Climate Change / Emissions

The Great Coal Rush and Why It Will Fail
by Richard Heinberg
MuseLetter #190 (February 2008)

This MuseLetter, and several more during the next few months, will be
chapters for a forthcoming book on coal, to be published by Post Carbon
Press. This month's issue is the book's Introduction.

The world appears poised for a headlong sprint toward greater dependence
on coal. This book's purpose is to examine one crucial question that
will shape this next great coal rush: How much is left?

The answer from conventional wisdom is, Lots. Coal appears to be the

Oil patch split over proposal for partial moratorium
NORVAL SCOTT
February 25, 2008

CALGARY -- A business-led lobbying effort to create a partial moratorium on oil sands development in order to free up conservation land has divided Canada's major energy companies, while a government decision on the issue will likely be delayed until after next Monday's provincial election.

Major oil producers - led by Petro-Canada Corp., Suncor Inc., Husky Energy Ltd., Shell Canada and Imperial Oil - have for the first time called on Alberta to slow development in the Athabasca region.

Arctic ‘Doomsday Vault’ Filled With World’s Seeds Comes to Life
by Pierre-Henry Deshayes in Longyearbyen, Norway

AN Arctic “doomsday vault” filled with samples of the world’s most important seeds will be inaugurated in Norway today.

0224 03The vault aims to provide humankind with a Noah’s Ark of food in the event of a global catastrophe.

Nature

Nature 451, 866 (21 February 2008) | doi:10.1038/451866a; Published online 20 February 2008

Science in retreat
Canada has been scientifically healthy.
Not so its government.
Comparisons of nations’ scientific outputs over the years have
shown that Canada’s researchers have plenty to be proud of,
consistently maintaining their country’s position among the
world’s top ten (see, for example, Nature 430, 311–316; 2004). Alas,
their government’s track record is dismal by comparison.
When the Canadian government announced earlier this year that it

Meetings set in 3 cities on oil shale, tar sands
Feb. 16, 2008 12:09 a.m. MST

Public meetings have been scheduled in three Utah cities to discuss development of the state's oil shale and tar sands resources. The shale and sands resources fall within the jurisdictions of the Moab, Monticello, Price, Richfield and Vernal BLM field offices.

The Bureau of Land Management has set up the following informal meetings:

Big oil's enemy within
The ultimate threat to big oil comes not from green campaigners - but its own shareholders
February 20, 2008 12:15 AM

Tony Hayward
New BP boss Tony Hayward has overseen a reversal of policy towards tar sands.

Business leaders are now pleading with governments for regulation. When did that last happen? Executives usually hate anything that interferes with their freedom of movement. But climate change appears to have changed all that.

Alta. oilsands cause acid rain
Report issued by environmental group warns of 'most destructive project on Earth'
Matthew Kruchak and James Wood, The StarPhoenix
Published: Saturday, February 16, 2008

Acid rain caused by Alberta oilsands production is pouring down on Saskatchewan and if governments don't take note, any oilsands development in this province will contribute to the "most destructive project on Earth," the Environmental Defence organization warns.

Saying Goodbye To The Oil Age
by Peter Goodchild
Countercurrents.org (January 29 2008)

The first practical oil drill was developed in Titusville, Pennsylvania,
in 1859, by Edwin L Drake. Now, only a short while later, the planet
Earth is running out of oil, without which almost nothing in modern
civilization can function. A number of scientists and engineers have
pointed out that the world's oil production will peak early in the
twenty-first century; it has probably already done so. At the beginning
of the century, the human race was using about thirty billion barrels of

Mankind can't afford more oil drilling-ex-BP exec
By Gerard Wynn

LONDON, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Known oil, gas and coal reserves may already contain a quarter more carbon than mankind can emit and still avoid dangerous climate change, putting the value of new oil exploration in doubt, said a former oil major executive.
The oil industry may be wasting $50 billion annually searching for new fields, said Jan-Peter Onstwedder, formerly BP's most senior risk manager. He left BP in December.

Oilsands future looks rosy
Production from unconventional source expected to gain supremacy
John Morrissy, Canwest News Service
Published: 1:31 am

OTTAWA - Canada's oilsands are taking over where conventional oil production left off, with profits in the oil-extraction industry rising 18 per cent to a record $23 billion in 2008 on rapidly rising output from the huge oil reserves, according to the Conference Board of Canada.