Britain, France, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Ireland and Luxemburg want to create a massive new electricity grid in the North Sea.

This grid will collect and share the electricity generated by tidal power station and wind mills.

The 30-Billion-Euro is projected to run over the next 20 years – but it could be a great game changer!

Click images for more speed.

China recently opened a new speed train connection between Wuhan to Guangzhou – cutting travel time from 10 to 3 hours.

The new trains reach an average speed of 350 km/h – top speed is 397 km/h. Wow!

This is faster than the Japanese Shinkansen (average 243 km/h)  or the French TGV (average 277 km/h).

It is easier for China to built such high-speed-lines – any opposition is swept away and many areas are not as densely populated like Europe.

But Europe as well as the US has foolishly ignored trains as a serious alternative to fuel guzzling air and car travel. There is no wide ranging master plan in Europe to create a high-speed-train-network.

What a shame!

By the way: many European companies helped China to built this high speed train line …

All our Gadgets currently rely on lithium-ion-batteries. But it’s not only the gadgets industry that relies heavily on Lithium, also the Electro-Cars need this material in HUGE quantities.

The only problem is that Lithium is a very rare element and the worlds reserves are pretty limited. China is emerging as the biggest producer and is seriously considering limiting the export of this precious material.

So either we have to find a substitute or a new way to produce huge amounts of Lithium.

And once again Russia finds an excuse to stall. Since Gazprom is under the direct order of Putin and his apparatchiks this is once again a political attack with harsh consequences for millions of people here in Europe.

And so far the EU keeps kissing Putin’s ass.

Europe needs energy independence asap!

World Food production relies heavily on oil for fertilizer, production and transport. So with the spike in oil prices food become for many poor people unaffordable. Starvation and malnutrition was the immediate consequence for these fellow humans.

So each time food is wasted, oil is wasted.

Conservation should be a commandment for every human on this planet. Especially since overpopulation on one side and the destruction of the environment seriously limits the food supply.

So if you throw away food, you are not killing poor little babies in Africa – but you are certainly wasting a valuable resource.

People in rich countries don’t have to live total frugal, but some efforts to cut down on waste should be made anyway.

Spiegel Online: Energy of the Stars, With No Emissions

According to the article in the Spiegel scientist have made some serious advancements in figuring out how to pack the power of the sun into a small reactor.

If Cold Fusion ever works as advertised it could deliver huge amount of energy for almost nothing. Most of all it runs with hydrogen – which is the most common element in the Universe. So no fear we will ever run out of hydrogen …

Let’s keep our fingers crossed and our scientists well funded. Cold Fusion power could really save our world and combat climate change very effectively, because it produces no emissions at all.

This is becoming an annual ritual: Russia and Ukraine fight over the gas bill – and the supplies for the rest of Europe are cut off or seriously limited.

And once again it happens.

The reasons why Russia fights with the Ukraine are superficial. Russia simply wants to force the Ukraine back under it’s political sphere of influence. The Ukraine is smart enough to getting closer to Europe – maybe a EU and Nato membership. And that pisses of the Russians, who still consider Ukraine a Russian province.

Cutting of the gas supplies is not just a warning to the Ukraine, but to all of Europe: "If you come any closer we fuck you up!"

Russian strongman politics at it’s best and Europe needs to help the Ukraine to stop czar Putin.

I actually SUPPORT these politics. The sooner Europe realized we simply can’t rely on Russia and it’s erratic behavior and childish Hyperpower fantasies the better.

Alternative fuels must be pushed harder and developed sooner to end the dependency on foreign (read mostly Russian) gas and oil.

Once again a good insight what’s happening in the Middle East – and how it is affected by the Financial Crises.

Mr Newman is a brilliant and explosive mixture: comedian, historian, anarchist and activist. His show about oil is intelligent and insightful. You might learn more about this dark substance and it’s political influence than watching a whole year of CNN and the Discovery Channel together.

And it’s bloody funny too!

Don’t forget to visit Mr Newman’s great website and buy some of his stuff?!

*Update: This is a repost, because the old video was deleted.*

One of the first consequences of the ever rising petrol prices will be new speed limits. High speed means more fuel and more money. But the new slowness won’t be limited to transportation.

