World oil production has already peaked and will fall by half as soon as 2030, according to a report which also warns that extreme shortages of fossil fuels will lead to wars and social breakdown. The German-based Energy Watch Group will release its study in London today saying that global oil production peaked in 2006 – much earlier than most experts had expected. The report, which predicts that production will now fall by 7% a year, comes after oil prices set new records almost every day last week, on Friday hitting more than $90 (£44) a barrel. ‘The world soon will not be able to produce all the oil it needs as demand is rising while supply is falling. This is a huge problem for the world economy,’ said Hans-Josef Fell, EWG’s founder and the German MP behind the country’s successful support system for renewable energy. The report’s author, Joerg Schindler, said its most alarming finding was the steep decline in oil production after its peak, which he says is now behind us. The results are in contrast to projections from the International Energy Agency, which says there is little reason to worry about oil supplies […]
Polls closed in Switzerland on Sunday, Oct. 21, ending what may become known as the most acrimonious campaigning in Swiss history. Accusations of racism in the far-right Swiss People Party were the focus of the campaign. Votes were being counted after a relatively strong turnout estimated at about 50 percent of the 4.9 million voters. The last opinion poll by Swiss television on Oct. 10 indicated that the Swiss People’s Party (SVP) was set to win 27.3 percent of the vote, 0.6 percent more than its score in the 2003 election. The left-of-center Social Democratic Party (SP/PS) at 21.7 percent while the Christian Democratic Party (CVP/PDC/PPD) and the Radicals (FDP/PRD) were neck and neck with 15.4 and 15.5 percent respectively. The SVP and its leader, Justice Minister Christoph Blocher, were intensely criticized for a campaigning stance focusing on immigration and crime. The right-wing SVP Party’s Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: The SVP’s black sheep campaign has lost it few voters Despite being denounced by the UN special rapporteur on racism for inciting racial hatred in its xenophobic campaigning and for pledging to deport non-national criminals, the SVP has struck a chord with […]
WASHINGTON — Scientists have made a breakthrough in man’s desire to control the forces of nature – unveiling plans to weaken hurricanes and steer them off course, to prevent tragedies such as Hurricane Katrina. The damage done to New Orleans in 2005 has spurred two rival teams of climate experts, in America and Israel, to redouble their efforts to enable people to play God with the weather. Under one scheme, aircraft would drop soot into the near-freezing cloud at the top of a hurricane, causing it to warm up and so reduce wind speeds. Computer simulations of the forces at work in the most violent storms have shown that even small changes can affect their paths – enabling them to be diverted from major cities. But the hurricane modifiers are fighting more than the weather. Lawyers warn that diverting a hurricane from one city to save life and property could result in multi-billion dollar lawsuits from towns that bear the brunt instead. Hurricane Katrina caused about $41 billion in damage to New Orleans. Hurricanes form when air warmed over the ocean rises to meet the cool upper atmosphere. The heat turns to kinetic energy, producing a […]
WASHINGTON — Rodrigo Rato bowed out as managing director of the International Monetary Fund at the weekend with effusive plaudits from world financial leaders in public but sharp criticism of his role and the Fund’s relevance from the same people when talking outside official news conferences. The emerging consensus among rich and poor countries alike was that the reform process of the IMF had moved backwards. Worse, they added that acrimony over the Fund’s role in assessing the economic policies of its members, their effects on other countries threatened to create just the disorder in the global economy it is intended to prevent. ‘We didn’t make any progress this weekend,’ said an irritated David Dodge, the Canadian central bank governor, adding that it was a ‘pretty big disappointment’ and that IMF stakeholders had not ‘settled even the principles let alone the details’ of institutional reform. The communiqué from the International Monetary and Financial Committee, the IMF’s governing body, put a brave face on the lack of progress in making the Fund more legitimate around the world by increasing the voice given to emerging and developing countries. It said that the new formula for voting shares at the […]
Call them grave dancers, vulture funds, turnaround specialists or the more euphemistic ‘opportunity investors.’ However you identify them, the deal is the same: When hyperactive real estate markets lose their sizzle, or property owners no longer can afford to hang on to their houses, well-capitalized investors smell blood and move in. That’s happening in most of the ‘bubble’ areas of the country that saw heavy speculative activity and razzle-dazzle financing from 2001 through 2005. But it’s also happening in less volatile markets where unaffordable mortgages and economic distress are producing record numbers of panic sales to investors at fractions of former values. In Miami Beach and elsewhere in South Florida, for example, real estate consultant Jack McCabe said he is advising ‘hedge funds, high-net-worth individuals, Wall Street investment banks, and groups of doctors and lawyers’ who all want a piece of the area’s tottering condominium and townhouse sector, where some properties are selling for 50 cents on the dollar. McCabe, chief executive of McCabe Research and Consulting in Deerfield Beach, Fla., said investment groups with capital ‘in the multiple billions’ are already active in South Florida, searching for fire-sale prices on properties with good long-term prospects. In […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
