Agosto 2013 - Futuro Sostenibile

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EU Carbon Set for Longest Rally Since 2008 Before Supply Boost

EU carbon permits are headed for the longest rally since 2008 before the European Union delivers its verdict on the distribution of this year’s permits after a seven-month delay. The benchmark December futures contract has risen 6 percent since July, the fourth straight monthly gain, and climbed 86 percent from a record 2.46 euros ($3.25) a metric ton in April. Carbon fell 0.4 percent to 4.57 euros a ton at 2 p.m. on London’s ICE Futures Europe exchange.

Fracking brings climate debate closer to home

Many of those who deny that climate change is taking place reached that position as a result of their opposition to windfarms. This, for example, was the route taken by David Bellamy, who stumbled disastrously into the debate a decade ago.

During one of our discussions, he set me the following challenge:

“Why are the so-called greens backing a cartel of multinational companies which are hell bent on covering some of the best of our countryside with so-called windfarms, which can neither provide us with a sustainable source of future energy nor have any measurable effect reducing the amount of carbon dioxide pouring into the atmosphere? If he [George Monbiot] can disprove the latter – which is the mathematical truth – I will fall into line over global warming”.

Syrian crisis strengthens the case for shale gas

Oil prices are up to $115 a barrel for Brent crude on the basis of market fears that western governments will not be able to limit their involvement in Syria to a few missile strikes shot from warships located safely offshore and that the Sunni-Shia conflict will spread across the Middle East. The forward market is suggesting that spot prices will go even higher. Maybe. The western involvement certainly looks ill-prepared and lacking in strategic purpose. The response to what is happening in Syria from the US, in particular, reminds me of the impotent response of the dying Ottoman regime to the gradual collapse of its empire across the Middle East in the years before the first world war.

Shale gas e shale oil, verso lo scoppio della bolla?

Il mercato degli asset oil & gas nordamericano nei primi sei mesi del 2013 si è dimezzato rispetto allo stesso periodo dell’anno scorso, passando da 54 a 26 miliardi di dollari, dicono i dati di Bloomberg. Compagnie importanti come BHP e Shell hanno drasticamente ridimensionato i loro investimenti in shale gas e shale oil. La corsa a questi ‘fossili non convenzionali’ negli Usa frena bruscamente, gas e petrolio da scisti non sembrano mantenere le promesse di prosperità di poco tempo fa. Sta già scoppiando la bolla che qualcuno ha pronosticato?

Study Shines Light on Tremors and Fracking in South Texas’ Eagle Ford Shale

So much oil and water is being removed from South Texas’ Eagle Ford Shale that the activity has probably led to a recent wave of small earthquakes, according to a study that appears in the online edition of the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters.

The Wall Street Journal reviewed the findings in advance of publication. The peer-reviewed study’s authors suggest that taking oil and water out of the ground allows surrounding rock and sand to settle, triggering small tremors that are typically too weak to be noticed on the surface.