We will have to look for new lifestyles and "speeds" to live our lifes, because personal mobility will be reduced and more costly. Also industrial production and today’s speed economy will be more resource and time conscious.

We will be looking for more sustainable production methods and longer product cycles – so we need longer lasting goods – therefore speedy consumerism will slow down as well.

BBC News: WWF urges Brazil biofuel projects

Brazil has been on the forefront of the biofuel revolution. But once again it shows that industrial production of anything we humans need always causes some problems.

Overall the Brazilian’s experience with sugar cane has been VERY good. But they have to watch out to keep nature’s balance, water supply and bio diversity to make this a long term success.

But in that respect I have more confidence in Brazil that I have for example in the US obsession with Corn and making Ethanol from it. What a stupid idea – since corn produces a LOT LESS fuel than sugar cane.

Wow, isn’t it a shame that all these huge organization, these gazillions of governments and agencies didn’t do anything to PREVENT the current crisis?

I remember several articles last year warning that the bio fuel boom will drive food prices up and that our wheat and rice reserves are emptying fast.

Most governments are not spending too much brainpower to prevent such predictable human disasters. What a shame!

Here is a HIGHLY recommended article about the current food production and distribution system and how it needs to be adopted for a better future.

All our computers waste huge amounts of energy by waiting for us humans to do something. Most so called CPU cycles are wasted for waiting for you to press a mouse button or open a new webpage.

LocalCooling is a gadget for WindowsXP users to reduce their energy usage – or at least configure their computers to shut down unused parts or completely. Hey, you can even calculate how many trees you have saved – and there is even a top ten list for your and your buddies to participate in a global energy saving contest.

Let’s all say it: awesome!

Or is it? Overall there is nothing new in here: all energy settings can be found in the aptly named Energy control panel. So it’s only a good remix of already existing.

So if you really want to save some energy, than open your Energy control panel and tell your machine to shutdown the monitor and hard drive after a few minutes idle time … and don’t download that LocalCooling application and don’t waste any more energy thinking about it.

What we REALLY need are computer components that act more energy conscious and use a lot less electricity. Intels newest mobile Core2 processors only know two speed settings: half and full speed. There should be more settings.

Before the industrial revolution there was plenty of work for everyone – not always pleasant and nice – but there was a huge demand for muscles and brains.

Mechanization took most low level, handcraft, agricultural and production jobs away, so humans had to train to be smarter than machines to keep working. Most of today’s productive work (= producing goods) is done by machines, while we have kept and expanded the so called service industries and administration (and boy, do we love our bureaucracies).

I wonder: when we run out of oil and don’t come up with an adequate supply of alternative fuel if human work might be back in demand? There are six billion of us and not everybody fancies burger flipping and filling out forms & papers.

My dear Americans: are you sure that your country’s infrastructure is oke? Seems like you should spend more money on improving your electricity grid. It has been known for some time that most parts of the grid are in a bad shape.

Change? Make power companies invest more in the grids they own instead of giving all the money to it’s stockholders. Electricity is way to essential to leave it in the greedy hands of corporations.

Even here in Germany some electricity grids are in bad shape, because they have been privatized and neglected by big ass companies.

Water, Sewers, Electricity, Streets, Rail, Telephones and Internet access – all these components of modern life have been sold in many countries to private companies. And all the promises of cheaper pricesses, better service and constant innovation haven’t been fulfilled. But these companies ALL made huge profits.

Public necessities should stay in public hands. 

Adam Curtis / documentary / ca 44 minutes

From Wikipedia:

An insight into the history of nuclear power. In the 1950s scientists and politicians thought they could create a different world with a limitless source of nuclear energy. But things began to go wrong. Scientists in America and the Soviet Union were duped into building dozens of potentially dangerous plants. Then came the disasters of Three Mile Island and Chernobyl which changed views on the safety of this new technology.

More? Pandora’s Box Series

Each year we waste billions of plastic bags for shopping and waste disposal. They are made out of oil – a valuable resource – so it’s a huge waste of a precious material. But worst of all: it takes nature almost forever to dissolve plastic bags. Plus many animals get trapped in thrown away bags.

