Why Cutting Carbon Emissions is not Enough
Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and UN Environment Program Executive Director, on lessons from the Montreal Protocol on chlorofluorocarbons in relation to COP15’s focus on carbon emissions and climate mitigation.
“In its annual “World Development Report” published on Tuesday September 15th, the World Bank notes that they accounted for 64% of global CO2 emissions from fossil fuels between 1850 and 2005. In 2005 itself, however, this share had fallen to 50%, and middle-income countries such as India and China (now the world’s biggest emitter) accounted for almost half of CO2 emissions and more than half of wider greenhouse-gas emissions. But rich countries’ 1 billion people emit far more on a per person basis compared with the 4.2 billion people who live in middle-income countries.”
50% of Denmark’s electricity is created using a decentralised system, and 40% of the Netherlands’. In Finland, 98% of Helsinki is heated by community heat networks. (source)
March 24, 2009, 12:57am
The big blame game is really getting to be too much. 77% of Americans blame the government for high gas prices, 75% blame oil companies, and 70% blame foreign oil producers, per a recent Consumer Reports survey. But all of those culprits pin the blame on another party. So, really, who is to blame for high oil prices?
Oil companies? Many like to blame big oil companies with their “windfall” profits. But they only get 4% of the cost of gasoline at the pump. Big oil often passes the blame onto speculators, the government, or a dearth of supplies.
Speculators? They’re not to blame either, according to recent news. First of all, the percent of futures contracts held by speculators has declined over the past year, so they can’t be to blame. Secondly, in order for speculators to actually change the price of oil, they’d have to take the physical oil off the market. Which they don’t - traders buy a futures contract, or an agreement for the seller to deliver a certain amount of oil on a certain future date for a certain price. But they resell the contract just before the date of delivery, and it typically rolls over into the next month’s contract.Thus, speculators don’t affect the actual spot-price of oil.
In fact, futures trading actually encourages oil companies to make costly investments in new production, which keeps the gas prices down. And they may actually discourages hoarding and makes prices less volatile.
Oil producers? The US Energy Secretary blames insufficient oil production, which has not kept up with demand. But they, namely OPEC, have been blaming speculators and the decline in the dollar, indicating that we are gouging ourselves. OPEC Secretary General stated today there is “no shortage” in the oil market.
The news? Economist Martin Feldstein concludes in today’s WSJ that “news stories, rumors and industry reports can cause substantial fluctuations in current prices – all without anything happening to current demand or supply.”
Congress? While only 4% of the cost of gasoline goes to oil companies, 15% of the cost of gasoline goes for taxes. Plus, Congress prohibits the production of domestic oil and natural gas, so they’re certainly to blame, right? This op-ed argues that if Congress were even to announce it has opened the way for domestic production, prices would drop. There’s that “news stories, rumors, and industry reports” component again. Congress likes to also blame the speculators. But a recent Fortune article invites Congress to “demonstrate a basic understanding of the mechanics of futures trading… Even better, they should be required to explain in detail how it is that investors who never take delivery of a single barrel of crude - and thus never remove a drop of oil from the open market - are causing record high oil prices.”
July 29, 2008, 10:48pm
1. Oil saved the whales from extinction.
Oil’s first use was to replace whale blubber in lamps. That’s right, before oil, as early as 1645, whale oil was used to light lamps and blubber was used to make candle wax. Sperm whales had oil superior to other whales, and had larger heads filled with spermaceti, a waxy substance that made the best candles. By the 1770s, New England was exporting 3-4,000 pounds of spermaceti candles a year. But whales became less and less abundant due to excess whaling, and by the early 1850s the oil became a scarce commodity that demanded a high price.Other forms of illumination were explored, including a form of turpentine and converting coal tar into kerosene . Finally, a professor named George Bissell conceived that “rock oil” could be turned into kerosene.
2. Oil was one of the first panaceas.
It was originally a byproduct of drilling for salt, and was considered a nuisance. It was either scooped up and disposed of, or soaked up in a rag, wrung out, and peddled as medicine. It was a cure all for everything - from headaches to rheumatism to deafness. A bottle of oil-medicine with a picture of a derrick drilling for salt gave Bissell, the same guy who figured out oil could turn into kerosene, the notion that he could use similar technology to drill for rock oil. (per An Empire of Wealth)3. Petroleum means “rock oil” in Latin.
Yep. petra: a rock + oleum: oil.4. Oil was first stored in whiskey barrels.
Barrels are the unit of measurement for oil (established in 1866 for tax purposes) because the first oilmen used whisky barrels to collect oil after striking their first gushers. Oil certainly gushed, and at one point it was priced down so much (or barrels were in such demand & scarcity) that the wooden barrel was worth twice as much as the oil in it. (per The Prize)5. Oil is not actually stored or shipped in barrels.
Though it’s priced and traded in the stock market in barrels, the 42-gallon unit of measurement is just that - a unit of measurement. The introduction of the oil tanker in 1850 quickly replaced the barrel (per Energy for the 21st Century). In 1885, 99% of oil exported from the US was carried in barrels. Ten years later, almost all of it was carried in tankers that could lug the equivalent of 4 million barrels at a time.6. Oil drink your milkshake.
The oil used on screen in There Will Be Blood was actually created using the same industrial material used by McDonald’s to thicken their milkshakes. “And I’m not kidding. That’s actually true,” said cinematographer Robert Elswit. (per CNN Oscar Blog)
July 29, 2008, 10:44pm
