.
All the railtrack have been put, now it is the test phase (speed up to 280 km/h), whith radio-controlled switch (the european standart ETCS).
The only weak point is the tunnel has a one-way track for about half of the course.
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(As you can see, the simplon tunnel, 1906, is still up and running and there's no plan to build a better tunnel, one can say they did a durable work at this time).
The second tunnel, the biggest, is the St-Gothard one. 57 km under the Alpes Mountains, the longest in the world. (35 for the latter). 66% already done but the completion should occur around 2017...;) not tomorrow so to say. The averagge heigts is 550 m, against 1150 m for the actual line.
The trip between Zurich and Milan will take 2 hours 40, one hour less than now.
The extra tunnels you've mentionned belong to the St-Gothard project (the Zimmerberg (20 kms) and the Ceneri (15 kms) tunnels).
The two will be build but the Ceneri starts now, completed around 2018. The Zimmerberg should starts in 2006 too but has been suspended because of a cost overrun in the entire Alptransit project (now estimated at 22 Bil. CHF, around 18 bil. US$).
After reexaminating the projet, the Federal Concil (the Gov.) will decide to modify or not the initial project.
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Sry for the imag