There is no phenomenon more important in shaping American policy, at home or abroad, than the huge tide of immigration rolling in across its borders. In the home stretch of George W. Bush’s presidency, a vast amount of attention is still given to the analysis of his inclinations. As the imminence of his departure begins to drain the interest from that exercise, the same attention will be transferred to Hillary Clinton and John McCain. That is wilfully blind. The scale of immigration that the US is facing is so large that the subject will come to dominate all of its politics. The past fortnight has given us a taste of the future. Aerial photographs of the sea of people demonstrating in Los Angeles on Saturday suggested the crowd was half a million strong. There were 300,000 in Chicago on March 10, 50,000 in Denver, 20,000 in Phoenix, and 10,000 in Milwaukee. Their immediate target is the Bill to clamp down on illegal immigration, which the Senate will begin considering today. The House of Representatives has already passed a version that would make it a crime to be in the US illegally; impose new penalties on employers who […]
WASHINGTON — It was after midnight and every lawmaker in the committee room wanted to go home, but there was still time to sweeten a deal encouraging oil and gas companies to drill in the Gulf of Mexico. ‘There is no cost,’ declared Representative Joe L. Barton, a Texas Republican who was presiding over Congressional negotiations on the sprawling energy bill last July. An obscure provision on new drilling incentives was ‘so noncontroversial,’ he added, that senior House and Senate negotiators had not even discussed it. Mr. Barton’s claim had a long history. For more than a decade, lawmakers and administration officials, both Republicans and Democrats, have promised there would be no cost to taxpayers for a program allowing companies to avoid paying the government royalties on oil and gas produced in publicly owned waters in the Gulf. But last month, the Bush administration confirmed that it expected the government to waive about $7 billion in royalties over the next five years, even though the industry incentive was expressly conceived of for times when energy prices were low. And that number could quadruple to more than $28 billion if a lawsuit filed last week challenging one of […]
Over the past few editions I have tried to concentrate on the trends involving climate change, because I feel so strongly that we must address these issues or face a cataclysmic future we can hardly imagine. One of the ways this must be done is by developing ecologically sound, economically viable, alternatives to petroleum energy. This issue of SR is dedicated to positive signs of this positive trend. The story of Iceland is particularly worth your attention. Note all these stories are the result of responsible government support, in cooperation with private business. And that it is occurring, proportionally, at a level and dedication greater than in the U.S. It pains me to write that last sentence. One has to ask: Imagine what the trillion dollars, by some respected accounts two trillion dollars, we will spend on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan might have produced facing the real enemy — our toxic lifestyle, and its effects on the earth. — Stephan
Geologists in Iceland are drilling directly into the heart of a hot volcano. Their $20m project will lead to boreholes that could ultimately yield 10 times as much geothermal power as any previous project. It is hoped the endeavour will also reveal more about the nature of mid-ocean ridges where new ocean floor is created. Twenty years ago, geologist Gudmundur Omar Friedleifsson had a surprise when he lowered a thermometer down a borehole. ‘We melted the thermometer,’ he recalls. ‘It was set for 380C; but it just melted. The temperature could have been 400 or even 500.’ Speaking in the first of a new series on BBC Radio 4, called Five Holes in the Ground, he describes how this set him thinking about how much energy it might be possible to extract from Iceland’s volcanic rocks. At depth, the groundwater is way over 100C, but the pressure keeps it liquid. As Dr Friedleifsson puts it: ‘On the surface, you boil your egg at 100 degrees; but if you wanted to boil your egg at a depth of 2,500m, it would take 350.’ Splitting floor The landscape on the Reykjanes Ridge in southwest […]
Onshore wind farms will provide about 5% of Britain’s electricity by 2010, according to the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA). In a new report, it says turbines are being installed faster than predicted. If this is correct, onshore wind farms will take the government halfway to its target of generating 10% of electricity from renewable sources by 2010. The report comes a day before the government unveils a major review of its climate change policies. Entitled Onshore Wind: Powering Ahead, the report claims to be the most comprehensive assessment of the UK’s onshore wind sector ever undertaken. It forms part of the BWEA’s response to another ongoing government review on energy which is due to conclude in the middle of the year. Half full Our research proves that onshore wind will bring major benefits to the economy and the environment Chris Tomlinson The BWEA says that projects already constructed and those already approved will give a capacity of 3,000 megawatts (MW) by 2010. Taking into account potential barriers such as planning consent and grid capability, it identifies a further 3,000MW capacity which it says is ‘forecast to be consented and built’ by […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
