QuickNews, Monday, Nov. 23.

CHINA MINE EXPLOSION | At least 92 dead in coal mine disaster in northeast China. Gas explosion on weekend claims scores of lives at Xinxing Coal Mine in Hegang, Heilongjiang province. (Photo below: Relatives of miners await news from mine officials. Aly Song, Reuters.)

 

CAPSIZED INDONESIAN FERRY CLAIMS 26 LIVES | Another 17 passengers still missing. Overloading is common in ferries serving Indonesia's thousands of islands. Ferry off Sumatra had 296 passengers and crew but capacity of only 273 people.

ROSY CANADIAN BANK FORECAST | Big Five will finish out year with strong 4Q numbers. Banks begin reporting this week. Their capital ratios are among world's best. Collectively, will come close to matching last year's profits. Loan losses expected to peak 1Q or 2Q of fiscal 2010. (Photo: "Centre ice," King and Bay Streets in Toronto, head office location of Canada's Big Five banks.)

ENCOURAGING U.S. ECONOMIC OUTLOOK | Economists upgrade forecast for 2010. Chicago Fed chief sees jobless rate peaking early next year, at 10.5%, a bit higher than current 10.2%. Small businesses, whose job creation usually leads employment recovery, are borrowing again. NYT reports Obama's stimulus package has done more good than it gets credit for - pushing U.S. GDP into positive territory by 3Q, for instance, less than half a year after his inauguration.  

AFGHAN QUAGMIRE | Two unnamed Karzai ministers target of embezzlement probe. Actually, almost all of Karzai's ministers are under suspicion, probably including the defense minister who impressed Globe and Mail's editorial board - in that paper's lead story this morning - with complaint that Obama is dragging his heels on more troops. CP has rather horrifying report on how Afghan detainee abuse has been routine for decades. Corrupt government, sadistic police force, army culturally allied with Taliban, and women treated even worse under Karzai than Taliban - this is what we're fighting and dying for in propping up Afghan government whose legitimacy is recognized by few locals or ISAF troop-contributing nations. Damned right Obama's thinking twice about more troops.

"PUBLIC OPTION" NOW CENTRE STAGE IN U.S. HEALTHCARE DEBATE | Dems win first Senate vote. But Saturday's 60-40 vote, with all Republicans opposed, is only "end of the beginning." Lieberman of Connecticut vows he will vote against a final Senate bill that includes the public option. But minus the new government-run "public option" insurer, reform largely amounts to a windfall for private insurers and Big Pharma. (Photo: Senators Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) debate healthcare reforms yesterday on "Meet the Press.")

FUTILITY OF MICROSOFT TRYING TO "BUY" NEWS | In talks with Murdoch to take WSJ off Google. Rumoured deal would have Murdoch demand Google drop WSJ, New York Post and other News Corp. properties, with Microsoft's rival Bing engine getting exclusive access. But "exclusive" content migrates within 30 seconds, by most estimates. I noticed last night, for instance, that Reuters carried a rewritten Sunday New York Post exclusive that Jamie Dimon is tipped as Geithner's replacement, and a detailed synopsis of a Sunday NYT editorial calling on Goldman Sachs to turn over its bonus pool to Treasury to retire national debt.

SWINE FLU PEAK? | CDC reports H1N1, like most outbreaks, shifting east to Mideast, Central Europe. May have peaked in North America, but flu levels still far higher than usual at this point in flu season. Vaccine continues to be in shorter supply in U.S. than Canada.

 

One of the estimated 14,000 to 25,000 vacant homes in once-flourishing Buffalo, N.Y.  

BLIGHT ON BUFFALO | Decay of Rust Belt city "a slow-moving Katrina," says local official. Former industrial powerhouse has lost half its population, or 300,000 people, since 1950. In some recession-hit neighbourhoods, only 20% of the houses are occupied.

CLIMATE-CHANGE COST | Experts say $28 trillion (U.S.) in property damage to port cities by 2050. That would be result of expected 0.5%-metre rise in ocean levels as Greenland ice pack melts.

WIKI EXODUS | Thousands of Wikipedia contributors are quitting. All of the most important, most easily researched topics have been done. And remaining contributors are alienated by accumulation of rules restricting new entries and editing/updating of existing ones.

McDONALD'S LOSING LUSTRE | U.S. same-store sales down in October. Recession has finally caught up with Golden Arches, victim of high unemployment that has curbed out-of-home meals. Also, its McCafe concept has not been the blockbuster it expected. In Canada and at its U.S. outlets, Tim Hortons acted quickly on the McCafe threat, matching Mickey D in ubiquity and diverse menu offerings.