Like the light bulb the plastic bag has to go and replaced by something renewable and more practical. It’s a shame that it takes us so long to get rid of it … can we please start a war on plastic bags? Some people have started campaigns to get rid of it – and some government simply make the consumer pay for it. (Thanks for the link Xtine)

Documentary / 1 hour 22 minutes / by Basil Gelpke and Ray McCormack

Oil is – like so many natural resources – only available in a limited supply. And with all limited resources we will reach an ‘ extraction / production peak’ – which means less of it will be available after that point.

Many scientists and oil people think that we have either reached or soon will reach peak oil. This is of course very bitter, because our global industrial society is just really starting to take off in many big countries like India, Brazil and China.

Watch this documentary to learn more about peak oil and it’s consequences.

More? Official Website

Most cars waste most of their fuel to move themselves – the passengers are just an add on. Europeans have been for decades great consumers of small cars. Nice to see that India and hopefully China follow that trend.

You don’t need a bigass SUV or Hummer to get around. A small Tata Nano – or any other small car like the Smart – will do the job nicely.

Save precious oil and drive a small car – if you need to drive anyway.

Just until the early 20th century horse & cart were literally the workhorses of transportation. The combustion engines and steam power – and later electricity replaced them slowly until the 1950s in most industrialized countries.

The question is what do we do when petrol becomes so expensive that a car or a flight is no longer affordable for the common man? How do we transport our food and other goods from the producers to our homes and shops?

Will electricity become the main source of energy or will be go back to proven methods of transportation like horse & cart?

Click image for an even bigger bang.

BBC – on this Day: Now that was a big bang and all the dust contributes to global warming today. It’s not only we humans that pollute the atmosphere, but also events like this – although volcanic eruptions are pretty rare and lame compared to some earlier earth periods.

More? Wikipedia entry and don’t miss the 1980’s section with some great images! Then you can ‘feel’ how massive that explosion was.

Fish and Beef are a luxury. It takes big amounts of primary food sources like wheat to produce the same amount of calories in meat.

So instead of eating such luxuries items every day, we should change our habit and ignore the 99¢ burgers with fries and diet coke – and get some apples or pasta instead.

Congratulations to Saudi Arabia, Russia and Hugo – you are even richer now. For the rest of the world it means higher costs for petrol, food, travel and goods.

Only in the last 25 years the oil prices exploded – thanks for wars, embargos and greater demands. Visit this website to learn more about the development of the oil prices since WWII. Very interesting!

For sentimental values we accept almost any waste of energy or resources. For the kids, for relationships and feel good moments we are willing to waste, waste and waste …

With oil prices soaring suddenly even new interpretations of old technologies get some attention. Sky Sails has been reinventing the wheel for modern transport ships. Their idea is basically a hybrid (watch the video – it’s in German, but easy to grasp): normal engine for less windy days – plus a computer controlled super sail for windy or even stormy hours. This should save 10% to 35% for a ships operation for a year.

The sail is made my with a super durable material to withstand the extreme pull. I really hope this becomes a widespread technology. In our global economy we need shipping now more than ever – if we can save some fuel as well that would be brilliant. Especially shipping from and to China is a hell of a journey.  

Yesterday I spent almost the whole day to sort out my computer box. I used to work as a system administrator for some time, so there are plenty of digital ‘leftovers’: adapters, cables, chargers, batteries, converters, transformers, even more cables and hubs of all sorts.

It is precious high tech trash. Some of these cables and especially adapters once cost a huge amount of money. I found one old Mac PowerBook to SCSI cable that once cost over €100. Now it’s simply high tech trash.

But it’s mostly poisonous trash. Some countries have laws against disposing it all as usual. Most cables and plugs contain precious metals – so it should be recycled.

But most of all: these cables and plugs should be designed to be more universal.

The USB plug and cable system for example was meant to be universal – just as the name says. But already USB is no longer just one plug but four different sizes. Well done computer industry!

And why can we have ONE charger for all those small gadgets like cell phones, cameras and mp3 players?

To produce 1 kg of beef you need to feed 8 kg of wheat to the animal. Plus you need extra water, care and transportation to get the process of fattening your lifestock rolling.

Eating meat was always a luxury – except for the last 50 years in industrialized nations. If the oil prices continues to climb higher and higher it might be a luxury again.

Gimme Methane or gimme death!

There are incredible creature deep in the sea who survive by using methane. Since methane is one of the biggest green house gases we should watch these guys and learn from them. There are many deep sea critters that use methane to survive and transform it into energy – something we humans need.

