Some of my work ! See more @ jpinfluence.com
Some of my work was recently published at The Atlantic Sentinel:
The post-Soviet region has begun a high stakes arms race, fueled by competition for recently discovered oil fields. Intraregional competition is intense, along with a mutual desire between Russia and Iran to keep foreigners (Europe and the United States) from interfering.
(Source: jpinfluence.com)
We’ll take a look at some of the biggest newsmakers around the world, from the European Union’s dire state, to the escalating conflicts in Syria, to the changing strategy of the United States as power shifts around the globe. Here are the top five stories in geopolitics this last week.
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By Fareed Zakaria
Last year, the world’s energy watchdog published a report which asked an important question: “Are we entering a golden age of gas?”
So I was struck when I saw the International Energy Agency’s 2012 report. Gone is the question mark.
Instead it says, simply: “Golden rules for a golden age of gas.”
And the starting point of that golden age is right here in America.
It’s becoming increasingly clear that the shale gas revolution is a game-changer not just for the energy industry, not just for the U.S. — but for geopolitics.
The technology behind shale gas production, where shale rock is blasted with a mixture of water, sand, and chemicals, is only two decades old. The process is called fracking.
Related: Fracking — What is it?
And in a short time, its success has led to the drilling of 20,000 wells in America, the creation of hundreds of thousands of jobs, and a guaranteed supply of gas for perhaps 100 years. The International Energy Agency says global gas production will rise 50% by the year 2035; two-thirds of that growth will come from unconventional sources like shale — a market the U.S. completely dominates.
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Author: Captain Melissa Bert, USCG, Military Fellow, U.S. Coast Guard
A very important article in that it addresses what is happening in the arctic… I’m honestly not sure what to say about arctic policy in general; I’m sure other countries, as mentioned, are taking more initiative, though.
The ice melts as the planet warms at the north pole, and more transportation and other ventures is likely to take place. It seems like a curious case study to follow, that’s for sure. …
Extremely significant to figuring out how we’re going to sustain life on this planet.
Professor Simmons said the groundwater crisis was driven by a competition for increasingly scarce water supplies between “megacities”, the energy sector, manufacturing and farming.
Groundwater shortage ‘critical’
23 Jan, 2012 04:00 AMGROUNDWATER is a key driver of the global economy - but water will be scarce in critical food production regions by 2030 unless urgent steps are taken to protect it from over-extraction and pollution, international water scientists have warned.A satellite study has proven groundwater tables in the United States, North Africa, India, the Middle East and China, are falling.
Professor Craig Simmons, Director of Australia’s National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training (NCGRT) and member of the UNESCO’s global groundwater governance program, said global groundwater use had more than doubled between 1960 and 2000 and continued to soar.
“Groundwater currently makes up about 97 per cent of all the available fresh water on the planet and presently accounts for about 40pc of our total water supply,” he said.
“Almost everywhere, there is clear evidence that water tables are falling.
“Not many people think of groundwater as a key driver of the global economy - yet it is.
“If it becomes depleted, entire industries may be forced to shut down or move. Whole regions could face acute water scarcity.”
Professor Simmons said the groundwater crisis was driven by a competition for increasingly scarce water supplies between “megacities”, the energy sector, manufacturing and farming.
“The blunt fact is that most countries and local regions did not know the size of their water resources when then began extracting them, nor how long it took to recharge. In some cases this can take centuries or even millennia.
“As a result they are now extracting their water unsustainably.”
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The fuel subsidy crisis has woken Nigerians up
These protests are not just about being unable to afford fuel. People have had enough of wasteful and corrupt leadership
I remember watching Goodluck Jonathan’s speech at the start of his re-election campaign on 18 September, 2010. He promised change: “Let the word go out from this Eagle Square that Jonathan as president in 2011 will herald a new era of transformation of our country.” The canoe-carver’s son who became deputy governor, governor, vice-president and then president, without ever hustling for power, wowed us all with stories of his humble beginnings (a shoeless childhood, studying by the light of kerosene lanterns), his humility, and his seeming accessibility (via Facebook). But that was then.
Today he seems bent on recreating all the obstacles he faced all those decades ago; eager to ensure that as many Nigerians as possible study with lanterns and survive on a single meal a day. How is he doing this? By hurting the most vulnerable using one of the most ubiquitous items in the land: petrol.
A fuel price increase – and the associated increase in the price of commodities – has sparked nationwide #OccupyNigeria protests, driven largely by young people mobilising themselves via social media, mobile phones and word-of-mouth.
Nigeria is a crude-oil producing and exporting country, full of poor people – 70% of the population survives on less than $2 a day. These citizens consume more petrol than is necessary because Nigeria has consistently failed to produce enough electricity for its 150 million citizens (South Africa, with 50 million people, produces 10 times as much electricity as Nigeria), leaving much of the population dependent on petrol-guzzling Chinese generators to keep the lights on.
It gets worse. …
So, a take on things from the other side of the border for the Keystone XL saga, among other things. (Also, the EIA released several outlooks today, including liquid fuel).
Canada is on the edge of an historic choice: to diversify our energy markets away from our traditional trading partner in the United States or to continue with the status quo.
Virtually all our energy exports go to the US. As a country, we must seek new markets for our products and services and the booming Asia-Pacific economies have shown great interest in our oil, gas, metals and minerals…
….These groups threaten to hijack our regulatory system to achieve their radical ideological agenda. They seek to exploit any loophole they can find, stacking public hearings with bodies to ensure that delays kill good projects. They use funding from foreign special interest groups to undermine Canada’s national economic interest. They attract jet-setting celebrities with some of the largest personal carbon footprints in the world to lecture Canadians not to develop our natural resources. Finally, if all other avenues have failed, they will take a quintessential American approach: sue everyone and anyone to delay the project even further. They do this because they know it can work. It works because it helps them to achieve their ultimate objective: delay a project to the point it becomes economically unviable.
What a curious and complex set of markets, regulation, interests, and motives the energy world contains.