Honda Insight and Ford Escape. Which would you choose for your motor trip from Toronto to the Laurentians? On poor sales of small cars: "This doesn't mean Americans don't want fuel economy," writes auto critic Jerry Flint. "It may mean that vehicles that were small, unappealing, underpowered and uncomfortable are still small, unappealing, underpowered and uncomfortable."

NOT SO FAST | Forbes columnist breaks with consensus that small cars are next battleground. Notes that among heaviest casualties of current auto slump have been small cars. Industry volume is down 27% to September. Meanwhile, Yaris sales are down 40%, Aveo down 30%, Accent down 40%, VW New Beetle down 50%, Scion 1C down 60%. Meanwhile, sales are off only 10% as a group for small crossover SUVs: Honda CR-V and Pilot, Toyota RAV 4 and Venza, Ford Escape, Chevy Equinox and Dodge Journey.  "Americans drive more than Europeans and Asians," writes Jerry Flint, auto writer since 1958. "And thus it's reasonable that we want cars to be more powerful and more comfortable since we spend a lot of time in them. Larger vehicles are as a rule safer than smaller ones (another important topic on which government candour is lacking). Large vehicles carry more people, groceries and vacation stuff. What good does it do to move people into subcompacts if that kills carpooling? Cars will get smaller. How well they sell is another question." Flint also notes the up to $10,000 (U.S.) higher cost for going from gasoline to hybrid version of same vehicle (you're buying a car with two engines, after all; only plug-ins are all-electric) - one reason Honda's Insight, its smallest hybrid, sold just 16,000 cars YTD, about half what Honda expected.  

SNOOKERED | Travel website names ROM "Crystal" among world's 10 ugliest buildings. Joins "Beehive" in Wellington, N.Z. and Paris' Center Georges Pompidou. ROM head William Thorsell sold board and donors on what turned out to be inferior knock-off of celebrity architect Daniel Libeskind's own recent addition to the Denver Art Museum, which actually is mostly glass. For engineering and cost reasons, ROM "Crystal" is just a few strips of glass on metal cladding that has the allure of a construction-site outbuilding. Libeskind is pictured below in Denver; his ROM monstrosity at Inright.

  

INDIA LABOUR WOES | "Social contract," strong unions and GDP slump bring rampant labour unrest. Has sometimes turned to violence as strikes up 48% over last year at factories attempting layoffs, which go against Indian culture. Foreign employers hit by labour disruptions this year include Nestle, Nokia, Honda and Hyundai Motor.

CANDY WAR | Nestle joins Hershey, Ferrero and Kraft in pondering takeover bid for Cadbury. Kraft bid is hostile but would have easiest time with regulators. Nestle might try to play white knight. But candy giant Nestle (Kit Kat, Aero, Coffee Crisp, Smarties) would be forced to shed some of its own and Cadbury's brands to satisfy EU anti-trust authorities, maybe Canadian and American, as well.

CARCASS PICKED CLEAN | Ciena to pay bargain $769 million (U.S.) for core Nortel assets. Former pipsqueak rival to Nortel beats out bid by Nokia Siemens for bankrupt Nortel's optical networking and carrier ethernet business. Nortel once had a market cap north of $200 billion (U.S.). This one is up there with the Avro Arrow as a Canadian industrial tragedy.

Kate Moss in promotion shot for her Topshop collection. 

KATE MOSS GIVES COMFORT TO "PRO-ANOREXIC" MOVEMENT | Being a waif trumps eating. Moss endorsement last week of anorexics' motto raises new questions about how widespread is anorexia. Incredibly, so-called "pro-anorexic" websites outnumber by 5 to 1 sites for recovering anorexics and healthy dieting.

FRAIL MAIL | U.S. Postal Service in crisis after posting $11.6 billion (U.S.) in losses 2007-09. Volume of mail carried fell 13% in fiscal 2009. USPS wants to cut employer pension contributions and drop cherished Saturday service, eliminated eons ago by much healthier Canada Post.

QUOTE OF THE DAY | "Let's make cars people want to make out in again." -Chrysler turnaround tagline, as announced at a presentation for analysts and the auto press earlier this month, reported in current Business Week. And couldn't be further from the truth, except for the gymnastically adept, since the "new Chrysler" is to be built around Fiat minicars.

Courtesy The New Yorker, Nov. 16 edition.

