the last gasps ....

If you still have any doubt that the world's oil is fast running out, the fact that even the UK may attempt to use oil produced from the Canadian Tar Sands - the most uneconomic, damaging to the environment and, frankly, CRAZY oil that has been or ever will be produced, should make it clear!

We have tied our econmies to oil, a dirty and finite resource that is now reaching its end, rather than making the infrastrucure changes (rail travel, renewables, either abandoning or rail-connecting the suburbs) governments are burying their heads in the sand and trying to keep things the way they were. This is not only stupid and dishonest, but extremely dangerous. If we don't start redesigning our societies NOW we will be leaving future generations living in extreme poverty, environmental destruction and violent climate change. Do you really want your kids and their kids to inherit this legacy, when we ALL know what needs doing?

Please read the following and act accordingly. Remember that the change from oil to post-oil requires that we use the remaining oil to help make these changes. The fact that many of us still think it's okay to waste this resource DRIVING to out of town shopping areas to buy more tat (made with oil!) shows that the government needs to take the lead. In this at least we are too dim or too selfish to think of anyone else!

This morning 50 Greenpeace activists are blockading the Department for Transport with two immobilised cars parked in front of the entrances and a giant handshake. Our government is trying to scupper legislation that will block tar sands oil - the dirtiest, most polluting form of oil there is - from being sold at UK petrol pumps.

Mining for tar sands is wrecking the Canadian boreal forest, destroying the homelands of indigenous people, and accelerating dangerous climate change.

So why then is the UK government trying to sabotage legislation that would block tar sands oil from European petrol pumps? Well it looks like they've been lobbied hard by the Canadian government and big oil. Now it's your turn to lobby.

Please write to Nick Clegg: he needs to tell the ministry for transport to stop standing in the way of green legislation. It's time Clegg acted on the green credentials he keeps talking about.

The tar sands deposits of heavy oil mixed with clay and sand lie below the surface of the Canadian wilderness. To extract the tar, oil companies destroy the Canadian boreal forest, gouge out hundreds of metres of top soil, and turn the landscape into a gaping black pit. Two tonnes of earth has to be dug up and processed to produce each barrel of tar sands oil.

Worst of all, tar sands oil creates three times the emissions per barrel that you would get from normal crude. There's no way tar sands oil makes any sense for our environment or climate.

Next week, officials will meet from across Europe to approve the plan that would prevent tar sands oil from ending up at the pumps. If the proposal goes ahead it would deal a major blow to oil industry plans to expand Canada's tar sands open cast mining operations.

Right now the vote could go either way because of the UK-led diplomatic effort to scupper it. That's why we need your help to put pressure on the government to stop its attempts to scupper the legislation.

Please join the lobby for legislation to block tar sands from Europe and write to Nick Clegg today.

The race to claim ownership of oil and gas-rich areas in the Arctic has been charted for the first time in a map showing the potential territorial ambitions of interested states.

Researchers from Durham University's International Boundaries Research Unit (IBRU) produced the map to illustrate current boundaries, possible future claims and potential disputes in the region.

Last year a Russian submarine planted a flag on the ocean floor underneath the North Pole, in a bold gesture highlighting its claim to a huge chunk of the frozen land.

Other disputes involve Canada, USA, Denmark, Iceland and Norway.

Martin Pratt, director of research at IBRU, said he thinks the race for resources is the key motivation for states. He said a new survey by the US Geological Survey estimates that a fifth of the world's undiscovered, technically-recoverable resources lie within the Arctic Circle.

"We are talking 90 million barrels of oil, nearly 17 hundred trillion cubic feet. I mean I cannot even imagine how much that is, but it is a lot," Mr Pratt said. "I suppose for any state, control over hydrocarbons is significant as other resources dwindle."

He said Russia could be particularly attracted to the region's potential for oil and gas extraction because it already has a well developed gas infrastructure.

Areas of the Arctic, once frozen all year round, now melt in the warmer months, allowing investigations in the region that were not possible before.

"The other aspect is the melting of the polar ice and that is making it easier to explore the area which is why the oil and gas industry is looking at it," he said. "It is now becoming a potential area of development rather than a hypothetical one."

But he said this was likely to cause concern about the "unique environment" in the Arctic. "It is vulnerable and extracting oil and gas is not an environmentally friendly activity." Source

I felt obliged to add this comment!

Even if it's 90 BILLION barrels it is little more than 3 years' worth at current rates of consumption (86 million barrels per day). It will be very expensive to produce (the arctic is still pretty cold and dangerous for half the year or more), it will cost a fortune to transport, this is also the gross yield - huge amounts of energy will be expended getting it out. My best guess is that this will actually supply about a year's worth of energy - and as such would be a total waste of time and effort. This is before any further negative effects from climate change are factored in, many of which will need energy to correct/contain.

What it does reveal is the absolutely desperate position we are all in over energy supplies. It's pretty clear from this that Peak Oil has already passed the real danger point and that we're all going to learn to live with far more expensive energy and, often, no energy at all.

By their actions governments and oil companies reveal that they are desperately worried, but don't have the guts to tell us directly.

The real answer is energy efficiency and conservation, massive investment in renewables and a huge increase (as a stopgap as uranium is rapidly running out) in nuclear generating capacity. Don't let the hippies, tories and Daily Mail reader socialist scum dictate the agenda - they don't have a clue what they're talking about!