Thursday, April 11, 2013

Thursday Links

  • The amount of thick sea ice in the Arctic in March appears to be way down in 2013 compared to prior years.  Doesn't bode well for this year's melt season. 
  • Good sense on North Korea.
  • The EIA is expecting gas prices to be about the same this summer as last year.  That doesn't sound crazy - the US tight oil boom probably has some more to run, the Saudi's could also increase production a bit if necessary, and they can certainly lower production if prices get too low.  So absent some unforeseen development (which can, I admit, very easily happen in the oil world), I'd expect (Brent) oil prices to stay in the general $100-$120 band where they've lived for the last couple of years, and then gas prices to stay around the same also.
  • The spirit of Hugo Chavez lives on, it seems, and is influencing the presidential election that is about to happen.
  • There are no grownups, says Paul Krugman.  I fear this explains a lot about life in general.
  • I love this Dave Roberts essay on how all aspects of the climate/environmental movement are important and necessary.  More great stuff here.
  • The state of the art in sustainable cities (Växjö, Sweden).
  • Natural gas usage for electricity in 2013 is down significantly from the (very elevated) 2012 level due to higher natural gas prices.

2 comments:

sunbeam said...

Do you 100% agree with Paul Krugman?

I read that article and looked at his graph (he really needs to explain that a bit better).

Whenever I see an article like this, first I think of automation and where it can possibly go.

My belief is that a lot of people now living just aren't employable for meaningful work. By that I mean you are pretty much going to have to artificially manufacture something for them to do if you want "full employment."

I think past notions of "natural rates" of employment have much to do with the world as it is now, and certainly not what it appears to becoming.

Personally I really just kind of... ignore these economic things now. My thinking is pretty much "First you get the energy, then you get the resources, then you get the robots..."

I think economists are whistling past the graveyard of a world that is dead and gone, they just don't know it yet.

Alexander Ac said...

Well, and another link saz about British Columbia pest outbreak:

The Beetles are coming ... from the BC to eastern parts of boreal forest. Percival Zhang better be quick with his hydrogen economy, or maybe its too late...