Please consider joining me as an elf this holiday season by participating in the Toronto Star's Santa Claus Fund, a century-old Toronto tradition. The Star uses donations to assemble and distribute gift boxes to thousands of less-financially advantaged children throughout the GTA. Each box contains a book, clothing and a toy. You can read all about it, including first-hand accounts of Toronto families in need, at http://www.thestar.com/santaclausfund. I'm counting on your kindness to help put smiles on thousands of young faces this December 25th! Many thanks, David 

  

QuickLinx 01.11.09

IT'S GOD'S FAULT

Bad driver? Blame your genes. (Reuters)

House or workplace are cluttered? Blame your genes. (Reuters)

Ransom note's in here somewhere.
 

BOOM TO BUST

Bereaving Las Vegas, arguably N.A. hardest hit by housing-boom implosion. (Der Spiegel)

In slumping Dubai these days, one of four cheques bounces in real-estate collapse. (Times of London)

In glittering Dubai, $166 billion (U.S.) in planned real-estate development has been scrapped as property values plunged 41% in 1Q alone. Boom was built on debt and nosebleed oil prices. Global financial crisis and slumping wellhead prices put the brakes to that.

UNCONVENTIONAL WISDOM

Why it makes no sense to lay off older workers. (Newsweek) 

It's not fun being king. Being boss is hard on your health. (Reuters)

Why helicopters are so crash-prone. Hint: they do things we don't ask of planes. (Slate)

Why websites are so confusing. Notes on navigating cyberspace. (Harvard Business Review)

Fox News isn't just bad. It's un-American. (Jacob Weisberg, Slate/Newsweek)

Why Canada's falling behind in clean-tech R&D. (Financial Post)

How MSM get sucked into believing political rumours that spread like wildfire on the Web. (New Yorker)

Newspapers just look dead. (Canadian Journalism Report)

Why it's sane for Kim Jong-il to be crazy. (Reuters)

Write your own caption. Remember that Gordon Brown, whom I'd also rather not see in the buff, has nukes too.
 

DEBATES

A Catholic balks at a thoroughly anti-woman Church of Rome. (Maureen Dowd, New York Times)

Charles Lewis responds to Maureen Dowd's "Nazi slur" on Pope Benedict, et al. (National Post)

Will California become America's first "failed state"? (U.K. Guardian)

California is thriving, despite setbacks. (Time)

California: Failed state. (John Judis, New Republic, Sept. 5, 2005)

End state: Is California finished? (John Judis, New Republic, Oct. 26, 2009)

BETTER LIVING CENTRE

Are you getting enough dopamine? An update on the motivator molecule. (New York Times)

Smile, already. You're depressing the economy. (Slate)

Seven tips if you're chronically late. (Slate)

Best-buy vehicles of latest model year, in 13 categories, starting at $21,000. (Toronto Star)

Review of the latest wave of smartphones, including BlackBerry Storm 2.0. (New York Times)

In defense of fast food: One man's unapologetic love affair with Burger King, Taco Bell, et al. (Newsweek)

In defense of candy: Meet a man who lives almost entirely on sweets. (New York Times)

Paul Rudner of New York's West Village: no veggies allowed.

PROGRESS

USDA push to get farmers markets' fresh groceries closer to you. (National Public Radio)

How new high-speed trains are making China smaller. (Newsweek)

Climate-change progress: Toshiba's new mini-nuclear reactors. (Reuters)

Electric cars are a step closer. (Euronews)

Put your dog on a diet, save the planet. (Toronto Star)

Deal with it: Biotech foods might be a cure world hunger. (New York Times)

The recession killed off grandiose "celebrity architecture." Good. (New York Times)

Centennial of Burnham's "Chicago Plan" - every city should all have been so lucky. (New Yorker)

The Magnificent Mile, the "front lawn" on Lake Michigan, these things don't happen by accident. It's called urban planning and Chicago's Daniel Burnham was one of history's best.
 

GETAWAYS, NEAR AND FAR

Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, New York, Nov. 10 only. (Carnegie Hall)

Montreal's Oliver Jones, consummate jazz pianist, at Glenn Gould Studio, Nov. 14 only. (GGS)

Gordon Lightfoot, Massey Hall, Toronto, Nov. 18, 19, 20.

"The Magic Flute," Opera de Montreal, Place des Arts de Montreal, Nov. 19 only.

Marvellous "Paul Gaugin, Paris 1889" show at Cleveland Museum of Art, Oct. 4-Jan. 18. (CMA)

Paul Gaugin, "Breton Girls Dancing, Pont Aven," 1888. On loan from National Gallery of Art, Washington.

