None of the various technofixes on offer alter the fact that humanity has to learn to stop living on the last drops of cheap energy, and to start living within its means
… up to natural limits, or face a 1970s-style energy crisis Paul Mobbs | 19th January 2010 Comment Energy Climate Change Oil Gas 3globes.jpg None … to stop living on the last drops of cheap energy, and to start living within its means …
A wholesale corruption of science underlies the UK Government's insistence that gas from fracking offers a 'low carbon', low cost route to energy abundance, writes Paul Mobbs. On the contrary: it's expensive, over-hyped - and just as bad for climate change as coal.
… exposed Paul Mobbs | 30th May 2014 News Energy Fossil Fuels Fracking UK Climate Change … offers a 'low carbon', low cost route to energy abundance, writes Paul Mobbs. On the … small'? In December 2012 the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) commissioned …
The 'death of peak oil' has been much exaggerated, writes Paul Mobbs. Take out high-cost 'unconventional' oil and production peaked ten years ago, and even North America's fracking and tar sands boom has failed to open up new resources both big enough to make good the shortfall, and cheap enough to reward investors. We really do need to be thinking 'beyond petroleum'.
… of peak oil Paul Mobbs | 5th May 2015 News Energy Oil Economics syncrude-cut.jpg The … in the USA - though few heard them. The US Energy Information Agency (USEIA) had issued … have to go all out to realise the 'US shale energy revolution' . It has been sold to the …
Fracking is just another step on the fossil fuel treadmill, according to 'Snake Oil' by Richard Heinberg. High costs, diminishing returns and growing pollution will ultimately nail its future. Paul Mobbs urges readers - give a copy to your MP before it's too late!
… Heinberg began to look at the issue of energy and the environment in the early 2000s, … known as 'peak oil' and 'peak gas' - the energy industry has looked to other 'unconventional' energy sources to keep their business models …
Political support for fracking is not just about energy, writes Paul Mobbs. It reflects the greater ecological and resource crisis at the root of our current economic woes - and only postpones the essential shift to a new kind of economy.
… support for fracking is not just about energy, writes Paul Mobbs. It reflects the … to tour those areas next in line for extreme energy developments - South Wales , The … biased towards the business interests of the energy service and investment industries …
The Environmental Audit Committee today calls for shale fracking in the UK to be 'put on hold', writes Paul Mobbs. But the EAC is missing an even more dangerous technology that the Infrastructure Bill would support - underground coal gasification.
… Mobbs | 26th January 2015 Comment Fracking Energy Oil Gas UK Politics ugc-cut.jpg The … generation. Shortly thereafter the North West Energy Task Force , a local ' astroturf ' … ongoing debate about a ban , fuelled by Dart Energy's proposed coalbed methane (CBM) …
After over a century of coal ash and colliery waste dumping, the Tyne and Wear coastline is no stranger to industrial pollution. But soon a horrific new technology - underground coal gasification (UCG) - will endanger human health and the environment, backed by unflinching Government support and generous lashings of taxpayers' money.
… Sea Paul Mobbs | 3rd April 2015 News Oceans Energy Gas Fracking Fossil Fuels UK Finance … or it could be supplied to large industrial energy users. Don't confuse this process with … for the pollution they have created. Linc Energy have also allegedly exposed workers to …
The UK's insistence on opening up the UK to fracking is symptomatic of a deeper malaise, writes Paul Mobbs. Of course we need a change of government, but more than that, we need a deeper, enduring change of the nation's governance if we are ever to effect the transition to sustainable policies on energy and environment. It's time for the UK to become truly democratic.
… Mobbs | 21st December 2015 News UK Politics Energy Fracking Regulation Farming Natural … the transition to sustainable policies on energy and environment. It's time for the UK … circuitous consultations, the Department of Energy and Climate Change's 14th Landward …
A company bidding to undertake 'underground coal gasification (UGC) - a notoriously hazardous and polluting process - in the UK has threatened a Scottish clean energy campaigner: shut up or get sued. Paul Mobbs reports ...
… - in the UK has threatened a Scottish clean energy campaigner: shut up or get sued. Paul … Mobbs reports ... Lawyers for Five Quarter Energy Holdings have sent a 'cease and desist' … In the early 2000s three companies - Cougar Energy at Kingaroy, Linc Energy at Chincilla …
The UK government claim that fracking is a 'clean' energy source rests on the conclusions of a single scientific paper, writes Paul Mobbs. And now that paper has been conclusively invalidated: it uses misleading figures that understate the methane emissions from fracking, and subsequent findings have left it totally discredited. Yet the paper is still being quoted to justify fracking, and the fool the public on its climate change impacts.
… government claim that fracking is a 'clean' energy source rests on the conclusions of a … a realistic result. Fracking and Whitehall's energy policy The Government in Whitehall … means to meet climate change obligations. As Energy Secretary Ed Davey claimed in 2013 , …
Medact, the organization of health professionals for a safer, fairer and better world, has called for a five year moratorium on fracking due to its serious hazards to public health, writes Paul Mobbs. Their new report is a powerful challenge to government policy that cannot be ignored.
… | 31st March 2015 Comment Health Fracking Energy Politics murphy-oil-la-cut.jpg Medact, … might aid the transition towards a low carbon energy system. The conclusion of the report, … 2014 report for the Nova Scotia Department of Energy by the Independent Panel on Hydraulic …
James Hansen is making his second visit to the UNFCCC Conference of the Parties, COP23 in Bonn to declare the that the Paris Agreement “ambition” is a “hoax”. NICK BREEZE meets the man still raising the climate alarm.
