November 26th, 2009

Peak oil panic? Dubai or not Dubai?

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 1:05 pm

Categories: Blogroll, Europe, conservation, energy, fossil fuel, law & politics, ocean, petroleum, renewable energy

Tags: Dubai, Harry Fuller

Could the mushrooming Dubai debt crisis be a preview of what peak oil will produce among the oil-selling nations?

Dubai–meaning the few poweful men in control–launched itself on a campaign to become the combo Las Vegas, Miami and Wall Street of the Mideast. That meant huge construction projects and rampant purchasing of key properties across the globe. A large portion of the action in Dubai is run by sovereign firms, belonging primarily to the Dubai government and its leaders. However, they’ve borrowed up to $60-billion from all over the globe. Stock markets today tanked when the story broke: no interest payments for six months from one arm of Dubai World.

Perhpas you recell the cause celebre in Washington when Dubai bought a British company that controlled a slew of American ports? Eventually the Dubai sovereign company sold its U.S. ports to the All-American patriots over at AIG. And we all know how good AIG has been to Americans.

Why would tiny Dubai start grasping and reaching for a different future? Because they know their oil is running out and they don’t wish to go back to living like nomads or sailing little wooden boats around the Persian Gulf. Of course, now it appears their investment plans looked better in theory than in practice.
Courtesy Dubai Palm Islands.

ANOTHER WAY? THE NOR-WAY

Another major oil exporter has taken a far different approach to its excessive oil income and the eventual end of its oil reserves. Norway now has the second largest sovereign investment fund in the world, behind only Abu Dhabi. Yes, tiny Norway ahead of China and Saudi Arabia.

The streets in Norway are not paved with gold, but they are all well-paved. Every resident is covered. Health insurance, check. Lifetime pension, check. Universal child support, check. One-year paid maternity leave, check. Sick pay for ALL jobs, check. No university tuition, check. What an American news service derides as cradle-to-grave welfare.

Knowing oil pretty well, Norway has invested in potential and working oil fields from Kurdistan to Angola. They’ve known the Norwegian oil supply is limited and they began years ago to invest in alternative energy. They did not build a large palm-shaped island like Dubai, however.

Wherever it leads this Dubai story will re-heat the debate over who’s right or wrong on the amount of oil left. I recently blogged about accusations that the IEA has been cooking the books to keep American oil interests comfy.

November 26th, 2009

East Anglia chronology, so far

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 11:01 am

Categories: Blogroll, Europe, air pollution, cars & traffic, climate change, energy, environmental health, federal government, fossil fuel, global warming, law & politics, ocean, research

Tags: Hacking, Global Warming, Harry Fuller, East Anglia, media, global warming denial, emails, Copenhagen, chronology

1) University of East Anglia hacked documents appear online. We now know that a month ago the same docs were apparently offered to a British reporter who did nothing with them. During that time the University apparently did NOT know it had been hacked. Duh.

2) Reaction to hacking. Some early responses claim deception and fraud.

3) Global warming skeptics trumpet the emails, ignore the illegality. See data tampering.

4) One hacked scientist sees the affair as part of the propaganda war. Critics of global warming see East Anglia as center of conspiracy to shut down those critics.

5) One left-wing paper finds no conspiracy, no cover-up but plenty of dull emails about lunch. Realclimate website says somebody tried to put the stolen docs on their site. They alerted the ripped-off university, hitherto oblivious to the global role they were about to play.

6) East Anglia hacking shows clear dividing line in opinions on einvornmental regulations. Rush Limbaugh says the docs were liberated by a whistleblower. ZDnet poll respondents heavily in favor of full disclosure of all global warming data and documents. One left-wing colunist calls for resignation of Eaat Anglia researcher prominent in the emails.

7) Hacking may have happened last month. Dr. James Hansen weighs in, science is solid but the emails show bad judgement. Republican Senator preparing for investigation of global warming research in U.S.

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November 26th, 2009

East Anglia: anger and aggro

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 10:20 am

Categories: Blogroll, Europe, Kyoto Protocol, air pollution, cars & traffic, climate change, conservation, energy, environmental health, federal government, fossil fuel, global warming, law & politics, ocean, research

Tags: Tobacco, Climate Change, Harry Fuller

Still no public info on who hacked the Univrersity of East Anglia’s climate study center.

One right-wing British pub finds the “climate change lobby” to be “oviously traumatised.” And then goes on to warn that the global warming crowd has shifted its tactics to “cleaner air is good for you.” Does anybody really think all the human-caused particulates and nitrous compounds in the air are simply adding fiber to our diet? Well, that writer’s conclusion: clean air, be afraid, be very afraid. Just another conpsiracy to take away your freedom?