 

MADE YOU LAUGH

Who knew the oboes have it in for the violas? (Shouts & Murmurs, New Yorker)

The man with but a surname takes a mate with no name at all. (Shouts & Murmers, New Yorker) 

TV critic Matthew Gilbert's 14 most-annoying TV characters of all time. (Boston Globe)

She tops one reviewers' list of most annoying TV characters of all time.

 

QuickLinx 10.16.09

TRENDS

Apple's new Tablet will reinvent personal computing. (Newsweek)

Early reviews on BlackBerry Storm 2 are positive, worthy rival to iPhone. (Christian Science Monitor)

New LRTs are suceeding in transit-hostile Phoenix, Denver and Salt Lake. (New Republic)

Time to stop knocking suburbia. It works. (Daily Telegraph)

HEALTH, FITNESS & RELATIONSHIPS

German men are the worst lovers, Spanish best, Canadians 10th-best, survey finds. (Daily Telegraph)

Words to use in that all-important first online dating response. (OKtrends.com)

It takes longer than the advertised 21 days to exchange a good for bad habit. Try 66 days. (Slate)

People more likely to wash their hands if they're shamed into it. (National Post)

When it comes to brain damage, football's no better than dogfighting. (Malcom Gladwell, New Yorker)

101 uses for a woman. (Times of London)  #11. Their method of navigation ("No, the other left.")

101 uses for a man. (Times of London)  #89. Watering the toilet seat. What is it, a plant? (1)

WORK & MONEY

More equal societies almost always fare better. (London Review of Books)

Study finds nasty bosses aren't evil, just insecure. Like you didn't know that. (Toronto Star)

Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan Chase are meltdown's big winners. (NYT)

Calvin Trillin's argument: Wall Street, refuge for B students, crashed after the smarties arrived. (NYT)

Trillin a bit tongue-in-cheek, but some stats back him up. (Baseline Scenario)

Actually, blame falls on unorthodox "outsiders" crashing Street's old boy's club. (New Republic)

The "too big to fail" doctrine for errant banks is prohibitively costly. (UK Guardian)

The world's "crappiest" job. (Yangtze Evening Post)

A&E

Roman Polanski's art and abominable behaviour don't diminish each other. (Daily Telegraph)

Samuel Johnson was a sexist xenophobe who understood human nature. (Daily Telegraph)

In her latest novel, Atwood again revels in dystopia. (London Review of Books)

Aspiring authors had better be social-networking bloggers. (Shouts & Murmers, New Yorker)

Chinese read health and wealth self-help books - and that's about it. (Der Spiegel)

Bill Murray is world's best comic actor, says latest co-star, George Clooney (Times of London)

John Cleese on what made "Fawlty Towers" work. (Reuters)

Comic Sarah Silverman's "Sell the Vatican. Feed the world." a YouTube hit. (Globe and Mail) (video) 

Hitchcock interview with Tom Snyder from 1973's "Tomorrow" resurfaces. (metafilter.com) (video)

The 50 best (worst?) movie villians. (Times of London) (2)

 

THE WAY WE LIVE TODAY

Black is back - ack! How unoriginal. And the lint... (New York Observer)

Why I dislike Lululemon more than ever. (FiredForNow.com)

The 50 most annoying things about the Internet. (Daily Telegraph)

Can you really tell if a man is dangerous by the shape of his face? (Slate)

What poker teaches us about notables who've mastered the game. (Chronicle of Higher Education)

  
(1) I found this commenter a tad discouraging. "Karen Tips wrote: '#102. Digging in the garden. My late husband was a great hand at digging up planting beds, tilling, making big holes for shrubs, etc. That is what I miss most about him.'" I know how the English obsess over their gardens. But doesn't the time Ms. Tib's husband sang "I Remember You" when asking her hand in marriage at the Savoy trump messing about with dirt?

(2) Fewer things worse than a movie villain you can't work up a real hate for. Some of my favourites: Harry Lime (Orson Welles) in The Third Man, Dennis Hopper in Speed, and the psychos in the first Dirty Harry and in Air Force One.

QuickNews, Wednesday, Sept. 30.

 

MASSIVE TOYOTA RECALL | World #1 automaker recalls 3.8 million Lexus and Toyota models. This time it's badly designed floor mats that hold down the accelerator, implicated in the Aug. 28 deaths of an off-duty California highway patrolman and his three passengers. This biggest-ever Toyota recall is latest of many since Toyota's manic over-expansion, marked by slipping quality standards.

