[biofuels-biz] Re: Degrees Of Capture - Universities, The Oil Industry And Climate Change
Hello John Keith, Although this is interesting within the contexts of climate change, what are your views in relation to the oil companies in these times of declining oil production. I should say that I'm a reporter, John. I post news items etc that may be useful / relevant / informative but whether they reflect my own views or not is another matter. It appears that the year 2002 was the peak year for oil production and unless this decline is purely political then it means we are in the throes of a long (30-50) decline in oil production. So it's said. I doubt it's purely anything - not purely political, geological, economic, technical, commercial nor mere spin, but an unholy mixture of all of those and probably more. As one would expect with the most important stuff in the world. Hey, it could even be true! LOL! I've been a bit sceptical of Hubbert's Peak in the past. Sure oil is a finite resource and the more we use it the less there'll be left, which is kind of obvious, but after 30 years or so of watching so many predictions change, so many new discoveries, so many improvements in extraction and processing technologies, even cases where deposits that are not economically viable suddenly become so, and so much mistaken and deliberately skewed thinking, I think any attempt to put a time-scale on it has to be prone to using questionable data, questionable to an unknown degree. Anyway, I'm not sure that it matters that much. Biofuels are in an excellent position to capitalise on the decline of oil production as they can be upscaled in proportion to the decline. Maybe that'd be an excellent position for biofuels per se, but that's just what we have to get away from - the idea that biofuels use must *replace* fossil fuels use, just a substitution, and that's all. That won't get us very far. It won't get us a rational or sustainable energy future - read: rational or sustainable future, full-stop. Whatever the source, energy use itself has to be rational, and it sure isn't that now, in any of the OECD countries at least. See: http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_404.html#energyuse It requires great reductions in energy use, great improvements in energy efficiency, and decentralisation of supply to the local, community, farm-scale level. Or, Big Biofuels could just be a replay of the Big Oil nightmare, and could even be worse in some ways: wall-to-wall industrialized monocrops of GMO oilseeds, heavily dependent, like all industrialized commodity production (it can't be termed farming), on, yes, fossil-fuel inputs. No sense there. So biofuels implementation and use should proceed regardless of fossil-fuel supplies, dwindling or not. Also, we (human societies) have to cut fossil-fuel use anyway, for more urgent reasons, humane and environmental, than any dwindling of the remaining resources. In my view. Since you asked. :-) Best Keith Incidently the decline per capita occurred in 1985. John Irvine Managing Director Aleurite Sunoils Pty. Ltd. ] ]--- In biofuels-biz@yahoogroups.com, Keith Addison [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/pages/degrees_of_capture.htm Degrees of capture MARCH 2003 snip Biofuels at Journey to Forever http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html List messages are archived at the Info-Archive at NNYTech: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! Groups Links To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/biofuels-biz/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[biofuels-biz] Re: Degrees Of Capture - Universities, The Oil Industry And Climate Change
Keith, Although this is interesting within the contexts of climate change, what are your views in relation to the oil companies in these times of declining oil production. It appears that the year 2002 was the peak year for oil production and unless this decline is purely political then it means we are in the throes of a long (30-50) decline in oil production. Biofuels are in an excellent position to capitalise on the decline of oil production as they can be upscaled in proportion to the decline. Incidently the decline per capita occurred in 1985. John Irvine Managing Director Aleurite Sunoils Pty. Ltd. ] ]--- In biofuels-biz@yahoogroups.com, Keith Addison [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/pages/degrees_of_capture.htm Degrees of capture MARCH 2003 A joint publication with Platform and the New Economics Foundation which outlines how Britain's universities and colleges are being co-opted into directing their research and training for the benefit of the fossil fuel industry, with potentially devastating long-term effects on the environment. Degrees Of Capture Universities, The Oil Industry And Climate Change The oil industry and Britain's universities: how many degrees of capture? This report examines the relationship between the oil and gas industry and the UK higher education sector, and assesses this in the context of climate change. It asks if some parts of the higher education sector have been 'captured'a by the industry. The report looks in detail at how much influence oil and gas companies have over RD priorities, and to what extent public money is supporting both the extraction of fossil fuels and the profits of carbon-intensive corporations. Universities could play an important role in leading the debate about energy economics and developing sustainable alternatives to fossil fuels. Yet universities are engaged in research and technology development which is used by the oil and gas industry, and are the recruiting and training grounds for its future managers. After detailing the ways in which the research and teaching agendas are influenced by oil companies, the report makes a series of recommendations to put universities onto a more sustainable path. Read the report (pdf) 1194kb http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/publications/degrees_of_capture.pdf Read the press release http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/pages/degrees.htm Paper copies available from Corporate Watch - £3 inc. p+p Publication funded by Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust and Greenpeace. http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/pages/degrees.htm Degrees Degrees of capture Universities favour oil company profits over environment New report finds big oil companies co-opting independent research at taxpayers' expense Government is subsidising the oil and gas industry's massive profits to the tune of £40 million per year through the capture of some of Britain's most respected academic institutions, says a new report released today, Tuesday the 11th of February, by Corporate Watch, PLATFORM and the New Economics Foundation. The report, Degrees of Capture, outlines how Britain's universities and colleges are being co-opted into directing their research and training for the benefit of the fossil fuel industry, with potentially devastating long-term effects on the environment. This compromising link between academic research and corporate profit is being encouraged and furthered by government spending priorities. Despite the government's own stated goals in the face of global warming of reducing our use of fossil fuels, and replacing them with non-fossil sources, huge sums of public money are being spent on research of direct use only to the massively profitable, and highly damaging, oil and gas industries. Author of the report, Greg Muttitt of PLATFORM, said Climate change is the biggest environmental threat facing mankind at present. It is shocking that while we urgently need to be reducing our dependence on fossil fuels, government and academic institutions are taking us in exactly the opposite direction. The report shows that: * Universities contribute about 1000 research projects, worth £67 million, every year to the oil and gas industry. * 60 per cent of this is funded by public money. * Oil companies have effectively captured higher education by infiltrating every level of academic decision making: both universities and government prioritise boosting corporate profits over solving major public problems such as climate change Publicly funded research into fossil fuels technologies, and 'search and exploit' missions to find and develop oil fields, is a bad subsidy and is artificially distorting energy markets in favour of the big oil and gas companies, says Andrew Simms, policy director of the New Economics Foundation, It undermines progress towards the