It wasn’t me!

Since we humans love meat, milk and cheese we need loads of cows – but their digestive system produces loads of farty methane. Cows contribute massively to the green houses gases.

The mysterious stomach of Kangaroos.

This brings us to Kangaroos and a bacteria in their stomach that hardly produces any Methane. Scientists hope they can transplant that bacteria to cows and other life stock to reduce methane production.

We will run out of oil – sooner or later. But how will be continue then? Will me make a transition back to a new steam age, horses and fuel cells? I am sure we gonna see a huge diversity of old and new energy sources. Even sails for ships could make a comeback. Maybe we will even (finally) see atomic cars.

Although we all know that Flash & Thunder are ‘just’ natural events we are still deeply impressed by them. Thunderstorms are amazing. Don’t fuck with this form of Shock & Awe.

This is a great product: a small windup to recharge your cell without using any electricity plug. Since we hardly have enough exercise these days cranking up your gadgets could be a new fitness fad.

I would love to be a hand cranked geek!

But small electronics can also be charged by small solar panels like MySolidus.

We are still in the stoneage of green technology and I hope it’s not too late yet. But how long will it take to make people aware how to save themselves? Science is only as effective as it is accepted by us and supported by laws and the industry.

BBC News: Cement makers come clean 

Cement is one of our oldest building materials – it was already known and used by the Romans. By cement releases a lot of heat and CO2 while hardening. Cement makers hope to reduce the emissions and create a greener cement.

Excellent!

The idea of ‘Peak Oil‘ is pretty simple: there is a limited amount of oil in the ground and there will be the day when we will see a decline in production (sucking it out). Have we already reached that point? The Guardian thinks so.

Almost all big countries have been lying about their reserves – and we can’t be sure how many big fields are still undiscovered (but it can’t be that many and none as big as those in Saudi Arabia).

But there is also another factor: once an oilfield is seriously depleted it will yield less and less black gold. The pressure drops and therefore production. Pumping salt water down helps a bit.

So we already reached a point where production is less than demand. So no surprise prices are up and up and up. At the moment we are at $80 a barrel – but a $100 or more is pretty realistic in the near future. Especially if President Shrub bombs Iran.

Who killed the electric car? Please go and visit the website of this upcoming documentation. What an amazing site and what a chilling insight into the workings of car manufacturers and oil magnates. The go and buy a big gun and shot the bastards!

Make also sure to watch the trailer first to get into the story.

Although we have used wind for a long time, I don’t think it will play a huge role in our future. Windfarms are hard to build and work only in certain areas. Solar collectors are much easier to install and work even in less sunny areas.

Energy efficient light bulbs have been around for many years now. Have you replaced all of the old energy wasting bulbs in your home?

It hardly will get any cheaper and our reserves will become less and less …  so let’s use oil for heating and driving sports cars, fight more wars for it …  makes perfect sense …

I love geeky products, especially when they are somewhat green.

From Thinkgeek.com:

Captured inside the Sun Jar are a highly efficient solar cell, a rechargeable battery and low energy LED lamps. When the jar is placed in direct sunlight the solar cell creates an electrical current that charges the battery over a few hours. This energy is then used at night to power the three LED lamps inside the jar.

The light is diffused by the frosted jar and give the appearance of sunlight emitting from the (warm colored LED lights are used to give a more natural and warm light).  You may have noticed that there is no switch on the Sun Jar – in fact there are no visible controls at all – but there is a clever light sensor inside that automatically activates the LEDs when it gets dark or the lights are turned out! (There is an override switch inside the lid to turn off the light at night and conserve battery life.)

More products should be like that: self sustaining and energy efficient.

BBC Video about rising food prices in China.

The production of bio fuels is driving up prices for food – as well as the growing demand of the awakening giants India and China. There are two billion stomachs to fill and they no longer just eat a bowl of rice.

One aspect of global climate change and peak oil has been hardly discussed in public: food supply.

We highly depend on oil for food production, fertilizer and obviously distribution. We continuously kill huge amounts of livestock, because of diseases like the birdflu, but also more and more farmland is unusable, because of climate change or environmental problems (I am looking at you China).

Africa, who could produce loads of food, is shut out of most markets, because of protectionism in the US and EU.

So expect ever higher prices for food for the coming winter.