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Deep Concerns as Climate Impacts on Gulf Stream Flow

Meltwater on the Greenland ice sheet could affect currents as it enters the sea. Image: James Balog/Aurora Photos via Flickr Ocean scientists find evidence of an increasing slowdown in the Atlantic’s “invisible river” that could seriously affect weather and sea levels in the US and Europe. LONDON, 25 March, 2015 − Climate scientists have once again confirmed an alarming slowdown in the circulation of the Atlantic Ocean − the process that drives the current that warms Europe, and powers the planetary climate. And this time, they are prepared to say that the changes are recent − and may be linked to global warming. The Atlantic Conveyor is a great invisible river that flows in two directions at the same time. The equatorial surface waters − warm, and therefore less dense − flow towards the north in the form of the Gulf Stream. Around Greenland, the denser and colder Arctic […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Heinberg: AFTERBURN Society Beyond Fossil Fuels

Heinberg: AFTERBURN Society Beyond Fossil Fuels thumbnail The advent of fossil fuels changed the world profoundly (giving us everything from plastics and automobiles to global warming); the inevitable and rapidly approaching end of the oil-coal-and-gas era will likewise bring overwhelming transformation in its wake. My new book Afterburn explores that transformation—its opportunities and challenges—in sixteen essays that address subjects as varied as energy politics, consumerism, localism, the importance of libraries, and oil price volatility. Afterburn is a book of “greatest hits”—that is, popular essays that have been previously published—similar in that respect to an earlier book of mine, Peak Everything (2007). Like that previous collection, this one has been carefully selected and arranged, and features an all-new Introduction. Here are just a few of the highlights: “Ten Years After” reviews the debate about “peak oil” from the perspective of over a decade’s work in tracking petroleum forecasts, prices, and […]

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Oil Rallies, Gulf Stocks Fall as Yemen Crisis Escalates

ENLARGE A fisherman travels on a boat in front of a bulk carrier ship and a tanker in the Suez Canal on May 1, 2014. Oil tankers that transit the Suez Canal also need to pass through Bab el-Mandeb Strait. Photo: Reuters LONDON—Oil prices surged on Thursday, while stocks fell sharply, as Saudi Arabia and its allies in the Middle East launched airstrikes against Houthi rebel forces in Yemen. The abrupt intensification of the crisis surprised markets. Oil prices rose more than 5% in early European morning trade, before slipping back slightly, while stocks in Europe more broadly, and the Gulf states more specifically, were lower. The escalation of the conflict came hours after Yemen’s President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi fled the country as the Iranian-supported militants advanced on the southern port city. The fresh developments threaten to make Yemen the focal point of the clash between Iran and […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Oil surges on Yemen air strikes, global stocks tumble

LONDON (Reuters) – Crude prices rose as much as 6 percent on Thursday after Saudi Arabia and its allies launched air strikes on Yemen, pushing shares lower in Europe, the Middle East and Asia and lifting oil producers’ currencies. The military operations, including air strikes, targeted Iran-backed Houthi rebels besieging the southern Yemen city of Aden. Arab producers ship oil via the Gulf of Aden and Suez Canal to Europe. The escalating tensions in the Middle East pushed the price of Brent crude up more than $3 a barrel to close to $60, a 2 1/2-week high. It last traded at $59.17, up 4.7 percent LCOc1. "Oil is having a nice move after more geopolitical tensions in the Middle East over Yemen. Saudi has intervened via a military operation but, to be clear, (it) has at the moment led to no disruptions in oil supply," said Atif Latif, director […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Lower spending may be pushing oil higher

EIA expects lag time in decreased spending and oil production levels from the United States. Photo by David Gaylor/Shutterstock Crude oil prices gained traction in Wednesday trading as U.S. federal data show spending on exploration and production was down by double digits. Global oil prices are about half of what they were in June 2014, dropping more than once this year below the $50 per barrel mark. The steady drop in crude oil prices has forced energy companies to cut back on staff and reduce the amount of capital set aside in their 2015 budgets for exploration and production, known as the upstream side of the sector. A daily brief from the U.S. Energy Information Administration finds spending on exploration and production during the fourth quarter of 2014 was down 12 percent year-on-year. EIA said the impact of the spending cuts might not be felt for a long time. […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Biggest Polluters to Miss Climate Deadline

