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Jun 28

Cyclists with video cameras

Sydney Morning Herald, 28 June 2012

I’ve been thinking about buying a small video camera and mounting it on my helmet or my bike’s handlebars. At the risk of sounding macabre or fatalistic (or scaring my mum), if another road user injures or kills me when I’m out cycling, I’d like them to be held responsible. Surely a reasonable request. The problem when a bicycle and a motor vehicle collide is that one party is at a massive disadvantage. In 2007, when I got hit head-on by a car that zoomed across my path through an intersection, I had to go to hospital – they had to go to the panel-beater.

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Jun 28

Venezuela wants OPEC price band restored

Chicago Tribune, 27 June 2012

Venezuela on Wednesday proposed that OPEC set an oil price band of $80 to $120 a
barrel, Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez told Reuters, bidding to restore a policy
the cartel tried 12 years ago in a failed attempt to control prices in a tight
range by adjusting supply. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting
Countries in 2000 adopted a $22 to $28 price band, requiring its members to cut
or raise output in an effort to keep prices in that range for an OPEC basket of
crudes. The policy quickly proved unworkable, however, and increasing demand
from China pushed prices irreversibly through $30 in 2004.

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Jun 28

Arctic sea ice shrinks to lowest June extent ever observed

Alaska Dispatch, 26 June 2012

Sea ice melted back super fast across the Arctic Ocean during the first two weeks of June and now covers the smallest extent ever observed for this time of year, according to the latest update posted by the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC).

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Jun 28

Half of inhaled diesel soot gets stuck in the lungs: study

Medical Xpress, 27 June 2012

The exhaust from diesel-fuelled vehicles, wood fires and coal-driven power stations contains small particles of soot that flow out into the atmosphere. The soot is a scourge for the climate but also for human health. Now for the first time, researchers have studied in detail how diesel soot gets stuck in the lungs. The results show that more than half of all inhaled soot particles remain in the body.

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Jun 28

Pertamina Seeks to Invest in Iraqi Crude Fields to Secure Supply

Bloomberg, 27 June 2012

PT Pertamina, Indonesia’s state-owned oil company, is seeking to buy stakes in at least two fields in Iraq to secure crude supply, according to President Director Karen Agustiawan.

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Jun 28

In [US] Poll, Many Link Weather Extremes to Climate Change

New York Times, 17 April 2012

Scientists may hesitate to link some of the weather extremes of recent years to global warming — but the public, it seems, is already there. A poll due for release on Wednesday shows that a large majority of Americans believe that this year’s unusually warm winter, last year’s blistering summer and some other weather disasters were probably made worse by global warming. And by a 2-to-1 margin, the public says the weather has been getting worse, rather than better, in recent years.

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Jun 28

Both Koreas suffering worst drought in a century

Bloomberg, 27 June 2012

North Korea dispatched soldiers to pour buckets of water on parched fields and South Korean officials scrambled to save a rare mollusk threatened by the heat as the worst dry spell in a century gripped the Korean Peninsula.

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Jun 27

World oil supply up but spare capacity tight: EIA

Reuters, 26 June 2012

World oil inventories have risen over the past two months, aided by increased
output from Iraq and Libya, but spare production capacity remains tight, the
U.S. government said on Tuesday.
Global fuels output exceeded consumption by an average of 1 million barrels
per day in May and June, helping to push oil inventories higher and prices
lower, the Energy Information Administration said in a report, obtained by
Reuters ahead of its publication.

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Jun 27

After Rio, we know. Governments have given up on the planet

The Guardian, 25 June 2012

It is, perhaps, the greatest failure of collective leadership since the first world war. The Earth's living systems are collapsing, and the leaders of some of the most powerful nations – the United States, the UK, Germany, Russia – could not even be bothered to turn up and discuss it. Those who did attend the Earth summit in Rio last week solemnly agreed to keep stoking the destructive fires: sixteen times in their text they pledged to pursue "sustained growth", the primary cause of the biosphere's losses.

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Jun 26

Brent Crude to Rise to $121 by Year End

Bloomberg, 25 June 2012

Helima Croft, an analyst at Barclays Capital, talks about the outlook for oil prices and the Egyptian election results. http://www.bloomberg.com/video/brent-crude-to-rise-to-121-by-year-end-croft-says-2_hQlmkWSEOr6c_cKTb9Tw.html

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