I already had mentioned very ambitious plans from Saudi Arabia to jump-start a solar revolution. So the following news aren’t totally surprising me. As The Guardian reported :
” Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil producer, has plans to become 100% powered by renewable and low-carbon forms of energy, according to an influential member of the royal family. “
” But the process is likely to take decades, and some observers are sceptical as to whether it is any more than window-dressing. “
As China and Iceland signed last week a treaty on arctic oil and as a small spill declared in Russia, I thought it was appropriate to write about a previous article from Climate Progress on the risks of such practices.
As Kiley Kroh noted there: ” Analysts at one of the world’s largest insurance markets are warning that offshore drilling in the Arctic would “constitute a unique and hard-to-manage risk ”
“Lloyd’s of London, a large UK-based insurance pool, issued a report today outlining the severe environmental and economic risk of oil and gas drilling in Arctic waters.”
To the Guardian : ” The US fears that Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest crude oil exporter, may not have enough reserves to prevent oil prices escalating, confidential cables from its embassy in show. The cables, released by WikiLeaks, urge Washington to take seriously a warning from a senior Saudi government oil executive that the … Read more
I wrote as early as september 2008 that offshore drilling is not a sustainable solution as the added oil reserves won’t enable us to go much further and will keep feeding our global addiction for oil.
To rally Republicans to his climate bill, President Obama decided to embrace this solution last month. This was a major shock and sparckled many reactions at Inhabitat, Treehugger and many other green websites.
I believe this isn’t a good idea. The days of cheap oil are numbered and drilling more won’t change this. Putting these efforts and money in renewables would have been much better.
According to the Telegraph : ” The world’s oil reserves have been exaggerated by up to a third, according to Sir David King, the Government’s former chief scientist, who has warned of shortages and price spikes within years.” ” The scientist and researchers from Oxford University argue that official figures are inflated because member countries of … Read more
