Book Review: This book is a collection of 23 essays on various aspects of the looming world oil production peak and its effect on the world. It begins, naturally enough, with an article which is a fresh look at Hubbert’s methods to predict the arc of oil production, and which confirms earlier calculations that oil production will peak during this decade. Next is one of three articles by Colin Campbell, a retired oil geologist, and most ardent advocate of the difficulties ahead in the world running short on oil. The article following is by Edward Goldsmith, the founding editor of The Ecologist, and who was also instrumental in drafting the Blueprint for Survival over thirty years ago. He discussed the need for local agriculture in time when food can no longer be trucked from coast to coast or from south to north. The last article of the first section is on the nature of thermodynamic laws.  The second section begins with Campbell’s critique of Caspian oil reserves. In essence he says to “follow the money” and asks the reader to think about why many major oil companies have given up on Caspian oil.  … The last section includes essays on life after oil. It includes an article by the co-editor Sheila Newman, in which she compares the carrying capacity of Australia and France. The discussion of Australia’s problems should be alarming to those who only see the size of this continent and not that its aboriginal population managed a very meager subsistence from its vast deserts. In the next essay her countryman shows how a community could organise its life after oil depletion takes hold and a contrasting view is given in an essay originating from Pittsburgh, a former (and a future) coal town in Pennsylvania. A disadvantage in reading a collection of essays is in their lack of uniformity in style. However, there is no truly poor writing in this collection, although some readers are likely to struggle with some of them. The advantage is that the essays can be read in brief sittings and as many of them are short, it affords the reader time to think about the issues raised. (06/08/05)
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BBC Environment — The
UK has its first hosepipe ban in nine years after a dry winter. But why
is this green and pleasant land of high rainfall running low on water?
It’s a no-win situation for the gardeners and car owners of north
Sussex this summer. To avoid a hosepipe ban for the foreseeable future,
they need six weeks of continuous rain to allow water levels to recover
enough so they can douse their gardens and wash their cars again.
Neither will be popular. For from Friday, the UK’s first hosepipe ban
since 1996 comes into force, affecting 110,000 homes in north Sussex.
The reservoir which supplies the households is only half-full after one
of the driest winters on record, says Southern Water. It’s not only the
UK which is drying out. Portugal is facing its worst drought for 300
years, while Spain is experiencing the driest conditions for 60 years.
Public fountains have been turned off, swimming pools are empty and
things are only expected to get worse when tourists descend for their
summer holidays. In Sydney, Australia, water restrictions have been in
place for 18 months because of one of the worst droughts in a century.
The authorities have dispatched a fleet of 50 patrol cars to make sure
everyone complies, and neighbours have appeared in court after fighting
over wasteful water use. … Our water-thirsty pastimes are also at
fault. Watering the garden usually accounts for about 6% of the water
supplied on a single day, but when it’s hot this can increase to 70%. A
garden sprinkler alone uses more than 1,000 litres of water an hour,
enough to supply six people for a whole day. “Water is a very precious
resource and thousands of litres are wasted every day by dripping taps
and people using hosepipes,” says Shaw. “But water companies should
take a large chunk of the blame. The water infrastructure is old and
decrepit, resulting a huge amount of water being lost because of
leaks.” According to industry regulator Ofwat, more than three billion
litres of water are lost each day through broken and leaking pipes.
