Comeback: America’s new economic boom

BOOK REVIEW

Comeback: America’s New Economic Boom, Charles R. Morris.

By Charles R. Morris – This is the world of shale gas and oil — which has revolutionized the U.S. energy position. These particular wells are in Oklahoma and are owned by Devon Energy Inc., one of the country’s larger independent exploration and production companies. Drills go two miles straight down, then turn to go another mile through shale rock steeped with gas and gas liquids. The shale is “fractured” with a high-pressure burst of water, sand and chemicals to start the product flowing. Once the flow is stabilized, the rig is removed and the well is connected to a permanent gathering pipeline. It should produce hydrocabons for 15 to 20 years.

By 2020 or so, the United States is expected to surpass Saudi Arabia in oil output, and Russia in gas, according to the International Energy Association’s best estimate. more> http://tinyurl.com/d6plwhd

Related>

• U.S. oil boom leaves OPEC sidelined from demand growth, Dmitry Zhdannikov and Christopher Johnson, Reuters

Europe’s fight to save its bees

By Richard Schiffman – Last Monday (Apr 29), the European Union banned the most commonly used pesticide group in the world, the neonicotinoids – neonics for short. The ban is set for two years and may be extended.

The EU members took this radical step because their bees are dying – and neonics have been implicated as one contributing cause. The agro-chemical industry warned that the ban will cause huge losses to agriculture, and encouraged farmers to use even more-dangerous insect poisons, which were in vogue before the neonics were introduced in the 1990s.

Europe is invoking the precautionary principle better safe than sorry. Will the United States – which has an even higher economic stake in the health of its pollinators – follow Europe’s lead? more> http://tinyurl.com/c3ka32d

Rolling tree planting robot

Dassault Systèmes – Our great winner Geoffrey Cooper. His IF WE Dream was “IF WE design a rolling tree planting robot, we can send them out to replant forests and restore a desertified land. Let’s make it happen!!“. Geoffrey is a industrial designer coming from Canada and lived in Los Angeles at the time of the challenge. more> http://tinyurl.com/dxoc4km

Norway’s Capital Doesn’t Have Enough Trash to Help Power the City

By Kharunya Paramaguru – In an age where there is an increasing demand to find alternatives to landfill sites, and a pressing need to reduce garbage production globally, Oslo, the capital of Norway, is experiencing an unusual problem with its trash: there’s not enough of it.

In order to sustain that waste-energy production, the Norwegians plan on importing garbage–potentially from as far afield as the U.S. given how relatively inexpensive sea transportation is. Last year Sweden also ran out of garbage to burn and plans to import nearly 800,000 annually to keep up with its energy production. more> http://tinyurl.com/ctcxgdd

Views from the Solar System (122)

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IceBridge Survey Flight Over Saunders Island and Wolstenholme Fjord
NASA – This image of Saunders Island and Wolstenholme Fjord with Kap Atholl in the background was taken during an Operation IceBridge survey flight in April, 2013. Sea ice coverage in the fjord ranges from thicker, white ice seen in the background, to thinner grease ice and leads showing open ocean water in the foreground.

In March 2013, NASA’s Operation IceBridge scientists began another season of research activity over Arctic ice sheets and sea ice. IceBridge, a six-year NASA mission, is the largest airborne survey of Earth’s polar ice ever flown. It will yield an unprecedented three-dimensional view of Arctic and Antarctic ice sheets, ice shelves and sea ice. These flights will provide a yearly, multi-instrument look at the behavior of the rapidly changing features of the Greenland and Antarctic ice.

› Read more about IceBridge

Image Credit: NASA / Michael Studinger