Category Archives: Descent

CC news #1

Twenty-two world-leading marine scientists have collaborated in the synthesis report in a special section of Science journal. They say the oceans are at parlous [sic] risk from the combination of threats related to CO2. They believe politicians trying to solve climate change have paid far too little attention to the impacts of climate change on the oceans.

It is clear, they say, that CO2 from burning fossil fuels is changing the chemistry of the seas faster than at any time since a cataclysmic natural event known as the Great Dying 250 million years ago.

They warn that the ocean has absorbed nearly 30% of the carbon dioxide we have produced since 1750 and, as CO2 is a mildly acidic gas, it is making seawater more acidic. It has also buffered climate change by absorbing over 90% of the additional heat created by industrial society since 1970. The extra heat makes it harder for the ocean to hold oxygen. (This is where the ‘missing heat’ that CC skeptics constantly complain about has gone – there was never a warming hiatus – there just weren’t looking, if looking at all.)

…They warn that the carbon we emit today may change the earth system irreversibly for many generations to come.

It is a certainty, not a possibility.

The marine food source (and sustainability in itself) is being shredded, and with it the the societies and communities that depend on it on this globe.

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-33369024

 

 

If there is no Peak Oil…

…then why did the whole oil-producing world (sans-USCanada) increase its combined production by a mere 4%, while the oil price steeply increased from 2005 onwards (spiking on a near-150$ in 2008, and then crashing back to the level it arose from, thus making an impressive price record, but a slightly more modest yearly average figure)?

Keeping in mind that modern large-scale enterprises these days are profit-maximizing entities, why would they not ramp up production when a golden opportunity like this presented itself?

s: http://econimica.blogspot.dk/2015/04/why-would-corporations-nations-leave.html

US Shale Oil dream crashes out overnight

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-oil-20140521-story.html

Federal energy authorities have slashed by 96% the estimated amount of recoverable oil buried in California’s vast Monterey Shale deposits, deflating its potential as a national “black gold mine” of petroleum.

Just 600 million barrels of oil can be extracted with existing technology, far below the 13.7 billion barrels once thought recoverable from the jumbled layers of subterranean rock spread across much of Central California, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said.

The new estimate, expected to be released publicly next month, is a blow to the nation’s oil future and to projections that an oil boom would bring as many as 2.8 million new jobs to California and boost tax revenue by $24.6 billion annually.

The Monterey Shale formation contains about two-thirds of the nation’s shale oil reserves. It had been seen as an enormous bonanza, reducing the nation’s need for foreign oil imports through the use of the latest in extraction techniques, including acid treatments, horizontal drilling and fracking.

The energy agency said the earlier estimate of recoverable oil, issued in 2011 by an independent firm under contract with the government, broadly assumed that deposits in the Monterey Shale formation were as easily recoverable as those found in shale formations elsewhere.

The estimate touched off a speculation boom among oil companies. The new findings seem certain to dampen that enthusiasm.

Two thirds of the nations expected shale oil reserves disappears overnight… dampen the enthusiasm, you think??

 

About that Oil thing we all rely on for our daily lives…

EROI means “Energy Returned On energy Invested”.

“The U.S. was producing oil back in the 1930′s at an EROI of 100/1… which means it cost the energy of one barrel of oil to produce 100 barrels for market.In 1970, it fell to 30/1 and today its below 10/1.

SHALE OIL coming out of the mighty Bakken Field has an EROI of 5/1, and all that supposed 1 Trillion barrels of OIL SHALE in the western U.S. (not to be confused with shale oil) has a lousy EROI of 2/1.”

And some fools or demagogues would have that the world, let alone the USA, will be able to keep just burning off oil products in our usual energy-intensive lifestyle for many years to come?

Believe them, and youre lambs wandering into the slaughterhouse.

2013January news snippets

(from 5th of January, 2013:)

They call it recovery: “During fiscal year 2012, the U.S. government spent a record $80.4 billion on food stamps, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), a $2.7 billion increase from FY 2011.”

Revolving door policy: “In July 2012, an FBI probe found that Bank of America had allowed a Mexican drug cartel to launder money through the bank. While BofA has yet to face any fines for the episode, the head of the FBI in Charlotte, N.C., BofA’s headquarters, recently left the law enforcement agency for a job at Bank of America.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/05/fbi-occupy-wall-street_n_2410783.html

US Government backed a False Flag atack on Syria to blame Assad: “Leaked emails have allegedly proved that the White House gave the green light to a chemical weapons attack in Syria that could be blamed on Assad’s regime and in turn, spur international military action in the devastated country. A report released on Monday contains an email exchange between two senior officials at British-based contractor Britam Defence where a scheme ‘approved by Washington’ is outlined explaining that Qatar would fund rebel forces in Syria to use chemical weapons.”

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2270219/U-S-planned-launch-chemical-weapon-attack-Syria-blame-Assad.html

 

The environmental cost – and cost to the health of the populace – from severe pollution in a China undergoing heavy industrialization is becoming evident:

No country in history has become a major industrial power without creating a legacy of environmental damage. China is clearly not an exception. The speed and scale of China’s rise has brought an unprecedented pollution problem. Public health is reeling. Pollution has made cancer China’s leading cause of death according to the Ministry of Health. Ambient air pollution alone is blamed for hundreds of thousands of deaths each year. The factories and spewing automobile engines recently caused hundreds of flights to be cancelled in and around Beijing. Stores are selling out of face masks and the government struggles to figure out this political challenge and provide relief of the long-term burden on its people. — Paula Nelson ( 47 photos total)

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2013/01/chinas_skies_toxic_levels_of_p.html

 

Discussions and asides:

http://falkvinge.net/2012/05/23/cynicism-redefined-why-the-copyright-lobby-loves-child-porn/

“Child pornography is great,” the man said enthusiastically. “Politicians do not understand file sharing, but they understand child pornography, and they want to filter that to score points with the public. Once we get them to filter child pornography, we can get them to extend the block to file sharing.”