Nuclear energy
Nuclear Energy is energy due to the splitting (fission) or merging together (fusion) of the nuclei of atom (s).
Data sources: Energy Bulletin, Science Daily
I've written lately that economists are the high priests of Progress. I don't subscribe to the doctrine of Progress, which is a faith-based view of our future. Apparently, for most people all of the time, the alternative is simply unthinkable. The truth is that we had wars 4,000 years ago, and we have wars now. The large majority of human beings were poor and disenfranchised 4,000 years ago, and the large majority still are today.
Major energy reports published this year are pointing to a significant rise in the price of oil due to supply constraints sometime over the next three years the only disagreement is how soon.
So far 2010 has seen three international reports considering the future of oil production, demand and prices. These were published by high profile groups that command widespread respect in turn, a collection of UK industrialists, the US military and a joint effort between Europes most recognized insurance company and a politically connected think-tank.
Largely ignored by the media, and considered separately online as they came out, it is interesting to do a compare-and-contrast between documents produced for widely different audiences on each side of the Atlantic.
-2050 Pathways Analysis
-UK energy scenarios: working with a flawed model
-DECC publishes plans for achieving 2050 targets
-DECC lays out six possible futures for low-carbon energy
What do fifty years of failed fusion research, today's avant-garde believers in the Singularity, and the antics of the characters in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" have in common? The answer lies in information, which forms -- along with energy and matter -- a triad of principles that shape whole systems, and have to be understood in order to craft new systems for the deindustrial age.
The project of a "green wizardry" based on 70s-era appropriate tech requires a clear understanding of matter as well as energy. With the help of dog slobber, nuclear waste, and several other unmentionable substances, the Archdruid explains.
As the leaking Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico continues to defy BP's efforts, the crisis now looks existential for the company. This week the share price collapsed further, and commentary went far beyond the usual concerns over the fate of the chief executive and the dividend. One Clinton era official even suggested taking BP's US assets into temporary administration...
A weekly roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Oil and the global economy
-Deepwater horizon
-Repercussions
-Sanctions on Iran
-Quote of the Week
-Briefs
A midweek roundup of peak oil news, including
-Prices and production
-Deepwater Horizon
-Iranian nuclear fuel
A weekly roundup of peak oil news, including:
-Production and prices
-the Deepwater horizon
-Venezuela
-Quote of the week
-Briefs
-Energy stat of the week
There was much to welcome in the new coalition's energy policy. In particular, ODAC supports the commitment to a "huge increase" in anaerobic digestion; raise renewables targets; the "full establishment" of feed-in-tariffs while maintaining the existing banded ROCs to ensure continuity for big renewables investors; a shift of aviation duty from people to planes; scrap Heathrow's third runway and block new ones at Stanstead and Gatwick.