CELL Blog

Aging Oil Infrastructure

2006-08-22T16:30:00.000-07:00

decaying pipelines threaten to add 20 percent to energy prices in the next decade

``We'll look back on this event as the Pearl Harbor Day in energy,'' said Matthew Simmons, chairman of energy investment bank Simmons & Co. International in Houston. The chance that the leaks and corrosion found at Prudhoe Bay by BP, Europe's second- largest oil company, are an isolated occurrence is ``zero,'' said Simmons, who's writing a book on aging oil infrastructure.

A growing minority of analysts, oil executives and government officials say the current system for producing and transporting crude will be unable to deliver the energy needed in the next 10 years. Repairs and replacement of pipes, valves and refineries will help push oil to $93 a barrel by 2015, from around $70 today, says Barclays Capital analyst Kevin Norrish in London, the most accurate price forecaster in a survey by Bloomberg News last year.

2006-08-19T01:50:00.000-07:00

Pedal Power

The efficiency and variable speed of the output are two features that can be exploited. Since it requires no fuel, and is not affected by time-of-day or weather, it would make an excellent Human-powered emergency generator, ready for any blackout.

$230 materials + $50 plans = US $280

This teacher in Australia is using the pedal-power device to live for two weeks "in a self-contained underwater ecological habitat, surviving on the oxygen that plants give out."

Travelogue of Addiction

2006-08-18T14:50:00.000-07:00

This four-part story in the Chicago Tribune describes the Peak Oil crisis as it relates to the average American consumer.

To truly grasp the scope of the crisis looming before them, Americans must retrace their seemingly ordinary tankful of gasoline back to its shadowy sources. This is, in effect, a journey into the heart of America's vast and troubled oil dependency. And what it exposes is a globe-spanning energy network that today is so fragile, so beholden to hostile powers and so clearly unsustainable, that our car-centered lifestyle seems more at risk than ever.

Life Without Cheap Oil

2006-06-27T19:02:00.000-07:00

"How will you live in a world without cheap oil?" is a good overview of Peak Oil from MoneyWeek, an international financial website.

Will We Hit $100?

2006-05-09T13:31:00.000-07:00

Will We Hit $100?

There is an increasingly strong case, perhaps even an emerging consensus, that we are heading for a new price reality — one that until now has been the province of oil-conspiracy crackpots and environmental end-of-timers. This is the world of $100 oil.

Extinction News

2006-05-06T00:15:00.000-07:00

Quarter of Species Gone by 2050

"Climate change is rapidly becoming the most serious threats to the planet's biodiversity," said Jay Malcolm, an assistant forestry professor at the University of Toronto. "This study provides even stronger scientific evidence that global warming will result in catastrophic species loss across the planet."

Polar bears sink deeper into danger

Some climate models predict that summer sea ice in the Arctic could disappear by the end of this century. And if that happens, conservationists fear that the polar bears, which currently number between 22,000 and 25,000, could die out entirely.

Stranded Walrus Pups Cry for Help

"If walruses and other ice-associated marine mammals cannot adapt to caring for their young in shallow waters without sea-ice available as a resting platform between dives to the sea floor, a significant population decline of this species could occur," the research team wrote in the April issue of the journal Aquatic Mammals.

hot in Northern California

2006-05-02T02:05:00.000-07:00

Just got back from a trip to the Lost Coast.
A local informed us that within the past ten years, he has witnessed a sharp rise in temperatures in that area.
Climate Change will have varying effects across the planet, but it seems that many (if not most) places will be getting much more hot than they are currently.

The Paradigm Is The Enemy

2006-05-02T01:15:00.000-07:00

The Paradigm Is The Enemy:
A Speech by Michael C. Ruppert { author of Crossing the Rubicon }
for the Local Solutions to the Energy Dilemma Conference
April 27-29, 2006 New York City, at Cooper Union

If the global economic paradigm that we live under dictates infinite growth, then we must disengage individually and by community from that paradigm.
If the activist paradigm that we live under says that we must slow down the process of reform and planning to make room for all and offend no one, no matter how much they may slow down or confuse the process, then we must disengage from that paradigm.

GasBuddy.com

2006-04-22T18:39:00.000-07:00

Gas Buddy is an online service for the US and Canada which can help you find cheap gas prices.

Their Temperature Map shows current gas prices, across the country.

And check out their Historical Price Charts:

You can clearly see the spike in gas prices from Hurricane Katrina.

