Archive for July, 2006

I came across an article on Yale Global Online (a publication of Yale University’s Center for the Study of Globalization) about oil’s effects on global politics. The article gave many examples of how oil-hungry countries have turned a blind eye to problems with oil-rich developing countries because of diminishing global oil reserves. Because these oil-hungry countries fear the economic damage from a potential oil embargo, developing countries are able to get away with questionable activities like human rights violations.

I want to highlight one part of the article that I found deeply disturbing regarding Sudan and China. I had heard of this story a while back, but this article explained the situation very well. The explosive growth of China’s economy has naturally led to huge surge in oil imports. This thirst of oil has led China to form partnerships with notorious countries like Sudan. This very poor country has gotten a lot of attention the past couple years due to the genocide and war crimes in the Darfur region of western Sudan. The stories coming out of Darfur are of unimaginable cruelty and world community reaction (or lack thereof) to this crisis has also been disturbing. One key explanation for this relative inaction is the actions of China in the United Nations during a December 2004 UN Security Council debate. The US delegation was pushing for sanctions against the Sudanese government for aiding militia groups accused of rape, torture, and murder. Because of their oil partnership, China was willing to use their permanent seat on the Security Council to veto the strong resolutions proposed by the US. Sadly, the result of these threats were weakened resolutions against the Sudanese government. Leaving out the pros and cons of the United Nations (that’s worth an entire separate blog), what China did was simply immoral.

While I’m focusing on China, this story is part of a disturbing pattern: oil is a curse upon our entire world. The benefits to our country are clear, but energy independence would actually be more beneficial to people of oil-rich countries. By taking away petrodollars, countries like Iran, Syria, Sudan, Saudi Arabia would be forced to improve their economic, educational, and political institutions. Imagine how many lives would be improved with energy independence.

The past couple weeks of bloodshed in Lebanon and Iraq are clear evidence that change in the Middle East is badly needed. Now is the time to lift the curse of oil and help create a better America, a better Middle East, and a better world for future generations.

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Posted by Tim Roth, author of the political blog Think Anew and Act Anew

Wind power is becoming the fastest growing energy source on the planet. Last year wind electricity-generating capacity increased by 24 percent as compared with 2.5 percent for coal, 1.8 percent for nuclear power, 2.5 percent for natural gas, and 1.7 percent for oil. Within the last decade wind energy has increased 12 times from 5,000 megawatts to 59,100 megawatts.

There are ups and downs to this huge growth seen in wind power. An up side is the fact that wind power is clean, super clean with no emissions like oil based fuels or nuclear waste like nuclear power has. On the downside, wind power takes up a lot of space. Wind farms take up acres upon acres of land with loud turbine Windmills.

Some of the largest contributors to the increase in wind power is the advances made in technology to lower the noise production of these large turbines and to increase the efficiency of them to allow smaller footprints for wind farms. Also heading the way in helping wind power gain a footing is the 1.9 cent per kilowatt-hour tax credit for electricity produced from a wind farm. Money always helps markets grow.

We found this information at Common Dreams News Center. You can read more about wind power and replacing fossil fuels with alternative energies at their article… The Race to Replace Fossil Fuels

technorati tags:wind, power, alternative, energy, tax, credit, fossil, fuel