Washington Not Equipped to Deal with Yemen

Posted on May 13, 2012 by Jen Alic

As the US launches airstrikes on al-Qaeda targets in Yemen after a thwarted suicide bombing attempt on a US-bound flight, we are about see exactly how ill-equipped Washington is to deal with the complexities that are shaping the conflicts in Yemen. Unlike the attempted bombing of a US-bound aircraft on Christmas Day 2009, when a Nigerian man was thwarted by passengers on the plane while US intelligence agencies remained unaware of the situation, this latest bomb plot was actually (reportedly) carried out by a Saudi asset to a CIA and British MI5…

An Analysis of Climate Change throughout the Ages

Posted on May 13, 2012 by Editorial Dept

It has long been known that characteristics of the Earth’s orbit (its eccentricity, the degree to which it is tilted, and its “wobble”) are slightly altered on timescales of tens to hundreds of thousands of years. Such variations, collectively known as Milankovitch cycles, conspire to pace the timing of glacial-to-interglacial variations. Despite the immense explanatory power that this hypothesis has provided, some big questions still remain. For one, the relative roles of eccentricity, obliquity, and precession in controlling…

New IMF Model is Far More Accurate at Predicting Oil Production

Posted on May 11, 2012 by Gail Tverberg

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently issued a new working paper called “The Future of Oil: Geology versus Technology” (free PDF), which should be of interest to people who are following “peak oil” issues. This is a research paper that is being published to elicit comments and debate; it does not necessarily represent IMF views or policy.The paper considers two different approaches for modelling future oil supply:1. The economic/technological approach, used by the US Energy Information Administration…

Japan Shuts Down Last Nuclear Plant – What Now?

Posted on May 11, 2012 by John Daly

On 5 May Hokkaido Electric Power shut down the No. 3 reactor at the utility's Tomari Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) in the Hokkaido village of Tomari, the last of Japan’s 54 NPPs that were still functioning after the crisis caused after the 11 March 2011 earthquake and subsequent tsunami that destroyed Tokyo Electric Power Company’s six reactor Fukushima Daiichi power complex.According to preliminary estimates, fiscal losses from the disaster and the subsequent shuttering of the NPPs are to over $300 billion and rising.The event is hardly…