The amount of fresh water needed to produce energy for the world is set to double within the next 25 years as civilization’s reliance on coal and biofuels increases, the International Energy Agency projects.
The “good news” of the World Energy Outlook 2012 is really the bad news: The energy industry’s ability to boost production of oil, coal, and natural gas in North America is feeding a global surge in demand for these commodities, ensuring ever higher levels of carbon emissions.
By the end of the decade, the United States will produce more barrels of oil per day than Saudia Arabia and more gas than Russia, according to a report by the intergovernmental International Energy Agency.
While most anti-fracking activists have been responding to harms already done, New York state’s resistance movement has been waging a battle to keep harm at bay.
In keeping with predictions made by the world’s most sober and clear-eyed climate and energy experts, the rate of increase in greenhouse gas emissions is occurring more rapidly than official reports forecast, and a disastrous average global temperature rise of more than 2 degrees Celsius appears imminent and unavoidable. (more)
The United States’ century-long reign as the world’s greediest energy nation is over. China has usurped the throne, as expected, though Beijing reportedly disputes the title. The International Energy Agency, which keeps track of these things, also points out that China’s per capita consumption is below the global average and far less than the U.S.’