On our sister website, here’s a look at the code behind the hockey stick temperature curve developed at East Anglia. Code or crud? Using that CBS report as a basis, one “Atlantic” writer anlyzes what’s really at stake in the East Anglia affair.

The facts remain: even if East Anglia never had a university, ice sheets and glaciers are melting, the Northwest Passage is now real, plants and animals are shifting their range upslope or northward in response to milder winters. At issue after East Anglia: how far does this climate change go and should we try to do anything about it?

It would be extremely naive, it seems to me, to assume that anything humans do or don’t do about global warming will have the intended affect. Our ignorance of the our planet remains massive. Unintended consequences are almost certain to ensue.

WHO’S FOOLING WHO?

Wow, a Murdoch-owned website actually published, in the UK, a column on how the current campaign against climate change science mirrors the tobacco industry’s defense of its cancer sticks over decades. That’s a parallel I’ve blogged about a few times. Now the fossil fuel industry is funding the disinformation on climate change.Until the 1970s some tobacco ads actually claimed health-enhancing attributes for their cigarettes. Then they pretended that filtered cigarettes were healthy.
Today tobacco companies, BTW, basically stopped fighting in developed countries and now focus on poor and ill-informed populations. And some impoverished governments are only too happy to have tobacco companies’ freindship and prevent any tobacco regulations.

November 23rd, 2009

Solar powered airplane: ready for take-off?

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 8:07 pm

Categories: Blogroll, Europe, aviation & aeronautics, energy, engineering, green tech, renewable energy, research, solar

Tags: Monitoring, Plane, Web Site Development, Web Technology, Internet, Harry Fuller

A solar powered airplane has passed its first set of tests. On the ground. The “Solar Impulse” has been undergoing runway tests in Switzerland. It’s powered by over 11-thousand solar panels on its very long wings.

Here on the Impulse’s website you can see videos of the plane. The goal is to fly it around the world. Omega, Solvay and Deutsche Bank are the main corporate sponsors of the project.
Image courtesy of Solar Impulse.

So far the plane has not left the ground, but both engines definitely run. Says the website, “At the controls of the HB-SIA, Solar Impulse test pilot Markus Scherdel cautiously took to the runway under the watchful eyes of the whole team, with computers monitoring the plane’s behaviour online via the embedded telemetric devices.
“This inaugural day out on the runway allowed low-speed runway testing with the prototype going through a series of acceleration and breaking manoeuvres, checking that the calculated and simulated strains are not being exceeded.”

November 23rd, 2009

British scientists call for action in Copenhagen

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 5:55 pm

Categories: Blogroll, Europe, air pollution, climate change, energy, environmental health, global warming, law & politics, research

Tags: U.K., Copenhagen, Harry Fuller

Here’s a joint statement from the UK’s Met Office, the Natural Environment Research Council and the Royal Society on the the science of climate change ahead of the Copenhagen climate conference.

If you don’t care to read it, they’re saying: evidence of global warming is piling up, things are already deteriorating and humans should do something. Not mentioning the East Anglia hacking there in the UK, they say, “Climate scientists from the UK and across the world are in overwhelming agreement about the evidence of climate change, driven by the human input of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.”

The Copenhagen climate conference begins December 7th.

November 23rd, 2009

GM: not doing well, but going back to the well anyway

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 11:37 am

Categories: Blogroll, Europe, European Union, cars & traffic, green tech, law & politics, renewable energy

Tags: General Motors, Opel, Volt, plug-in, electric car

General Motors tried to sell Opel. No deal. So now GM is asking for almost $5 billion dollars, less than 4 billion Euros, to restructure Opel and the rest of its European operations. Will the EU put up the cash?

I blogged recently about GM using its Volt tech to put some electric spark into other GM brands, including stodgy Opel. The Volt, a GM plug-in, is due to launch in the U.S. in about one year.

November 23rd, 2009

East Anglia hacking: no arrest, plenty of investigation

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 7:52 am

Categories: Blogroll, Europe, air pollution, climate change, engineering, environmental health, global warming, law & politics

Tags: Hacking, Global Warming, Realclimate, E-mail, Online Communications, Harry Fuller

I’ve blogged about how global warming skeptics and ring-wing newspapers have been enjoying greatly their own interpretation of the emails and docs hacked from the University of East Anglia climate study center. Police have made no arrests in the cyber-theft. But investigations now are legion. And the findings break down along predictable political lines.

Here’s a left-wing British publicaiton condemning the letters for…being “dull.” No conspiracy, no cover-up. Lots of references to lunch. That pub goes on to talk about the global warming deniers use of strong emotional appeal to undermine the science.
The realclimate website was where the hackers originally tried to upload the documents, apparently. Realclimate alerted East Anglia’s climate center to the possible theft.