Google celebrates Earth Day

2006-04-22T18:17:00.000-07:00

"We Were Warned: Tomorrow's Oil Crisis"

2006-04-22T17:52:00.000-07:00

We Were Warned: Tomorrow's Oil Crisis

What if a hurricane wiped out Houston, Texas, and terrorists attacked oil production in Saudi Arabia? CNN Presents looks at a hypothetical scenario about the vulnerability of the world's oil supply, the world's remaining sources of oil and explores the potential of alternative fuels.

This solid piece of journalism paints a haunting vision of the future. Catch it on CNN tonight (4/22/06) at 8:00 PM or tomorrow (4/23/06) at 5:00 PM & 8:00 PM (Pacific Standard time).

Oil Rolls Past $70 a Barrel

2006-04-22T12:48:00.000-07:00

Oil Rolls Past $70 a Barrel

Oil prices jumped to a new high above $70 a barrel Monday and ignited fresh fears at the gas pump, where drivers seem to be paying more every day.

"If it stays at this level for about six months or so, you will see the prices of other products and services increase," said Chapman University economist Esmael Adibi.

{ thanks Steve! }

"Sustainable Table: what's on your plate?"

2006-04-21T18:44:00.000-07:00

"Sustainable Table: what's on your plate?" is a new, feature-length documentary about our food system. It was produced and directed by Mischa Hedges, an area local.

Produced and directed by Mischa Hedges, Sustainable Table is a feature documentary that takes an unadulterated look into the food you eat. What’s on your plate? Where does it come from? What effects does it have on the environment and your body? What can you do to help?

There will be a free showing of the film on May 1st at 7pm at the Matheson Performing Arts Theatre (Mendocino High School).

Watch the trailer here.

{ thanks Maggie! }

"An Inconvenient Truth"

2006-04-21T18:33:00.000-07:00

Al Gore's new movie about Global Warming, "An Inconvenient Truth," is opening on May 24th, 2006. It is already generating positive buzz:

‘An Inconvenient Truth sold out at Sundance and received standing ovations. The Q&As with Gore following the screenings were packed. “The reception he got was extraordinary,” says the film's producer, Lawrence Bender. “He was a phenomenon at Sundance. He seemed larger than life.”

Read more here and here.

Watch the trailer here.

While Washington Slept

2006-04-21T11:39:00.000-07:00

According to King, even if humanity were to stop emitting carbon dioxide today, "temperatures will keep rising and all the impacts will keep changing for about 25 years."

A sobering, in-depth article:

While Washington Slept

Is This Humanity's First Planetary Emergency?

2006-04-21T11:30:00.000-07:00

A journalist's perspective on Global Warming:

Global warming is not a politics story (though greatly politicized); it is an event, and as such needs not so much a political sort of "balance" as a rigorous perspective — as did, for example, the sudden explosion of Mount St. Helens in 1980 or the tsunami in Indonesia, except that global warming is far bigger and more complex than these events.

Is This Humanity's First Planetary Emergency?

Minnesotans For Sustainability

2006-04-18T19:09:00.000-07:00

Minnesotans For Sustainability:

"The purpose of Minnesotans For Sustainability is to provide information to assist in thoughtful reflection and in preparing decisions encouraging a sustainable Minnesota and United States."

Petrocollapse Conference

2006-04-18T18:56:00.000-07:00

Jan Lundberg, from the website CultureChange.org (up in Arcata), is sponsoring the second "Petrocollapse Conference" in Washington DC on May 6, 2006:

Surviving Peak Oil: Economic Doom or Transformation?
Culture Change and Sustainable Post-Petroleum Living

The first "Petrocollapse Conference" was held in NYC on October 5, 2005.

Petrocollapse: Social Isolation or Solidarity?

Rumbles from the investment establishment

2006-04-18T17:53:00.000-07:00

George Soros wakes up to the danger of Peak Oil:

"U.S. power and influence has declined precipitously because of Iraq and the war on terror and that creates an incentive for anyone who wants to make trouble to go ahead and make it." As an example, Soros pointed to the regime in Iran, which is heading towards a confrontation with the West over its nuclear power program and doesn't show any signs of compromising. "Iran is on a collision course and I have a difficulty seeing how such a collision can be avoided," he says.

Ready for $262 a barrel oil?

CELL Blog is born!

2006-04-18T12:47:00.000-07:00

Welcome to "CELL Blog"

Coast Economic Localization Link (CELL) is a grass roots group from the Mendocino Coast in Northern California. It was created as a response to climate change and the pending decline of cheap oil and the pressures it would bring to the local community.

CELL Blog will provide a forum to share links and other information regarding:

Sustainable Living

Peak-Oil

Global Warming / Climate Change

Enjoy!