IT BREACHES SKYROCKET | Survey finds near quadrupling of security breaches in 2009. There were an average of 11.3 breaches per Canadian organization this year, versus just 3 last year, at an average cost per organization of $834,149.

Damaged shoreline on Samoa, where tidal waves reached as far as 1.5 km inland.

TSUNAMI IN SOUTH PACIFIC | Tidal waves from 8.3 magnitude quake strike Samoa and American Samoa. Death toll estimated at more than 100 people, hundreds more injured. Warnings called off for Hawaii, New Zealand and U.S. West Coast.  

BUY CANADIAN | Attempt to exempt Canada from "Buy America." Promising negotiations underway to exempt Canadian goods and services from "Buy America" provisions of Obama's unprecedented $787-billion (U.S.) stimulus bill.

WET COAST BUDGET GAP | Vancouver building-boom stall-out cuts civic revenues. City scrambling to make economies and raise user fees to cover sudden $60-million shortfall in nearly $1-billion budget.

ROTTING ON THE VINE | Canadian vineyards hard hit by recession. Consumers trading down to cheaper labels. Some grapes, selling at prices 40% below last year, will go unharvested. Global industry over-planted, creating worldwide glut. B.C. industry rep David Bond cites "ocean of wine out there." 

CHINA SYNDROME | State oil companies' latest grab for reserves is Nigeria. Why doesn't China lend its moral authority in Darfur? It needs Sudan's oil. China's oil colonization, especially in Africa, will be a repeated diplomatic flashpoint over next few years.

CAUTIOUS MILESTONE | China marking 60th year of Communist regime with dissident crackdowns. State control of business down to 30%-40% from 70%, but growing embrace of capitalism not matched by regard for free speech.

GREEN SHOOTS | U.S. home prices rise for third straight month, after three years of decline. Gannett (USA Today) is rare bright light in gloomy media biz, 3Q profit forecast beats Street estimates.

GREEN CITIES | Stockholm vying for title of "greenest city." But then, so is Copenhagen, which hosts historic climate-change summit in December. Also Pittsburgh, in advance of hosting last week's G20. Somewhere Rachel Carson, founder of modern environmental movement, is smiling.

GREEN INVESTMENTS | Global bets on clean-tech business are soaring. Despite recession, investment in everything from solar power to electric cars, green building materials to an upgraded electric grid, have jumped to $1.9 billion (U.S.) in 3Q from $836 million in Q1. 

GOOD LUCK CURBING CLIMATE CHANGE | The status quo has all the money, Paul Krugman notes. ""The industries of the past have armies of lobbyists in place right now; the industries of the future don't."

PAUL MARTIN REDUX | Gordon Brown, facing election and badly trailing in polls, attempts makeover. Emerging finally from Blair's shadow, longtime finance minister with reputation for saying "no" is lately a fierce progressive on climate change and other issues, but jaded Brits aren't buying.

QUOTE OF THE DAY | "Two and two is four and five'll get you ten - if you know how to work it." -Mae West.

 

Courtesy Paul Noth, The New Yorker. 

Today's top news, Monday, Sept. 14.

Canada heading into fourth election in six years, with no good reason. Spate of minority governments in the 1960s, too, but that was the period of Medicare, CPP and QPP's creation, bilingualism and multiculturalism policies and a new Canadian flag - still the foundation of modern, pluralistic Canada. This time, argues Globe's John Ibbitson, it's just a game of chicken serving only partisan interests will genuine issues go undebated.

Preparing for new parliamentary session. Commons members return today from summer break.

EU makes threatening noises about Berlin's bailout of Opel in Magna deal. And a trustee of Germany's stake in Opel frets that Opel's technology, funded by Berlin, will get shipped to Russia. As I wrote here, I don't think Magna's deal is anywhere near happening, despite last week's hoopla.

Four reasons Ford might just be the automaker of the future.

Silicon Valley worries, with good reason, neither it nor the U.S. will emerge as powerhouse of 21st-century clean-energy revolution. China already has a lead in solar panels; India also coming up fast in alternative energy development. Much nascent activity in Canada, too, but lacks government push.

Google's high-level defections becoming too numerous to ignore. Has Google lost its mojo a  growth company, faster than the Microsoft did by the mid-1990s?

Obama to use Lehman-collapse anniversary for speech today on need for advanced financial-market regulations. NYT business columnist Gretchen Morgenson on continued lack of accountability for Wall Street regulators. Plus ca change.

Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel-laureate economist, urges end to fetish with GDP as chief indicator of economic health - a notion Obama first gave voice to months ago. Also warns that Wall Street banks in no better shape now than Lehman Brothers' collapse a year ago tomorrow.

American Airlines said to seek tie-up with JAL, another sign of industry consolidation that began with successful integration of Air France and KLM, now world's biggest airline.

IKEA's persistent and intermittently successful battle against Russian corrupution. 

Michelangelo's Florence agog at huge new American statue, 'marvelous' to some observers, 'monstrous' to others. New York sculptor Greg Wyatt, 59, intends "Two Rivers" - the first new monumental work to appear in the fabled Piazza della Signoria in five centuries - as symbolic of the ties between peoples of the Arno and Hudson rivers. Florentines famously passionate about public art pieces; appearance of Michelangelo's "David" in 1505 ignited storm of controversy - same kind of debate the largely Florence-financed Wyatt piece is intended to generate. Wyatt's only worry is that the piazza might crack under the weight of his 11-ton, 18-foot-tall bronze statue.  

American sculptor Greg Wyatt's enormous "Two Rivers" in a Paris studio in August. The enormous bronze statue has since been erected in Florence's renowned Piazza della Signoria.

________________________

Quote of the day

"Never work with an Oscar winner who is shorter than the statue." -Larry Gelbart (1928-2009), U.S. screenwriter (A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, "M*A*S*H*," Tootsie, Oh, God!, Barbarians at the Gate), after a falling out with Tootsie star Dustin Hoffman.

 

 

Futurama: The future made visible.

Day 648

Towards a sustainable environment.

Boston looks to Montreal for help in setting up bike-rental network.

Boston hopes within 60 days to have decided on setting up a network of bike-rental stations modelled on a slightly larger one in Montreal. The Canadian city's Public Bike System Co. operates a network of 300 stations in Montreal with a fleet of 3,000 rental bikes, under the name BIXI. The bikes can be obtained with the swipe of a prepaid card, and dropped off at a station close to the cyclist's destination. (Rental-bike photo courtesy of BIXI.)

Montrealers pay $78 (U.S.) for an annual pass offering unlimited trips or $5 (U.S.) per day. Shorter trips are encouraged by making the first 30 minutes' use free.

Paris was early in setting up a bike-rental system, but it has suffered from a great deal of vandalism. Washington, D.C. is the only U.S. city with a bike-rental network, a small one with 100 bikes and 12 stations. Seattle and Portland are giving thought to the idea, although a Portland experiment with bike rentals in the 1990s ended after extensive vandalism.

AP reports:

"Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, an avid cyclist, called the city 'a perfect venue' for the program, noting it recently added miles of bike lanes and hundreds of bike racks and launched a stolen-bike alert system using online social media networks. Leaders in [Boston suburbs] Cambridge, Brookline and Somerville say they're hoping to add the service to their communities to give it a broader, metropolitan-Boston reach. 'So many Somerville residents already commute to work by bike, so why not make it even easier for folks to make those small, midday trips by bike as well?' Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone said."

New York might not be far behind. Powerful U.S. Senator Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) takes to his bike most Sundays for a two-hour tour of different parts of NYC. And as every Yankee fan knows, Beantown is not allowed to be bigger or better at anything than the Big Apple. 

Related

* Slate: What's holding back commuter cyclists is lack of parking, and resulting fear of vandalism and theft. Many U.S. cities, notably New York, are now experimenting with laws requiring new office buildings and existing car parks to provide minimum parking for bicycles. Noteworthy stat: It's estimated that in England a bicycle is stolen every 71 seconds.

Norway's oil fund to commit 1% of assets to green investments.

Ahead of the U.N. Climate Change summit in Copenhagen in December, Norway has announced it will commit 1% of its massive petroleum fund to sustainable energy projects worldwide. That comes to $4 billion (U.S.) annually by the world's second-largest sovereign wealth fund, which boasts total assets of almost $400 billion (U.S.). The move is seen by some as a negotiating tactic for use at Copenhagen. China has proposed that affluent nations commit 1% of GDP to green projects in developing-world economies. That figure is largely ignored. But the concept of wealthy-nation subsidies for developing-world green projects has been widely embraced. Norway might be showing its preferred method of contributing. Its sovereign wealth fund has long been regarded as one of the most astutely-managed of its kind. That and its its enormous size will doubtless influence negotiations in the Danish capital.  