Realclimate says it’s been through the emails and found, “There is no evidence of any worldwide conspiracy, no mention of George Soros nefariously funding climate research, no grand plan to ‘get rid of the MWP’, no admission that global warming is a hoax, no evidence of the falsifying of data, and no ‘marching orders’ from our socialist/communist/vegetarian overlords. The truly paranoid will put this down to the hackers also being in on the plot though.”

On the other side, conservative observers can find conspiracy in the emails. Here’s one talkback on an American news website “It appears that the East Anglia researchers have been not only refusing to share the raw data, but actively doctoring the results. Science has now been politicized by the left, like liberal arts, like entertainment, like what passes for print journalism. This has been going on for decades and there are no trustworthy sources anymore, which is tragic.”

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November 22nd, 2009

East Anglia: one hacked U.S. scientist is hacked off

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 8:56 pm

Categories: Blogroll, Europe, Russia, air pollution, climate change, environmental health, global warming, law & politics, research

Tags: Scientist, Global Warming, E-mail, Online Communications, Harry Fuller

One American climate scientist says the hacked documents from the University of East Anglia are being used for propaganda, that only those hurting global warming scientists were released. The scientist found over 100 of his own emails posted online and said he was appalled. He went on to say the emails were posted out of context and some stolen material was not released.

The scientist also pointed out that the Copenhagen climate conference begins in two weeks.

Meanwhile global warming skeptics are having a fine time. The “Daily Mail” has this column on the stolen emails “…now come these leaked emails showing that the very scientists who were responsible for championing the hockey stick - all at the heart of the IPCC establishment - have been regularly discussing how the evidence could be manipulated to promote their cause.”

A right-wing American paper claims, “A partial review of the hacked material suggests there was an effort at East Anglia, which houses an important center of global climate research, to shut out dissenters and their points of view.”

Clearly this is going to be grist for much future name-calling and fear mongering. Is global warming threatening the future of civilization or is it just the figment of a global warming conspiracy?

Here are the three previous blogs on the East Anglia hacking:
The story breaks on Friday.
Early reaction.
More reaction.

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November 21st, 2009

East Anglia: Chapter 3

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 3:59 pm

Categories: Blogroll, Europe, climate change, environmental health, global warming, law & politics, research

Tags: Theft, Global Warming, Global Warming Skeptic, University, E-mail, Blogging, Online Communications, Internet, Harry Fuller

More projections and extrapolations based on the hacked emails and documents from the University of East Anglia.

A “Wall Street Journal” writer sees the scientists trying to hide data and reject Freedom of Information Act claims.

The global warming skeptics are perfectly happy to overlook the illegality of the hacking and theft of private emails, according to this blogger.

Police are investigating this data theft. The University says it cannot confirm that all the documents are genuine. The University’s public statement says the theft and release of the documents were done to deliberately undermine “the strong consensus that human activity is affecting the world’s climate in ways that are potentially dangerous.”

Copenhagen climate talks begin December 7, but it’s already been conceded that no binding agreement is likely to result from the talks.My first East Anglia blog. The second.

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November 20th, 2009

East Anglia, the next chapter

Posted by Harry Fuller @ 2:00 pm

Categories: Blogroll, Europe, air pollution, climate change, engineering, environmental health, global warming, law & politics, research

Tags: Global Warming, E-mail, Blogging, Online Communications, Internet, Harry Fuller

Earlier today I blogged about the propaganda war that has broken out following the hacking of thousands of emails from the University of East Anglia’s climate study center. Here’s a left-wing British newspaper blog on the words beking flung about. This blogger has read some of the correspondence. Sees little meaningful and lots of missing context.

Yet one blogger sees deception and fraud, at least. Plus a little cruelty when a critic dies and isn’t mourned.

Thie blogger claims to have read the emails. There is no question about the basic science, he claims, but there was definitely the intent to deceive and skew the public message.

Here’s the BBC analysis of the emails that were hacked and the claims made by global warming skeptics about those emails.

Here’s the Fox News version of the story.

Here’s the Wall Street Journal blog. It repeats second-hand info that the emails are all genuine and there are over 3000 files stolen from East Anglia. Not sure this blogger’s surmise that it was stolen by Russian black hats is vaild. But there is much interest in Russia and its rich in keeping the price of oil as high as possible as long as possible. That means any global warming treaty is a business threat to Russia, Saudi, Venezuela, Nigeria, Norway and other oil exporters. But access to a Russian-based server is not limited to Russians, of course.

This is one hack that will have a long-lasting political life. At least through the Copenhagen meeting if not beyond. Copenhagen talks begin December 7.
So far no public statement from the British government which runs University of East Anglia. All publicly-funded universities there are run by the national government. The UK has long been a vocal public advocate of global action against global warming.

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