That’s a fifth of the 15 billion litres supplied by the UK water system
daily, and is equivalent to the entire amount of bottled water drunk by
Britons in a year. (06/08/05)
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BBC Technology and Nature — Migrating
birds are unlikely to be seriously affected by offshore wind farms,
according to a study. Scientists found that birds simply fly around the
farm, or between the turbines; less than 1% are in danger of colliding
with the giant structures. Writing in the Royal Society’s journal
Biology Letters, the researchers say previous estimates of collision
risk have been “over-inflated”. However, conservationists warn that
turbines pose other risks to birdlife. The research project involved
one of Denmark’s two large offshore wind farms, Nysted in the Baltic
Sea, which contains 72 turbines each measuring 69m to the top of the
nacelle or hub. It started operating in 2003. “This is the first such
study involving a large-scale offshore wind farm,” researcher Mark
Desholm, from the Environmental Research Institute in Ronde told the
BBC News website. There has been other data from farms with fewer than
10 turbines, but we thought this issue was so important because the
potential for offshore wind power is so huge.” Globally, offshore
projects currently generate around 600 MW, less than 2% of the overall
total for wind. But the potential is huge, because there is less
competition for space at sea, turbines are less visible, and the wind
there is often more reliable. … David Gibbons, head of conservation
science at the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), told
the BBC News website that this study suggested the risks to birds were
smaller than had been feared. “It’s a nice, clear picture of research;
there’s always been concern about turbines as ‘mincers’, but this study
is suggesting that the birds fly around or go through. So on the face
of it, this is pretty good news for wind farms; but there are other
issues when you look at the much larger farms which are coming, and
different ways in which they could affect birds. (06/08/05)
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BBC Science — The
science academies of the world’s leading nations have urged their
governments to take prompt action to combat possible climate change.
They have agreed that all countries could and should take
cost-effective action to cut carbon dioxide emissions. The statement
was released on Wednesday by the academies of the G8 nations, including
the UK’s Royal Society and the US National Academy of Sciences. It was
signed by scientists from 11 countries, including China and India. The
academies are making their voices heard ahead of July’s G8 meeting in
Scotland, where the British Prime Minister has promised to put climate
change high on the agenda. Their statement read: “It is likely that
most of the warming in recent decades can be attributed to human
activities. “The scientific understanding of climate change is now
sufficiently clear to justify nations taking prompt action. Action
taken now to reduce significantly the build-up of greenhouse gases in
the atmosphere will lessen the magnitude and rate of climate change.”Lord May, the current President of the UK’s Royal Society, added: “It
is clear that world leaders, including the G8, can no longer use
uncertainty about aspects of climate change as an excuse for not taking
urgent action to cut greenhouse gas emissions.” He called US policy
“misguided” and noted that crucial to the international acceptance of
the statement was the fact that leading scientists from three of the
world’s biggest developing world emitters China, India and Brazil had
also signed it. (06/08/05)
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Naomi Klein
writes: Brace yourself for a flood of gruesome new torture snapshots.
Last week, a federal judge ordered the Defense Department to release
dozens of additional photographs and videotapes depicting prisoner
abuse at Abu Ghraib. The photographs will elicit what has become a
predictable response: Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld will claim
to be shocked and will assure us that action is already being taken to
prevent such abuses from happening again. But imagine, for a moment, if
events followed a different script. Imagine if Rumsfeld responded like
Col. Mathieu in “Battle of Algiers,” Gillo Pontecorvo’s famed 1965 film
about the National Liberation Front’s attempt to liberate Algeria from
French colonial rule. In one of the film’s key scenes, Mathieu finds
himself in a situation familiar to top officials in the Bush
administration: He is being grilled by a room filled with journalists
about allegations that French paratroopers are torturing Algerian
prisoners. Based on real-life French commander Gen. Jacques Massus,
Mathieu neither denies the abuse nor claims that those responsible will
be punished. Instead, he flips the tables on the scandalized reporters,
most of whom work for newspapers that overwhelmingly support France’s
continued occupation of Algeria. Torture “isn’t the problem,” he says
calmly. “The problem is the FLN wants to throw us out of Algeria and we
want to stayÖ. It’s my turn to ask a question. Should France stay in
Algeria? If your answer is still yes, then you must accept all the
consequences.” His point, as relevant in Iraq today as it was in
Algeria in 1957, is that there is no nice, humanitarian way to occupy a
nation against the will of its people. Those who support such an
occupation don’t have the right to morally separate themselves from the
brutality it requires. Now, as then, there are only two ways to govern:
with consent or with fear. (06/08/05)
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