Haze surrounds the International Commerce Centre (ICC), center, as a cruise ship sails past in Hong Kong,. (Bloomberg) — Less than a week before the United Nations deadline for countries to file greenhouse-gas pledges necessary to keep a global climate change deal on track, it looks like most of the world is missing in action. Ahead of the March 31 target, only the European Union and Switzerland have unveiled plans, representing about 10 percent of global emissions. The U.S. has promised to hit the deadline. The rest of the world’s major economies, including China, India, Australia and Japan, are unlikely to complete submissions in time, according to environmental groups tracking UN climate talks. More than 190 nations are scheduled to meet in Paris in December to craft an international deal aimed at slowing global warming. Countries may be holding off on individual plans as long as possible to see […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Saudi Arabia Leads Air Assault in Yemen

WASHINGTON — Saudi Arabia announced on Wednesday night that it had begun military operations in Yemen , launching airstrikes in coordination with a coalition of 10 nations. The strikes came as Yemen was hurtling closer to civil war after months of turmoil, as fighters and army units allied with the Houthi movement threatened to overrun the southern port of Aden where the besieged president, Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi, has gone into hiding. The rapid advances by the president’s opponents included the seizure of a military air base and an aerial assault on his home. There were unconfirmed reports that the president had fled the country by boat for Djibouti, the tiny Horn of Africa nation across the Gulf of Aden. The region’s most impoverished country, Yemen has been a central theater of the American fight against Al Qaeda , and its possible collapse presents complex challenges to the Obama […]

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Yemen Houthis respond to Sana’a air raids with rocket attacks

People search for survivors on Thursday after an air strike near Sana’a airport Houthi rebels say they have responded to Saudi Arabia-led air strikes on Sana’a, the Yemen capital, by launching rockets across the northern border into the oil-rich kingdom, as civil conflict threatens to escalate into a regional war. Saudi Arabia, backed by a 10-country Muslim coalition, launched the air strikes early on Thursday against targets in Houthi-controlled Sana’a, including the airport and a military air base. News of the strikes and retaliation triggered a surge in the price of crude oil . Brent crude, the international benchmark, rose $2.89, or 5.1 per cent, to $59.37 while West Texas Intermediate, the US benchmark, also rose, up $3.01 to $52.22 a barrel. It had reached $52.48 a barrel in earlier trading. Although the attack is not expected to cause any major disruption, the narrow waters between Yemen and Djibouti […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Saudi Arabia invites Iraq’s Abadi to visit in big sign of thaw

BAGHDAD/RIYADH (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia’s King Salman has invited Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi to visit the kingdom, Abadi’s office said on Monday, in the biggest sign yet of improving ties between the countries after decades of tension. Abadi’s office gave no details about the invitation or possible visit, which would be his first as prime minister, including when it might take place. But the invitation caps months of better cooperation between Riyadh and Baghdad since the prime minister replaced Nouri al-Maliki last summer. Iraq and Saudi Arabia have found new room to cooperate with each other in the fight against the Islamic State group, which both see as a threat, but long-held suspicions persist. Saudi Arabia hopes Abadi will do more to include Iraqi Sunnis in the government than Maliki did, and will prove more able to distance himself from Iran, Baghdad’s main ally and Riyadh’s biggest regional […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Why Bombing This Tiny Oil Producer Is Roiling the Energy Market

(Bloomberg) — While Yemen contributes less than 0.2 percent of global oil output, its location puts it near the center of world energy trade. The nation shares a border with Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest crude exporter, and sits on one side of a shipping chokepoint used by crude tankers heading West from the Persian Gulf. Global oil prices jumped more than 5 percent on Thursday after regional powers began bombing rebel targets in the country that produced less than Denmark in 2013. Yemen’s government collapsed in the face of an offensive by rebels known as Houthis, prompting airstrikes led by Saudi Arabia, the biggest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. The Gulf’s main Sunni Muslim power says the Houthis are tools of its Shiite rival Iran, another OPEC member, and has vowed to do what’s necessary to halt their advance. “While thousands of barrels of oil […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple