Economics

Kings of the coal habit
The fate of our warming planet hinges on six nations, and five of them meet in Sydney this week

Jeremy Leggett
Wednesday September 5, 2007
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2162457,00.html

Through his long years of greenhouse denial, George Bush must have been particularly grateful to John Howard. The Australian prime minister was quick to join Bush in refusing to ratify the Kyoto protocol, and has batted for his country's coal interests as trenchantly as Bush has batted for US coal and oil interests.

Finding the right balance is tough...
http://www.thenorthernview.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=142&cat=48&id...
By - Brooke Ward
Sep 05 2007

Many of us here in the Northwest seem to know what we want: economic development and sustainability. And we also know what we don’t want: destruction of natural resources. Unfortunately, the Provincial Government seems convinced that we can’t have one without the other.

Canada's Top 40
http://www.canadianminingjournal.com/issues/ISarticle.asp?id=189929&stor...
By: Marilyn Scales
Oil sands miner Suncor leads pack

Any company with annual revenues of over $7.4 billion is a contender for the top spot on many lists. In the case of the largest 40 Canadian mining companies, the honour goes to Suncor Energy thanks to its oil sands income alone. The rising price of oil continues to bolster Suncor's bottom line. Last year the company ranked eighth on our list with almost $4.0 billion in revenue from its oil sands operations.

[1]The Guardian Wednesday September 5 2007

Ice-free Arctic could be here in 23 years

David Adam, environment correspondent

The Arctic ice cap has collapsed at an unprecedented rate this summer
and levels of sea ice in the region now stand at a record low,
scientists said last night. Experts said they were "stunned" by the
loss of ice, with an area almost twice as big as Britain disappearing
in the last week alone. So much ice has melted this summer that the
north-west passage across the top of Canada is fully navigable, and

Nuclear power moves west
http://www.peacearchnews.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=44&cat=23&id=10...
By Tom Fletcher // Black Press // Aug 30 2007

Backers of Western Canada’s first nuclear reactor have chosen a site west of Peace River, Alta., about 100 km from the B.C. border.

“This is an historic moment for Canada, for Alberta and for the nuclear power industry,” said Wayne Henuset, president of Energy Alberta Corporation.

Blaming labor for peak oil problems
http://www.salon.com/tech/htww/2007/08/15/oil_sands_labor/index.html

A labor shortage is "wracking" the province of Alberta, Macleans tell us, brought on by the mad rush to exploit the vast reserves of petroleum locked in the fabled oil sands of Canada's Wild West. The jobless rate in Alberta is a "historically low" 3.4 percent even with net inward migration in 2006 hitting 62,000.

Mackenzie pipeline critics using wrong numbers: Imperial
Last Updated: Friday, August 31, 2007 | 10:39 AM CT
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/2007/08/31/jrp-numbers.html

Critics of the proposed Mackenzie Valley pipeline have inflated some numbers related to the pipeline's impact on future development, an official with Imperial Oil told the joint review panel on Thursday.

Feds praise Alaska pipeline process
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8R1QE381.htm
By STEVE QUINN
JUNEAU, Alaska // The Associated Press August 15, 2007

Federal regulators on Wednesday praised Alaska's renewed attempts to get a natural gas pipeline built, a sharp contrast to a report earlier this year that said the process had "slipped considerably."

Peak everything
http://www.energybulletin.net/34357.html
by Richard Heinberg

This issue is an edited version of the Introduction to Richard Heinberg's new book Peak Everything: Waking Up to the Century of Declines.

A few excerpts are posted here. See Global Public Media for the entire posting. -BA

http://onebigtorrent.org/details.php?id=2424&hit=1

Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil (2006) AVI
New repack 9-01-2007
Size 350Mb
Runtime: 53min. 5 sec.

New on OBT, a resized version for more rapid download.
These resizes are done for torrents which have had on-going interest
and traffic over time.

In 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba experienced an
'energy famine.' Transportation and agriculture virtually came to a
stop due to lack of diesel fuel and fertilizer shortages. This film