Let’s suppose that the Arctic started to degas methane 100 times faster than it is today. I just made that number up trying to come up with a blow-the-doors-off surprise, something like the ozone hole. We ran the numbers to get an idea of how the climate impact of an Arctic Methane Nasty Surprise would stack up to that from Business-as-Usual rising CO2. Walter et al (2007) says that Arctic lakes are 10% of natural global emissions, or about 5% of total emissions. I believe that was considered to be remarkably high at the time but let’s…

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As the world prepares to commemorate next week the first anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, Japanese scientists are warning that Tokyo is in increasing danger from a potential massive earthquake. Greater Tokyo, with its 35 million inhabitants, has experienced a three-fold increase in tectonic activity in the year since the 9.0 Richter scale sub sea earthquake produced the tsunami that devastated Fukushima. Metropolitan Tokyo now averages 1.5 quakes in and around the city each day. Tokyo has had many experiences with earthquakes.…

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Conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa are likely dragging on broader economic recovery as oil prices move to relative highs. In Syria, any recovery in oil production will be inhibited by damage to the country’s infrastructure.  Foreign energy companies stopped working in Syria earlier this year because of the conflict and this week, a deputy oil minister became the highest-ranking civilian official to defect from the government. While the conflict in Syria contributes to the general unease in the global oil market, its overall energy…

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On 7 March the government of Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard said that Sydney would house the country’s new Clean Energy Finance Corp., announced in 2011 as part of the country’s carbon pricing package. In choosing Sydney Gillard said, ”This is a city that can offer the benefit of financial and professional networks. Our Treasury tells us we will see $100 billion of new investment into renewable energy between now and 2050. So the Clean Energy Finance Corporation is going to be a part of making sure that we realise the clean…

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The renewable energy and energy efficiency sectors received most of the US federal government’s $24 billion in energy subsidies last year, but fossil fuels will win out this year as several key tax breaks for renewables have expired. Preferential tax treatment accounted for $20.5 billion, or about 85%, of federal support for developing and producing fuel and energy technologies in 2011, while Department of Energy (DOE) spending programmes comprised nearly $3.5 billion, or 15%, according to a report by the non-partisan Congressional Budget…

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Who could have dreamed solving climate change would be so easy? A new paper in Environmental Research Letters called “Greenhouse gases, climate change and the transition from coal to low-carbon electricity” concludes that replacement of all of the world’s currently operating coal-fired power plants — which produce about 40% of the world’s electricity — and replacing them with renewable energy would have an impact of 0.2 degrees Celsius 100 years from now. Cherry-Picking Conclusions According to One’s Viewpoint…

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The electric power industry is driven by boom and bust cycles as market fundamentals and volatility sends signals to market participants to speed up or slow down their efforts. One of the lessons of that boom and bust experience is that seeds of the next boom are sown in the bust of the last business cycle. By that I mean the enthusiasm of the boom stage of the market always attracts new entrants and leads to excess which increases volatility before the fundamentals of supply and demand swing back toward equilibrium. This phenomenon is shown clearly…

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