Petrochemical

By 2050, There Will Be More Plastic than Fish in the World’s Oceans, Study Says

Thu, 2016-01-21 00:25 — Kathy Gilbeaux

A September 2008 photo released by the Ocean Conservancy on March 10, 2009, shows a trash-covered beach in Manilla, Philippines. (Tamara Thoreson Pierce/Ocean Conservancy/AP)

CLICK HERE - REPORT - World Economic Forum - The New Plastics Economy: Rethinking the future of plastics

CLICK HERE - STUDY - Independent study tallies 'true catch' of global fishing

washingtonpost.com - by Sarah Kaplan - January 20, 2016

There is a lot of plastic in the world’s oceans.

It coagulates into great floating “garbage patches” that cover large swaths of the Pacific. It washes up on urban beaches and remote islands, tossed about in the waves and transported across incredible distances before arriving, unwanted, back on land. It has wound up in the stomachs of more than half the world’s sea turtles and nearly all of its marine birds, studies say . . .

. . . But that quantity pales in comparison with the amount that the World Economic Forum expects will be floating into the oceans by the middle of the century.

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The Geopolitics of Cheap Oil

Sat, 2016-01-09 09:16 — Kathy Gilbeaux

THE WASHINGTON POST VIA GETTY IMAGES

huffingtonpost.com - by John Feffer - January 7, 2016

The market was supposed to save the planet.

That, at least, was the argument of many economists grappling with the problem of climate change. As fossil fuels became scarcer, they pointed out, the price of oil and natural gas would go up. And then other options, like solar and wind, would become cheaper, particularly as investment flowed into that sector and drove down the cost of new technologies.

And voila: The invisible hand would gradually turn down the global thermostat.

It’s a ridiculous argument.

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Worst-Case Scenario: If We Burn All Remaining Fossil Fuels, Antarctica Would Melt Entirely, Raise Sea Level 200 Feet

Sun, 2015-09-13 21:51 — Kathy Gilbeaux

This chart shows how Antarctic ice would be affected by different emissions scenarios. “GTC” stands for gigatons of carbon. Ken Caldeira and Ricarda Winkelmann

CLICK HERE - STUDY - Combustion of available fossil fuel resources sufficient to eliminate the Antarctic Ice Sheet

newsweek.com - by Zoë Schlanger - September 11, 2015

“Combustion of available fossil fuel resources sufficient to eliminate the Antarctic Ice Sheet.”

Few peer-reviewed study titles sound quite so much like a line spoken by the bad-news-bearing scientist from a dystopian sci-fi movie. But there it is. A real-world—and apparently very possible—dystopia.

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China's Market Convulsions Threaten Petrostates from Russia to Venezuela

Mon, 2015-08-31 07:39 — Kathy Gilbeaux

latinamericanpost.com - by Keith Johnson - August 29, 2015

The Chinese contagion that sparked “Black Monday” is especially worrisome for crude oil prices, which this summer were thought to have finally found a floor after a year of steady price declines. But that floor suddenly looks rotten: U.S. benchmark crude prices fell well below $40 a barrel on Monday, their lowest levels since the depths of the global financial crisis.

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100% renewables by 2045 is now the law in Hawaii

Wed, 2015-07-29 14:36 — Albert Gomez

Link to Article: http://www.argusmedia.com/News/Article?id=1051970

Hawaii law sets target of 100pc renewables by 2045

9 Jun 2015, 2.15 pm GMT

Washington, 9 June (Argus) — Hawaii's governor David Ige (D) signed legislation making the island state the first in the US to set a mandate for all electricity to come from renewable resources.

The governor signed HB 623, which requires electric utilities to supply 100pc of their sales with renewables by 2045. The new renewable portfolio standard includes interim targets of 30pc by 2020, 40pc by 2030 and 70pc by 2040. HB 623 replaces a previous standard that called for 15pc by 2015, 25pc by 2020 and 40pc by 3030. The bill takes effect on 1 July.

Ige said the move to local sources of energy will help the state's economy, which relies on about $5bn/yr in oil imports. Fuel oil provides about 70pc of the state's electricity, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA).

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Petrochemical Industry Announcements

Wed, 2015-07-29 10:03 — mdmcdonald

USRS

4

Petrochemical political economy. Employment

TXRS

4 cover

Petrochemical political economy
Employment

Dr. Michael D. McDonald

Coordinator
Global Health Response and Resilience Alliance

Chairman
Global Resilience Systems, Inc.

