News

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/20/barack-obama-president-intel...

'That confidence is entirely lacking from this far more sober assessment. Also gone is the belief that oil and gas supplies "in the ground" were "sufficient to meet global demand". The new report views a transition to cleaner fuels as inevitable. It is just the speed that is in question. The NIC believes it is most likely that technology will lag behind the depletion of oil and gas reserves.'

http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Guardian/documents/2008/11/20/Glob...

Article circulated by Mike Haywood.

Oil Shortages are driving the current economic downturn according to Economist Jeff Rubin. Writing in the October 31 *StrategEcon, Rubin analyzes previous oil shocks, showing how each predictably led to a recession.

Falling oil prices may provide temporary economic relief, he says. That may end if economic activity returns to pre-recession levels.
http://research.cibcwm.com/economic_public/download/feature1.pdf

*StrategEcon is a publication of CIBC World Markets Investment Bank in Canada)

'As the world confronts the reality of global warming and the inevitable end of oil, the questions of what to do and how to sustain energy without oil or fossil fuels becomes more urgent. Bob McKeown and a fifth estate team (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) travel to Germany to meet Hermann Scheer, called "Europe's Al Gore," a parliamentarian who is leading the way to increase Germany's reliance on renewable energy sources such as wind power and solar power. To date, 15% of Germany's energy comes from renewable sources.

A new report: Energy [R]evolution: A Sustainable World Energy Outlook‟, produced by the European Renewable Energy Council (EREC) and Greenpeace International, provides a practical blueprint for rapidly cutting energy-related CO2 emissions in order to help ensure that greenhouse gas emissions peak and then fall by 2015. This can be achieved while ensuring economies in China, India and other developing nations have access to the energy that they need in order to develop.

OXFAM Report

Science Daily — New research by the University of East Anglia (UEA) has demonstrated for the first time that human activity is responsible for significant warming in both polar regions.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/10/081030144618.htm

http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/~nathan/pdf/ngeo338.pdf

On 29th October 2008 at The London Stock Exchange, eight leading UK companies launched a report, The Oil Crunch: Securing the UK’s energy future, warning that a peak in cheap, easily available oil production is likely to hit by 2013, posing a grave risk to the UK and world economy. The warning comes from a broad spectrum of industry (Arup, FirstGroup, Foster + Partners, Scottish and Southern Energy, Solarcentury, Stagecoach Group, Virgin Group, Yahoo), known as The Peak Oil Group.
http://www.peakoiltaskforce.net/

Interesting papers:

A major new study looking at whether planetary scale geoengineering schemes could play a role in preventing the worst effects of climate change has been launched by the Royal Society UK the academy of science.
http://royalsociety.org/page.asp?id=2556

The planet is headed for an ecological "credit crunch", according to the Living Planet report .
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7696197.stm

http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/world_footprint/