 

 

 

Duelling experts on peak oil.

Energy consultant Michael Lynch had to know, given the passion of "peak oil" believers, that his dismissal of their long-standing alarms in this NYT op-ed would bring a quick, sharp retort. Lynch is former director for Asian energy and security at the Center for International Studies at M.I.T. I've excerpted him first, below, then the inevitable counterpunch: 

"Oil remains abundant, and the price will likely come down closer to the historical level of $30 a barrel as new supplies come forward in the deep waters off West Africa and Latin America, in East Africa, and perhaps in the Bakken oil shale fields of Montana and North Dakota. But that may not keep the Chicken Littles from convincing policymakers in Washington and elsewhere that oil, being finite, must increase in price. (That’s the logic that led the Carter administration to create the Synthetic Fuels Corporation, a $3 billion boondoggle that never produced a gallon of useable fuel.)

"This is not to say that we shouldn’t keep looking for other cost-effective, low-pollution energy sources — why not broaden our options? But we can’t let the false threat of disappearing oil lead the government to throw money away on harebrained renewable energy schemes or impose unnecessary and expensive conservation measures on a public already struggling through tough economic times."

In Henry Blodget's must-read, cheeky BusinessInsider.com, prominent peaker Chris Nelder takes on not only Lynch but co-"denialists" Daniel Yergin (The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power), which is like aiming a pie at Mount Rushmore; and the less prominent Raymond Learsy. Here's Nelder on Lynch, from an essay, "Don't Waste Your Time Reading the Peak-Oil Deniers":  

"In April 2007, Lynch predicted that oil would gradually drop from the current $65 a barrel to the mid-to-low $40s in 2008. In reality, it climbed steadily to $147. I could go on for days pointing out the errors in Lynch’s long history of peak oil denial, but at this point I think his record speaks for itself, and it seems unsporting to continue.

"As far as I am aware, Lynch has not offered a detailed model of his own for oil reserves or production. I don’t know if that’s because he lacks the data and skills to do so, or simply because it would expose him to fact-based criticism. Instead he simply argues that the future will be like the past...His faith in a continually increasing supply of cheap oil on a finite planet is unflagging, and firmly rooted in the gospel of perfect markets and technological progress. I have never seen him print a single mea culpa for his long, wrong, predictive track record...

"Of course the problem is not that naysayers like Lynch spout nonsense, but that members of the media take him seriously. If we let outlier critics like Lynch lull us into a false sense of security about future oil supply, we won’t begin soon enough on the decades-long effort to leave oil before it leaves us–and we will pay for it dearly."

I've always thought it a poor idea to advance one's argument by counselling against reading the other fellow's. Nelder's attack on three deniers of peak-oil theory is at least as lacking in irrefutable evidence as the "denialists" he attacks.

That said, fossil fuels undeniably are finite. The planet's oil reserves may well have peaked. The problem here is that producing nations, and the occasional oil company, are notoriously secretive and quite often economic with the truth about the true extent of their reserves. Sometimes, as with Iraq, national authorities simply don't know; sometimes, as with Saudi Arabia, they exaggerate depletion rates or alternately boast of vast untapped reserves, whichever serves their purpose at a given time. So all calculations of remaining oil reserves are ballpark estimates.

It's impossible to see a long-term future for oil in its current widespread use, given not only that it's not inexhaustible, but that remaining reserves increasingly are in remote locations and controlled by hostile regimes given to abrupt expropriation (Russia, Venezuela) and kleptocracy (Kazakhstan, world's ninth-largest country, with control over the oilfields of the eastern Caspian Sea).

For what it's worth, I see oil at $200 (U.S.) within two years, as Western demand returns to pre-recession levels, and the industrial revolutions in the developing world (not just China and India) put upward pressure on demand. It's worth noting that oil producers in the Mideast and elsewhere are consuming increasing amounts of their output, a threat to their traditional role as pure exporters. Lynch is all wrong about conservation. It's not a scare tactic. It's a very real and responsible first big step in extending our oil addiction until alternative-energy development and widespread application kick in over the next two decades.

What peakers have to accept is that oil will continue to be a significant part of the energy mix for another generation. And denialists, if they have children and grandchildren, have to pray for their sake that we make rapid progress in replacing petroleum-based energy sources before they are, indeed, depleted.

