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Peak Phosphorus Will be a Shortage We Can’t Stomach

Here’s the good news. We probably don’t have to worry about peak oil just yet, as it isn’t going to run out anytime soon. The bad news is, as the IPCC has recently reported , we can’t afford the costs of what liberating all that carbon into the Earth’s atmosphere would do to the climate. So we will have to leave it in the ground and come up with alternatives fast. The really bad news is that we may not even have to worry about peak oil or dangerous climate change – instead we can fret over peak phosphorous . Unlike moving from our current dependence on fossil fuels, there is no alternative to phosphorus and if it runs out our global food production system would grind to a halt. is present in all cells in all forms of life because it makes up part of the backbone of […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Oil Slips Despite Strong Chinese Imports

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in June traded at $100.81 a barrel at 0509 GMT, up $0.04 in the Globex electronic session. June Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange fell $0.17 to $107.96 a barrel. China’s trade surplus widened to $18.46 billion in April, from $7.71 billion in March, with better-than-expected export and import numbers. Its purchases of major industrial commodities also grew. China’s April crude-oil imports came in at 27.88 million metric tons, or 6.8 million barrels a day, the highest level on record on a daily basis, surpassing January’s record of 6.7 million barrels a day. "While demand was gradually recovering in April after a sluggish holiday season, the surge in imports likely reflected strategic stockpiling rather than refinery demand," analyst Sijin Cheng at Barclays said. Nymex WTI crude retained the bulk of its overnight gains on a surprise […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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WTI Trades Near 1-Week High as Crude Supplies Drop; Brent Steady

West Texas Intermediate traded near the highest price in a week after crude inventories shrank for the first time since March in the U.S., the world’s biggest oil consumer. Brent was steady in London . Futures were little changed in New York after rising 1.3 percent yesterday. Crude stockpiles fell by 1.78 million barrels last week as supplies at Cushing, Oklahoma , the delivery point for WTI, dropped to the lowest level since December 2008, the Energy Information Administration reported. Russian President Vladimir Putin called on separatists in Ukraine to postpone a vote for autonomy and said he pulled troops from the country’s border after weeks of tension. “There could be seasonal factors underlying that draw in inventories,” said Michael McCarthy , a chief strategist at CMC Markets in Sydney who predicts investors may sell West Texas contracts if prices climb to $103 a barrel. “The picture at Cushing […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Natural-Gas Prices Slip as Traders Get Ready for New Inventory Data

Natural gas prices retreated Wednesday as traders looked to lock in profits ahead of an update on storage levels. Prices for the front-month June contract fell 5.9 cents, or 1.2%, at $4.706 a million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices had jumped to near a two-month high on Tuesday, making Wednesday a good day for traders who bet on rising prices to sell and take their gains, analyst and brokers said. Traders didn’t want to push any farther ahead of the federal government’s weekly update on storage levels, due Thursday morning, analysts said. Stockpiles are slowly coming off of an 11-year low and the government’s weekly progress report has been one of the few factors that have sparked substantial price moves this spring. "Obviously the resistance (to trading) at $4.80 is a little stronger than people expected," said Gene McGillian, a […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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WHO data: global annual PM10 increased by 6% during recent 3-year period; based on data from 851 cities

Regional city‐population weighted comparisons in annual mean PM for a three‐year period, by region, for cities present in both versions of the AAP database. The mean for the World is based on weighting by regional urban population. Source: WHO. Click to enlarge. Air quality in most cities worldwide that monitor outdoor (ambient) air pollution fails to meet World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines for safe levels, putting people at additional risk of respiratory disease and other health problems, according to WHO’s expanded ambient (outdoor) air pollution (AAP) in cities database 2014 . WHO’s 2014 AAP database consists mainly of urban air quality data—annual means for PM10 and/or PM2.5—and covers 1,600 cities across 91 countries. Only 12% of the people living in cities reporting on air quality reside […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Oil Industry Risks $1.1 Trillion of Investor Cash: Study

