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How the Fort McMurray Climate Conversation Went Down in Flames
Connecting extreme weather events with climate change isn’t exactly a new thing. After Hurricane Sandy devastated parts of New York and New Jersey in 2012, Bloomberg published a front page spread proclaiming, “ It’s Global Warming, Stupid .” For years, major storms , droughts , floods and fires have been connected to climate change. The climate angle was even fair game during last summer’s wildfires in western Canada. So how did the climate conversation around the still-raging Fort McMurray wildfire that destroyed thousands of homes become so befuddling-ly messed up? Conversations about climate change as a factor in the wildfires have garnered about as much attention as the wildfires themselves. For a recap of the “ middle-finger salutes ,” schadenfreude and #tinyviolins mock-sympathy for the people of Fort McMurray, check out this article on Slate . Cara Pike , climate communications expert with Climate Access, says the urge to […]
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Crude Continues March Higher to $50 a Barrel
The international Brent crude benchmark crawled closer to $50 a barrel in early Asian trade on Wednesday as outages in Africa and Canada and production declines outside of the Middle East fueled expectations for tighter supply. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in June recently traded at $48.44 a barrel, up $0.13 in the Globex electronic session. July Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange rose $0.10 to $49.38 a barrel. “While $50 sounds high today, this time two years ago it was about $100. I continue to believe from now going into 2017, dips should be bought as the market rebalances,” said Stuart Ive, a client manager at Wellington, New Zealand-based OM Financial. Oil prices rose overnight, propelled by reports that Canadian forest fires forced more evacuations […]
Oil Sands Restart Plans Thwarted as Alberta Fire Threat Returns
Plans to bring back more than 1 million barrels a day of lost production in Canada’s oil sands are being delayed as wildfires sweeping across northern Alberta threaten operations again, prompting Suncor Energy Inc. to evacuate three sites it was restarting. The nation’s largest oil producer is flying employees from its MacKay River, Firebag and base plant sites as it shuts down the facilities days after beginning the process of resuming output. The wildfire that’s raged for more than two weeks circled back north of the city toward the main operations in the oil sands, the world’s third-largest reserves. About 8,000 workers were removed from lodging facilities as the blaze grew to about 3,550 square kilometers (1,370 square miles), Alberta Premier Rachel Notley said. That’s an area bigger than Rhode Island. Horizon North Logistics Inc.’s Blacksand lodge, a work camp about 40 kilometers (24 miles) northwest of Fort McMurray […]
Russia Remains Determined To Stop Israel-Turkey Pipeline Deal
It has been six years since the Israeli raid on the Mavi Marmara ship that was aiming to reach the Gaza coast in May 2010. In the wake of the Mavi Marmara crisis, Turkey and Israel relations rapidly worsened; both countries withdrew their ambassadors and cut diplomatic ties. Turkey’s downing of a Russian jet along the Syrian border on November 24, 2015 has forced Ankara to adjust its foreign policy and address its energy security issues. The crisis between Turkey and Russia firmly highlighted the dependence of Turkey on Russian energy resources. To reduce that dependence, Ankara began to seek alternative energy suppliers and new routes. Turkey turned to Israel, hoping to once again normalize relations between the two states. Erdogan now aims to build an East Mediterranean natural gas pipeline, which could transport natural gas supplies from Israel to Cyprus. In January 2016 he stated that “Israel is […]
Iran’s May oil exports set to surge nearly 60 percent from a year ago: source
Iran’s oil exports are set to surge in May, climbing nearly 60 percent from a year ago, with European shipments recovering to about half of pre-sanction levels, according to a source with knowledge of the country’s crude lifting plans. This shows Tehran is regaining market share at a faster pace than analysts had projected as it battles with Saudi Arabia for customers by cutting its prices. April loadings at 2.3 million barrels per day (bpd) were around 15 percent higher than the International Energy Agency estimated earlier this month. May shipments are set to jump to 2.1 million bpd from 1.3 million bpd during the same month in 2015, when Iranian exports were constrained by Western sanctions imposed because of the country’s nuclear program. The April loadings […]
