For over five decades The Arabian Peninsula has fueled the global economy. Saudi Arabia became the top oil producer in the world by drilling and extracting easy to get, high quality, light oil. But now that light oil is drying up. Some estimates show that the Gulf region has pumped more than half of its oil already.

Peak oil is nothing new to us here. I’ve written on a German military report clearly stating that peak oil is already here and discussing the various concerns that poses for modern society. I’ve also written on peak oil discussions made public by WikiLeaks that showed that Saudi Arabia has a lot less oil than its been saying. And I’ve written on peak oil misconceptions and false solutions and the potential (or lack of potential) for technological solutions to solve the peak oil crisis.

When I was invited on a cleantech blogger tour of clean tech in Finland this summer, one thing that took me by surprise was the gorgeous Finnair Oy airplane that took me the last leg from New York to Finland. I haven’t been on any airplanes except US flights in… practically forever, and was completely unprepared for the clean, spacious, luxurious design of the interior and the sumptuous airline food – in economy class.

Of course the guilt of taking an airplane and racking up the carbon miles tempered my enjoyment… but that won’t be for long.

One of the busiest border crossings in the U.S. will soon welcome visitors with a stroll through a new wastewater treatment plant. That sounds a bit, well, unfriendly, but there’s a twist. The “treatment plant” will be disguised as a beautifully landscaped,  man-made wetland environment that purifies wastewater through natural processes. Visitors using the Otay Mesa Land Port of Entry in California will amble to the U.S. through the wetlands on a curved, meandering pedestrian walkway. It’s still sewage, but it sure sounds a lot more pleasant than a TSA pat-down!

Staten Island Ferry, move over: there’s a new ferry coming to town, and it’s fully loaded with sustainable energy features. The new 1400-horsepower Hornblower Hybrid Ferry will run on hydrogen fuel cells, solar panels, and wind power, with help from diesel engines that meet U.S. EPA Tier 2 (pdf) pollution standards.

Any time a large company makes even a small green step, the impact is pretty huge. That’s the what KFC is going for with their new, reusable side dish container.
They’re replacing their styrofoam containers with new, plastic ones that customers can wash and use multiple times. According to Earth and Industry, the containers use less energy to produce and will help reduce waste. The plastic containers are also recyclable.

I wonder what percentage of KFC’s customers will actually hang on to those containers and use them again. If you’re grabbing fast food, chances are you’re on the go. While some people might be willing to carry that container around for the rest of the day, I’m betting that many will toss them into the trash.

I’m a huge history buff, and I’ve always been fascinated military strategies and their far-reaching consequences. Take World War II for example. One of the main reasons the Allies were able to triumph over Nazi Germany was their prolonged and relentless bombing campaign on oil fields and pipelines. An army without fuel cannot be effective, especially given the modern, mobile tactics employed by many armed forces.

In a report called Fueling The Future Force, the authors say that the U.S. Military must be entirely oil-free by 2040 if it wants to maintain a strategic edge and avoid the inevitable lack of oil. Can it be done?

There is plenty of doomsaying and prophesy about peak oil, though the simple fact remains there is not one person on the planet who actually knows how much easy oil is left to be tapped. What we are all pretty sure of is that oil won’t last forever, and considering that China and India are becoming the world’s largest automotive consumers, America will no longer have the biggest grasp on oil imports.

UK shipping emissions might be as high as aviation emissions, according to some new research that finds emissions rates previously calculated were way to low because the industry only included fuel bought at UK ports in their calculations…. Yes, that would create an obvious problem (if you want accurate estimates).

The new report, titled Shipping and climate change: Scope for unilateral action, was published by the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of Manchester. A key finding is that while UK ships take advantage of competitive fuel prices in nearby international ports, the industry does not account for the use of this fuel in UK emissions.

As an alternative to the current method, the study team recommends calculating emissions based on imported and exported goods. It finds that shipping emissions may be even higher than aviation emissions when using this method.

A housing project in Paris (probably my favorite city in the world) is going to start getting its heating (well, some of it) from the warm bodies waiting around in the Metro station nearby and from the heat generated by trains running back and forth along the tracks.

This experimental project is expected to heat about 17 apartments and cut the building’s carbon emissions by about 33%.

While the Philly project mentioned at the top of this piece will be expanded if it goes well, this one actually won’t, or there are no plans for it to be.

Pope Benedict’s visit to Britain has been plagued with controversy before it even began. This week over ten thousand people filled the streets of London for a “Protest the Pope” rally. The large crowd carried placards condemning a range of issues, from the backward papal stance on condom distribution and homosexuality, to the Vatican’s opposition to female priests and the rights of women. Many protesters expressed rage at the expanding horrific Catholic child sexual abuse scandals, which Ratzinger personally helped cover up for decades.

Britain’s Guardian newspaper reported that the sprawling crowd rallying against the pope was largely good natured, but :

There is much talk of buying local and trying to eat more sustainably, but how is a small regional food system actually created? How does that happen? It seems that it may be built one jar of delicious sauerkraut at a time.

Fermented Inspiration

Three former Evergreen State College students turned their respective diverse passions into a small food company that is helping to create positive change, and strengthening the local food system here in Washington. The idea for the business germinated while the entrepreneurs were still in college, initially as a fermented vegetable CSA. They then got lots of feedback and insight from teachers and others, who helped to shape and refine the company’s structure and priorities, which has now evolved into a successful small organic sauerkraut business based in Olympia.

A major factor causing the BP oil spill to be the disaster that it is turning out to be is deregulation of the oil industry. You would think that if people, especially politicians, learned one thing from this disaster, it would be that we need strong government oversight of risky technologies.

It seems right now that some in the nuclear industry and Congress have missed that completely or just haven’t heard the news about the BP oil spill at all.

Certain nuclear energy supporters are trying to weaken regulation of new nuclear reactors in any proposed climate and energy or energy-only legislation.