Capitalism, or a habitable planet? - you can't have both

Capitalism is not sustainable by its very nature. It is predicated on infinitely expanding markets, faster consumption and bigger production in a finite planet. And yet this ideological model remains the central organising principle of our lives, and as long as it continues to be so it will automatically undo (with its invisible hand) every single green initiative anybody cares to come up with.

Once we pass the planetary oil production spike (when oil begins rapidly to deplete and demand outstrips supply), there will be less and less net energy available to humankind. Petroleum geologists reckon we will pass the world oil spike sometime between 2006 and 2010. It will take, argues peak-oil expert Richard Heinberg, a second world war effort if many of us are to come through this epoch. Not least because modern agribusiness puts hundreds of calories of fossil-fuel energy into the fields for each calorie of food energy produced.

If we are all still in denial about the radical changes coming, there are sound geological reasons for our denial. We have lived in an era of cheap, abundant energy. The petroleum interval, this one-off historical blip, has led us to believe that the impossible is possible, that people in northern industrial cities can have suntans in winter and eat apples in summer. But much as the petroleum bubble has got us out of the habit of accepting the existence of zero-sum physical realities, it's wise to remember that they never went away. You can either have capitalism or a habitable planet. One or the other, not both.

Technology won't solve America's oil addiction

peakoil.com -> emediawire.com :

America's dependence on oil took center stage in President Bush's State of the Union address, in which he declared "America is addicted to oil," but a growing number of experts now say that technology alone won't wean the country from its oil addiction. The root cause of our dependency, they say, is a more intractable problem - the depletion of finite global oil resources - and that any solution will require massive conservation efforts in addition to developing alternative energy sources.

In his speech, President Bush set a goal of replacing more than 75% of the nation's Middle East oil imports, and proposed increased spending on ethanol and other alternative fuels. While laudable in principle, such efforts fall far short of addressing the enormity of the problem, says SF Informatics, a citizens group focused on energy issues. "Presidents have been talking about ending America's dependence on foreign oil since the 1970s," said Richard Katz of SF Informatics. "Yet we continue to grow ever more addicted. What the President didn't tell us is that that the world has already consumed half of its conventional oil supplies and now faces the imminent peak and decline of production."

Congressman Roscoe Bartlett is one of just a handful of lawmakers who have recognized the grave risks posed by "peak oil," the point when oil output begins an irreversible decline. Addressing shrinking supplies will take more than technology, he says. Bartlett says that ending the dependency will require a combination of reducing consumption and developing alternative energy sources. "Unless we do both, it probably won't be possible to break America's addiction to oil and reduce the trend of increasing dependence upon oil imports from the Middle East," Bartlett said.

Shell profit hits UK company record

news.yahoo.com :

Royal Dutch Shell Plc posted a record $23 billion profit for 2005, up 30% from the previous year, as higher oil prices and fat refining margins outweighed a sharp fall in production. All the oil majors are expected to report bumper results for 2005 thanks to prices that reached a record above $70 per barrel during the year and to record refining margins.

Shares in the world's third-biggest listed oil company by market value fell, however, as investors focused on its weak performance upstream in finding oil and gas. Investors were also disappointed, because Shell failed to copy Exxon Mobil in beating market forecasts earlier, when the U.S. major posted a record $36 billion annual profit.

Shell replaced just 60 to 70 percent of the oil it pumped with new additions to reserves, measured under Securities and Exchange Commission rules. This is well below the 100 percent rate needed to stop an oil firm's asset base from shrinking. Shell said it continued to target 100 percent replacement over 2004-2008 but analysts are divided on whether Shell has turned around its upstream business after a reserves overbooking scandal in 2004 and massive cost overruns in 2005.

EA chops 5% of workforce

news.com.com :

Electronic Arts, the world's largest video game publisher, confirmed reports that it is laying off 5% of its work force, or between 325 and 350 people. In late December, EA said its holiday sales were disappointing and that it would likely not meet its third-quarter sales and earning guidance.

But EA corporate communications manager Trudy Muller told CNET News.com that the layoffs were not related to holiday sales but were about realigning the company's resources as it grapples with the transition from current-generation to next-generation consoles. Microsoft in November released its next-generation console, the Xbox 360, and both Sony and Nintendo are expected this year to launch new machines, the PlayStation 3 and the Revolution, respectively.

(2006-02-03 00:39:29 SGT) [Biz] Permalink

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