The “shale revolution” has been grabbing a great deal of headlines for some time now. A favourite topic of investors, sector commentators and analysts – many claim we are about to enter a new energy era with cheap and abundant shale gas leading the charge. But on closer examination the incredible claims and figures behind many of the plays just don’t add up.
In the U.S. alone, 280 billion plastic bags are used each year, which is enough to stretch around the earth nearly 30,000 times. China, on the other hand, uses 3 billion plastic bags each day. How can we reduce our appetite for plastic and protect our environment?
Making and using plastic bags requires a lot more resources and has more repercussions than you might think. In fact, 37 million barrels of oil are used to produce plastic bags each year.
Check out the following infographic to see how exactly plastic bags affect our cities, our environment and even our economy.
In its latest World Energy Outlook released last week, the International Energy Agency (IEA) predicted, among other things, that the U.S. would overtake Saudi Arabia as the world’s largest oil producer by 2020; and become a net oil exporter around 2030. This forecast however may be unrealistically optimistic, as oil prices must rise at an alarming rate to meet the increasingly expensive production cost.
Historically, energy companies have been less than keen to invest in areas such as Sudan, Iraq and Yemen – where political and social instability down the years often spelled danger for both infrastructure and personnel. Today however, with political risk no longer limited to just developing countries, more and more energy companies, particularly the junior oil and gas companies, are venturing into Africa and the Middle East – creating an opportunity for risk comparison with so-called “safer investments”.
Renewable energy capacity could overtake nuclear power in the UK by 2018 if current growth rates persist, and will provide enough power for one in 10 British homes by 2015, according to new research by RenewableUK.
The findings also revealed that the amount of electricity supplied by wind energy alone is up by 25 percent since 2010, with the industry poised for further growth given the 50 percent rise in planned investment in onshore wind, according to a report by the Guardian.
China has restarted its nuclear programme after a one and a half year hiatus following the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Beijing, however, will approve only “a small number” of new nuclear plants that will be built in coastal regions.
China is ready to approve new nuclear power plants as part of ambitious plans to reduce reliance on oil and coal, ending a 20-month ban on approvals of new plants following Japan’s nuclear crisis.
As more people turn to the internet and social media for political information and answers, what role does social media play in the election process? More importantly, can we believe claims that social media can predict the presidential elections?
Following record droughts across the United States, the benefits of the ethanol subsidy were once again hotly debated; and biofuels in general found themselves generating quite a few unflattering headlines.
But as always the mainstream media overreacted and we wanted to help put the record straight as to whether biofuels are an expensive folly or if they really do offer an affordable source of liquid fuel that can help us lower our reliance upon gasoline.
It is possible to save the world from the comforts of your home. For starters, if every household in the United States replaced one incandescent bulb with a compact fluorescent bulb, we would have enough energy to light 3 million homes for a year.
At the same time, that would generate approximately $600 million in energy cost-savings each year, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 9 billion lbs.
Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is, in essence, the extraction of natural shale gas that is trapped thousands of feet underground. How do we extract it and what does it look like? Is the process safe, and do the bold and controversial claims over fracking hold any weight?
Natural gas has the potential to bridge the gap between the current oil dominated energy mix and sustainable renewables. It’s cheap, abundant, and the cleanest fossil fuel in the world. But shale gas is trapped thousands of feet underground. How do we extract it and what does the process look like?