Oil explorers like Exxon Mobil Corp. and OAO Rosneft risk wasting $1.1 trillion of investors’ cash through 2025 on expensive, uneconomic projects from the Arctic and deep seas to tar sands, according to a study. That’s the sum the industry may spend on developments that need market prices of at least $95 a barrel to break even, the Carbon Tracker Initiative said. The money risks being wasted as the total amount of oil the world can afford to burn without warming the planet to unsafe levels is available from less costly deposits that are economical at $75 a barrel, according to its report. Petroleo Brasileiro SA’s capital spending on projects needing $95 a barrel or more may reach $83 billion through 2025, with Exxon at $73 billion and Rosneft at $70 billion, Carbon Tracker said. The figures aren’t the companies’ own figures but were estimated by the non-profit group, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Syrian rebels claim massive Aleppo hotel bombing

A rebel-claimed bombing Thursday in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo leveled a hotel that government troops used as a military base, along with several other buildings in a government-held area, activists and militants said. Syrian state television said an explosion struck a government-held area on the edge of a contested neighborhood in old part of Aleppo. The television report identified the hotel as the Carlton hotel, located next to the city’s ancient Citadel. A local activist group called the Sham News Network also reported the blast, saying that President Bashar Assad’s troops were based in the hotel. The Islamic Front rebel group claimed responsibility for the blast. A statement posted on its official Twitter account Thursday said that its "fighters this morning leveled the Carlton Hotel barracks in Old Aleppo and a number of buildings near it, killing 50 soldiers." It did not say how […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Syrian Rebels Depart Homs District Under Deal

Syria’s third-largest city, Homs, was one of the first to hold large demonstrations against President Bashar al-Assad. Protesters there were among the first to take up arms against the state, and Homs neighborhoods were the first to suffer indiscriminate bombardment by government forces. Homs long stood as a bellwether for a nation slowly, brutally, unraveling. A diverse community increasingly split along sectarian lines as populations fled, neighborhoods were destroyed and rebels held out in the Old City. On Wednesday, the last insurgent-held neighborhoods of the Old City appeared to be falling to the government as the last fighters and their families began to evacuate under a deal freighted with symbolism for both sides. The government seeks to prove that through brute force and local talks, it can retake a major urban area. For its opponents, handing over enclaves that withstood a nearly two-year blockade is an […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Rebels to Ask for Antiaircraft Missiles

The head of the Syrian opposition says that he will ask the Obama administration to provide antiaircraft missiles and will try to convince American officials that the weapons would not fall into the wrong hands. In an interview on Tuesday night, Ahmad Assi al-Jarba, president of the opposition coalition, also confirmed reports that Syrian rebels had received American TOW antitank missiles and said the shipment had enabled the opposition to demonstrate that it was able to use and maintain control of advanced American weaponry. Mr. Jarba, who is visiting Washington for the first time, plans to meet with a senior Pentagon official, leading members of Congress and Secretary of State John Kerry. A White House official said President Obama was expected to see him.  In an effort to present a unified front to the Americans, Mr. Jarba is accompanied by Brig. Gen. Abdul-Ilah al-Bashir, the new leader […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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China Boosts Crude Imports to Record on New Plant, Stockpiling

China , which uses more oil than any country except the U.S., raised daily crude imports to a record in April as a new refinery and stockpiling bolstered demand. Overseas purchases increased to 27.88 million metric tons, according to data released today by the General Administration of Customs in Beijing. That’s about 6.81 million barrels a day, up from the previous record of 6.66 million in January. “China imported more crude probably to fill inventory and meet demand that will rebound in June following the maintenance season,” Amy Sun, an analyst with ICIS-C1 Energy, said by phone from Guangzhou today. Some of the overseas crude will go to refilling commercial inventories, Sun said. Stockpiles fell about 3 percent at the end of March from a month earlier, according to China Oil, Gas & Petrochemicals, published by the official Xinhua News Agency. Imports also rose as Sinochem Group ’s Quanzhou […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple