| < | Wavepacket Blog only displaying 'environment' posts |
> |
| << Newer entries << | |
| 2011 | |
| February | |
| Thu Feb 10 16:39:00 2011 Peak Oil Revisited |
|
| January | |
| Mon Jan 3 20:27:34 2011 Charitable Giving |
|
| 2010 | |
| May | |
| Fri May 7 22:44:43 2010 Tree-Hugger Me |
|
| >> Older entries >> | |
| >> links >> | |
| Thu Feb 10 16:39:00 2011 Peak Oil Revisited Are oil reserves overstated? |
|||
| Today I saw another mention of a leaked cable from the
Wikileaks trove. People are apparently publishing new leaked cables all the time as they find
interesting tidbits.
This particular series of leaked cables showed that throughout 2007-2009, US diplomats believed that Saudi Arabia had overstated its crude reserves by up to 40 percent. In particular, a high-ranking executive at Saudi Aramco, the Saudi Arabian national oil company, stated that he believed their reserves were inflated, and he convinced US diplomats and other international energy experts. In general, there have long been suspicions that OPEC countries have inflated their reserves. It has been hard to tell how worried to be: how much of the bump was due to improved measurements or accounting changes, versus more arbitrary changes? The leaked cables are significant because they indicate that even insiders believe the reserves are arbitrary inflated to a large extent. Does this mean we'll suddenly run out of oil? No, there are still around a trillion barrels of proven reserves. But the Saudi/Aramco reserves are most critical because now that Russian production is declining, Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world who is capable of keeping up with the world's growing oil consumption. And the problem with limited reserves isn't that we run out of oil, instead the problem with limited reserves is that the cheap oil runs out quickly, leaving only more expensive oil to be extracted. And so, over time, oil production peaks. The leaked cables indicate that Saudi oil production could peak in the next ten years, which they say is "not good news." Worse, it means global oil production could peak earlier--if it hasn't already. The bottom line? As I've said before ( Peak Oil), expect gas prices to start going up significantly again, and they probably won't come down. Or if they do come down, it will because of further economic recessions, not improved production. So start planning now! Expect gas to hit $5 or even $10 a gallon in the next ten years. If you do a lot of driving, see if you can move nearer to public transit, because you won't want to be driving much. Comments |
Related: economics geopolitics > environment < Unrelated: books energy lists mathematics predictions science |
||
| Mon Jan 3 20:27:34 2011 Charitable Giving 2010 Summary and 2011 Plans |
|||
| Last year I re-vamped
My Charitable Giving, and in 2010 I intended to stick to the plan I came up with then.
However, I was somewhat worried about my finances earlier in the year, so I stopped giving for a while. Not great, but that's kind of the idea: you give to charity when you can, and don't when you can't. I think that's better than becoming a charity case myself! But by November of 2010 it was pretty clear that I'd be fine, so I caught up with all of my charitable giving in one night. The Internet makes giving very easy! Although there was one problem: The United Way of Whatcom County had a broken giving link for a while, and I missed my 2010 donation window. So I'll catch up to them in 2011. As I do every year, I bumped up the contribution amount over the previous year. This was the breakdown by charity categories:
All of those are worthwhile causes, but these are my three favorite charities (in alphabetical order):
|
Related: economics > environment < Unrelated: books energy geopolitics lists mathematics predictions science |
||
| Fri May 7 22:44:43 2010 Tree-Hugger Me I'm a die-hard environmentalist in spite of my SUV. |
|||
| Today I celebrated 6 weeks of commuting to and from work without driving!
This is all because I recently moved (see The Dream Tour), and I can bus to work and walk to almost everywhere I need to shop. I've been mostly commuting by public transit since December, but in March my parking pass ran out so I've been commuting 100% car-free since then. My gasoline consumption has dropped by around 50% or more compared to 2009, even though I often drive into the mountains on the weekends. However, I still drive a large black SUV that gets really crappy gas mileage. So I can't really call myself an environmentalist, can I? Well, actually I can and I do. I was inspired by this story, which pointed out that most people think about environmentally-friendly driving entirely wrong. Most people think that we can help the environment by buying cars with better gas mileage. But as the article noted:
So by moving and driving far less, I've actually reduced my carbon footprint much more than had I stayed where I was and bought a Prius. Don't get me wrong, eventually I'll get a greener car. But it won't be a Prius. It will be an SUV that has cleaner emissions. I need a truck with clearance, room for cargo and gear, and four wheel drive. That's another thing many people (including proclaimed environmentalists) get wrong, by the way. When it comes to the environment, gas mileage isn't important: emissions are important. The two are related, but they don't have to be. Car and truck manufacturers could be held to much stricter emissions than they are now. Paradoxically, better catalytic converters could slightly reduce gas mileage, but that would be overall worth it. So what is the responsible, green future for the planet? It won't be suburbia with hybrids. It will be people living much closer to where they work and shop, driving far less, in cars that have about the same gas mileage as now, but with lower emissions. That's going to be a big demographic shift, but it will be better for the atmosphere, and will also be forced by rising gasoline prices. Comments |
Related: economics science > environment < predictions Unrelated: books energy geopolitics lists mathematics |
||
| Links: |  |
Blog Directory | Blog Blog | Technorati Profile | Strange Attractor |