… use as long as fossil fuels are the cheapest energy. And that's the situation. We have to … fossil fuels are allowed to be the cheapest energy someone will burn them. Some countries … fossil fuels are allowed to be the cheapest energy. NB: Could you summarise what you'd …
It was hard to miss the British Pavilion at COP24 this year - but the truth of the ‘Green Is Great’ slogan was as shallow as the printers' ink.
… Ridge oil platform coming online, that the Energy and Clean Growth Minister, Claire … at the same time refusing to back renewable energy projects such as the tidal energy project in Swansea, and placing a …
The Government is struggling to spin its policy to fast track fracking, writes Paul Mobbs. So as it cuts the public out of the regulatory process, exempts exploratory wells from controls, and forces the Environment Agency to issue permits with 1-2 weeks, its spin machine has resorted to outright lies and misinformation to conceal the scale of the attack on our environmental rights.
… Paul Mobbs | 15th June 2015 News Fracling Energy Fossil Fuels UK Politics Law Regulation … our environmental rights. The Department of Energy and Climate Change - DECC - and the … play a key role in securing Britain's future energy supplies." We may have 'resources, but …
A new financial crisis is threatening to dwarf the 'subprime' mortgage debacle, writes Paul Mobbs. Cheap money from central banks has fuelled some $1.3 trillion of risky investments in high-cost 'unconventional' oil and gas. Now, with oil sinking below $60, all that paper is turning to junk - and that's putting the entire economic system at risk.
… was seen as the new 'revolution' in America's energy system, and a new, politically approved path to energy independence . When that funding stream … as one carried out by the Oxford Institute of Energy Studies in early 2014, reckoned that …
Three years after the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe hit our TV screens, Paul Mobbs examines the still unfolding global disaster - and the motives of politicians whose love of nuclear power is stronger, than it is wise.
… News Japan USA UK Nuclear Power Radiation Energy fukushima-water-sampling.png Three … discussion never really focused on the real energy issues - which I also set out in The … never mind that it will cost UK taxpayers and energy users untold billions in subsidies, and …
The greatest myth of the consumer society is that modern lifestyles are 'normal' - and this can continue forever because we're clever little apes who can solve any problem, writes Paul Mobbs. That hubris, in the face of insurmountable ecological limits, will be our collective downfall.
… change in material consumption - and thus the energy required to enable that activity to … are a problem, let's switch to renewable energy. This is reason why the green … deception. Not least because while the energy produced might be physically …
Low oil prices are putting a stop to some of the world's most environmentally damaging 'extreme energy' projects, writes Paul Mobbs, and may close down the entire fracking and tar sands industries. So why are so many 'Greens' issuing dire warnings, instead of celebrating the good news?
… crisis Paul Mobbs | 8th January 2015 Comment Energy Oil Fracking Tar Sands Consumerism … most environmentally damaging 'extreme energy' projects, writes Paul Mobbs, and may … the IEA consider essential to maintain global energy production - which requires a near $100 …
Edelman, the global PR group, has a history of aggressive 'consent engineering' for the fossil fuel industry in North America, writes Paul Mobbs. So what are they doing running 'impartial' UK bodies including a Parliamentary group on unconventional oil and gas, and the 'independent' Task Force on Shale Gas? Are they really US-style 'astroturf' bodies designed to fool us all?
… for the stalled Keystone Pipeline - the East Energy Pipeline . Even before the route was … "drive an active public discussion about Energy East that gives Canadians reasons to … had written an email to the Department for Energy and Climate (DECC) office promoting …
UK politicians and officials are studiously ignoring the growing evidence that fracking is an economic and environmental disaster, writes Paul Mobbs. As the circle of 'acceptable' view spins ever smaller, industry PR is dominating a phoney debate that's increasingly remote from reality, public opinion and core democratic principles.
… | 20th January 2015 News Fracking UK Politics Energy Finance Oil Gas … the proposals outlined by the Department for Energy and Climate Change. And though the … pursue policies such as unconventional energy in the absence of balanced evidence, …
The very least 'global warming' could do for us is to give us warmer winters, right? Wrong, writes Nick Breeze, who met climate scientist and meteorologist Jennifer Francis in his attempt to understand the complex interactions of jet stream, polar vortex, the melting Arctic, and the extreme snowfall that's hitting the northeast US right now.
… underneath, and that ocean absorbs a lot more energy from the sun through the summertime. So … gets into this wavier pattern, it sends wave energy up into the highest levels of the … and it travels much faster. "So as that wave energy gets sent up from this larger wave …
Sir David King stepped down this year having been chief science advisor to prime ministers Blair, Brown, Cameron and May. In this interview with NICK BREEZE, he makes his case as to why we need a climate restoration agenda to avert ecological disaster
… about the business of switching to renewable energy right across the world. So that 100 … and our heat is produced from renewable energy? Feed in tariffs - very successful in … whole world has benefitted. But what about energy storage, smart grids, all of the other …
Leonie Bremer, 22, explains from COP25 how Fridays4Future is moving beyond holding signs to increase the pressure on every government on climate change.
… living in Cologne, studying environment and energy, and the press spokesperson for Fridays … example, I am studying the environmental and energy stuff, so I can talk a little bit more …
NICK BREEZE, co-founder of the Cambridge Climate Lecture Series, responds to Dr Robert Biel's article on systems theory to discuss climate change and the failure of one generation and the agency of the next
… as well reports on the COP itself. There was energy and buzz. It was kind of like a pub … much of the worlds resources, from money to energy. As the clock ticks, we do need to … sustainable new world outlook, they have the energy to forge a truly liveable world. I’ll …