President
Health Initiatives Foundation, Inc.

Michael.D.McDonald@mac.com
202-468-7899

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Kathy Gilbeaux <gilbojer@aol.com>
> Date: July 28, 2015 at 11:54:34 PM EDT
> To: michael.d.mcdonald@mac.com
>
>
> Chevron to cut 950 jobs in Houston
> http://www.12newsnow.com/story/29654834/chevron-to-cut-950-jobs-in-houston
>
> Total seeks buyer for half of Texas refinery
> http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/07/24/us-refinery-sale-total-idUSKCN0PY22T20150724
>
> Kathy

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Coal Crash: How Pension Funds Face Huge Risk From Climate Change

Wed, 2015-06-17 09:03 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Coal is moved on a conveyor belt at the PT Bukit Asam open pit coal mine in Tanjung Enim, South Sumatra province, Indonesia. Photograph: Dadang Tri/Getty Images

Special report: The plummeting coal sector and a growing green divestment movement is leaving firms who still invest in fossil fuels and connected pension holders heavily exposed

theguardian.com - by Damian Carrington and Caelainn Barr - June 15, 2015

The pension funds of millions of people across the world, including teachers, public sector workers, health staff and academics in the UK and US, are heavily exposed to the plummeting coal sector, a Guardian analysis has revealed.

It has also found that just a dozen people, including the owner of Chelsea FC, Roman Abramovich, own coal reserves equivalent to the annual carbon emissions of China, the world’s biggest polluter. The UN, which advocates a shift to clean energy, has more than $100m (£65m) invested in coal through its own pension fund.

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Sheldon Whitehouse: Sue Fossil Fuel Companies For Climate Fraud

Thu, 2015-06-11 22:54 — SmShako

By Daniel Marans, 06/03/2015 4:16 pm EDT

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) has a new plan to combat climate change: sue fossil fuel companies for fraud.

In a May 29 op-ed in The Washington Post, Whitehouse argued that the fossil fuel industry’s efforts to discredit climate science and attack environmentalists may constitute deliberate deception of the kind the tobacco industry perpetrated in previous decades. In 2006, a federal judge found the tobacco industry guilty of fraud in a civil lawsuit brought under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). Cigarette companies' efforts to hide the health effects of tobacco consumption included lying about the findings of their own studies on smoking.

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Climate Change: Six Major Energy Companies Write to United Nations to Request Help in Setting Up Carbon Pricing Scheme

Mon, 2015-06-01 22:34 — Kathy Gilbeaux

A carbon pricing scheme would involve a fee being charged to emit the greenhouse gas and the proceeds would probably go to companies that reduce them

independent.co.uk - by Ian Johnston - May 31, 2015

BP, Royal Dutch Shell, Total, Statoil, Eni and the BG Group asked Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, to help them hold “direct dialogue with the UN and willing governments” about developing a scheme to charge those who produce carbon emissions. . . .

. . . The companies’ chief executives revealed the move in a letter to the Financial Times, which said: “We owe it to future generations to seek realistic, workable solutions to the challenge of providing more energy while tackling climate change.”

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Energy Agency Sees More Oil Declines, Potential for Conflict

Thu, 2015-03-19 18:10 — Kathy Gilbeaux

FILE - In this Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2014, file photo, oil pumps work at sunset in the desert oil fields of Sakhir, Bahrain. Oil prices have further to drop with no signs of slowing production in the U.S., according to the International Energy Agency, Friday, March 13, 2015. (AP Photo/Hasan Jamali, File) - Associated Press

ABC News - AP - March 13, 2015

Oil prices have further to drop with few signs of slowing production in the U.S., according to a global energy agency.

The International Energy Agency, a watchdog group based in Paris that represents the world's main oil-importing nations, said in its monthly report Friday that the recent stabilization in oil prices is "precarious."

"Behind the facade of stability, the rebalancing triggered by the price collapse has yet to run its course," it said.

That may be playing out right now. Oil prices tumbled 10 percent this week, including a 5 percent drop Friday.

The IEA cautioned that risks of oil supply disruptions are growing. Low prices could raise the risk of social disruption in some countries dependent on oil, the agency said, and the ongoing conflict in Iraq and Libya hasn't slowed down.

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