Greenpeace International and the European Renewable Energy Council have produced a report titled: "Energy [R]evolution: A Sustainable World Energy Outlook" which provides a detailed blueprint for cutting carbon emissions while achieving economic growth by replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy and energy efficiency. Acopy of the full 212-page report is here; a 16-page summary is here.

Under the Energy [R]evolution scenario, global CO2 emissions would peak in 2015 and drop afterwards. Compared with 1990 CO2 emissions would be more than 80% lower by 2050. The report says that by 2050 around 95% of electricity could be produced by renewable energy.

The report also says that this phase-out of fossil fuels offers substantial additional benefits such as energy security, independence from world market fuel prices as well as the creation of millions of new green jobs.

By 2015 global power supply sector jobs in the Energy [R]evolution scenario are estimated to reach about 11.1 million, 3.1 million more than in the business-as-usual Reference scenario. By 2020 over 6.5 million jobs in the renewables sector would be created due a much faster uptake of renewables, three-times more than today.

The report finds that this can be achieved with proven technologies by adhering to five key principles:

• Equity and fairness
• Respecting natural limits
• Phasing out dirty, unsustainable energy
• Implementing renewable solutions and decentralising energy systems
• Decoupling growth from fossil fuel use.

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As disastrous as the Gulf oil spill is, it is dwarfed others aound the world.

The Guardian, for example, has an article about Nigeria where, they say, more oil is spilled every year than has been lost in the Gulf spill - and it’s been happening for 50 years!

Just last month, a ruptured ExxonMobil pipeline in the state of Akwa Ibom spilled more than a million gallons into the delta. Local people demonstrated against the company but say they were attacked by security guards. Within days of the Ibeno spill, thousands of barrels of oil were spilled when the nearby Shell Trans Niger pipeline. A few days after that, a large oil slick was found floating on Lake Adibawa in Bayelsa state and another in Ogoniland.

Life expectancy in rural communities in the Niger Delta, has fallen to little more than 40 years over the past two generations. Locals blame the oil that pollutes their land and can scarcely believe the contrast with the steps taken by BP and the US government to try to stop the Gulf oil leak and to protect the Louisiana shoreline from pollution. "If this Gulf accident had happened in Nigeria, neither the government nor the company would have paid much attention," said the writer Ben Ikari, a member of the Ogoni people. "This kind of spill happens all the time in the delta."
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Our latest YouTube video clip is a look at what our dependence on oil is doing to the Earth.

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British Airways has unveiled plans to establish what it believes will be Europe’s first ’sustainable’ jet fuel plant

The plant will produce aviation fuel from plasma gasification of biomass into BioSynGas which is then converted into jet fuel. The facility will process all types of biomass and residue feedstock which will mainly be sourced from local waste management facilities. The process produces no waste products other than an environmentally-benign slag that can be used as construction aggregate.

It is planned that the plant will be fully operational by 2014 and, if successful, it will convert 500,000 tonnes of carbon-based material per year into 60 million litres of jet fuel. This would reduce annual carbon emissions by 145 kilotonnes.

Meanwhile, the US Air Force has said that it has been working on mass-producing jet fuel from algae for a target price of $3 a gallon (80 cents per litre).
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The American delivery company, UPS, has some 95,000 trucks. For 100 years, UPS employees have worked to find the most efficient routes for delivering packages in a safe and timely manner by physically driving each one and plotting them on maps. Over the last few years, UPS has been rolling out computer programs to automate the process that was performed manually in the past. One thing that the computer models showed was that drivers should make as few left turns across oncoming traffic as possible.

Waiting for the oncoming traffic to pass was costing more time and fuel than making three right turns to go around the block. In a right hand drive country, such as Australia, this would mean avoiding right hand turns. UPS tried the system and in 2007 shaved nearly 50 million kilometres off already streamlined delivery routes, saved 11 million litres of petrol and reduced emissions by 32,000 tonnes of CO2.

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• The Americans make war to get more oil
• The Germans make biodiesel factories
• The British make regulations to limit vehicle use
• The French make cycling fashionable
• The Italians make trendy motor scooters
• The Japanese make more fuel-efficient cars
• The Chinese make more stuff to sell so they can buy more oil
• The Indians make really cheap cars that don’t really work
• The Brazilians make alcohol
• The Australians make finding the cheapest fuel into a sport
• The Arabs make money

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For over 100 years up to 1970, the price of a barrel of oil was remarkably stable at between about $us21 and $us25 (adjusted for inflation). Contrary to general belief, the formation of OPEC in 1960 did not lead to an immediate increase in oil prices - in fact, prices declined throughout the sixties. What actually changed things was peak oil in Texas which occurred in about 1970.

Up to that time, the Railroad Commission of Texas, which (despite its name) regulates the Texas oil and gas industry, had limited the amount of oil that was produced in order to control prices. In March, 1971, it stopped controlling supply because there was no longer any surplus which could be held back. The effect of this was to give control to OPEC, which did have a surplus - and, in reality, to Saudi Arabia whose supplies dominated OPEC.

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The main reason that hybrid cars use less petrol is because they switch off the petrol engine when they stop in traffic. Non-hybrid cars can be made to do the same thing. In essence, all they need is a beefed-up starter motor and some electronics. It is estimated that, if all cars worked in this way, we would reduce fuel consumption by 8%. So why don’t they?

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Where It Came From

Plankton and algae settle to the bottom of the sea. This organic matter, mixed with the mud, may become buried under layers of sediment. If the pressure and temperature becomes high enough, the organic matter is chemically changed and, with the compressed mud, forms oil shale. Eventually, the oil seeps out and makes its way towards the surface.

The vast majority of the oil reaches the surface where it lies in oil sands. This oil is eventually biodegraded by bacteria.

On rare occasions, the oil may become trapped in porous rocks under impermeable rocks, in an oil field.

If the temperature is high enough, the trapped oil will be converted to natural gas.

Where Is It Now

“Proven oil reserves” refers to oil known to be in oil fields that can economically recovered with current technology and prices. According to the US Geological Survey, the world’s proven oil reserves are about 1,100 billion barrels (36 years supply at current rates).

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