Middle East

Desertification spreads faster and faster

One of the many worrying consequences of climate change and global warming is desertification. To an expert it is currently spreading like cancer in the Middle East and in NorthAfrica. Indeed, to data provided by The United Nations Development Programme’s 2009 Arab Human Development Report desertification is threatening 2.8 million square kilometers of land in …

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Can Iraq quadruple its oil production ?

According to an article from The Economist, Iraq has plans to quadruple its oil production by the next seven years. This would increase the production from the current 2.5 million barrels per day to 12 million barrels. This would bring Iraq as the world’s first oil producer, putting Saudi Arabia in the second place. The …

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World Bank funds solar projects in North Africa

The World Bank via its Clean Technology Fund is investing $750 million (522 million euros) in eleven concentrating solar plants in the Middle East and North Africa region. This is due to spur additional investments worth $4.85 billion. These projects are due to add nearly a gigawatt of capacity to local grids within three to …

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Nuclear power plants in the Middle East ?

According to a great article from the Huffington Post, 13 countries of this region are negotiating to acquire the technology to build nuclear plants. As an example of this the United Arab Emirates are negotiating to build reactors soon. Why a region rich with two thirds of the global oil reserves would switch to another …

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Saudi Arabia’s oil production peaked in 2005

I was reporting last week that non-OPEC oil production peaked in 2004 and Russia – the world’s second largest exporter – peaked in 2008. The situation was already quite serious. Yesterday the Oil Drum published an article stating that the world’s first oil producer saw it’s production peak in 2005 with 9.6 million barrels/day. Last …

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The Aral Sea is back

Sometimes, among the daily bad news, reasons to hope afloat. For instance today, the fact that the Aral sea is back after having been emptied by years of folly. This news were brought to me by the French daily Le Monde, a local paper called the Concord Monitor and the World Bank. This is indeed …

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