The only sensible scenario is one in which we cut back on personal and institutional use of fossil fuels, because they imperil the plant by their CO2 emissions. That we accelerate, with government support as necessary, the perfection of alternative-energy sources, the construction and retrofitting of more energy-efficient homes and institutional buildings that exploit the the sun and other alternative energy. That we upgrade power grids and retrofit filling stations for plug-in cars. And that we continue the search for oil and natural gas, plus the R&D into using fossil fuels less wastefully, and that we contemplate restricting the use of fossil fuels to those increasing few (we hope) sectors where alternatives are least practical.

Only a holistic approach makes sense.

Related

Matthew Simmons (Foreign Policy): "Oil spin: peak oil is for real.

* Walrus: Chris Turner's compelling profile of Dave Hughes, veteran Canadian hydrocarbon geologist, who's constantly on the road delivering his data-laden "Talk" on rapidly depleting fossil fuels. Step One, Hughes says with urgency, is to radically cut consumption.   

Sea change: Gotta be green to qualify as EU president.

In his campaign for re-election to a second five-year term as European Commission president, Jose Manuel Barroso has unveiled a comprehensive plan for cutting the 27 EU nations' reliance on traditional fossil fuels and embracing alternative-energy sources. It's an interesting move, since Barroso is unopposed for re-election. And the stance he's taken runs against the laggard progress on alternative-fuel conversion among the nations for which he speaks.

"We need to start working now on a radical pathway to reaching a far more sustainable Europe by 2020, The next Commission needs to maintain the momentum toward a low emission economy, and in particular toward decarbonizing our electricity supply and the transport sector - all transport, including maritime transport and aviation, as well as the development of clean and electric cars. Decarbonizing electricity supply and transport will also bring additional benefits in terms of security of energy supply...One of the next great European projects is to give Europe a new European supergrid for electricity and gas.... so that we have secure and stable supplies of energy which meet our climate change goals."

Why this "greening" of Barroso?

Practically, Green parties have clout in Europe, as members of governing coalitions in many EU countries. And greens have been consistently doubtful of Barroso's environmental credentials. Second, it's become clear this decade that Europe's dependence on unreliable Russian natural gas imports is a strategic vulnerability. 

Finally, there is indeed an economic stimulus effect for EU member states from the transformation Barroso is now promoting. It matches item for item what Obama campaigned on, and to which the U.S. president already has committed a hunk of his $787-billion (U.S.) stimulus funds. Putting aside Obama's popularity in Western Europe, this is less a Barroso effort to ride Obama's coattails than to head off a competitive threat to Europe from the U.S. There's a limited supply of researchers, money, engineers and entrepreneurs in the alternative-energy sector. Europe can't afford to slip behind in laying claim to them.

Related

* NYT: Op-ed contributor poses question "Are we too late?" in fight against climate change. If so, we should get started planning worst-case scenarios. H.D.S. Greenway writes:

"When the world meets in Copenhagen to discuss climate change come December, I hope there will be more thought on what has to be done if climate change cannot be prevented. Where will we put the island peoples whose nations are inexorably disappearing? What can we invent that will keep crops growing in higher temperatures and less water? What can we plan now that will mitigate — and maybe even prevent — some of the worse horrors that we can now quite accurately predict?"

* Reuters: Green-venture funding, which evaporated in recession, is back, but with a new focus on using power more efficiently:

"Investment is seen shifting from capital-intensive energy generating technologies, such as solar and wind, to those associated with energy storage, transportation and efficiency. Bets are being placed on lithium-ion battery makers and startups in the smart grid sector that offer a range of possibilities from helping electric utilities operate systems more efficiently to enabling consumers to control energy use. Smart grid technologies aim to make the existing power grid more efficient and reliable."

* NYT: U.N. tries to quantify cost of curbing global heating, puts the figure at $170 billion (U.S.) per year over next few decades. European legislators calculate $140 billion (U.S.) Figures on this vary because of unknowable human-behaviour trends. If conservation is widely embraced, if the take-up of plug-in electric cars is high, if utilities switch from coal-burning plants and stop building new ones, the cost of saving the planet will drop considerably.

* NYT: U.S. landlords beginning to install electric-car-charging stations in apartment buildings.

Wind turbines and hybrid cars could trigger rare-earth shortage.

Reuters reports:

"Gasoline-electric hybrid cars and other similar vehicles [will be] vulnerable to a supply crunch predicted by experts as China, the world's dominant rare earths producer, limits exports while global demand swells. Worldwide demand for rare earths, covering 15 entries on the periodic table of elements, is expected to exceed supply by some 40,000 tonnes annually in several years unless major new production sources are developed.

"Among the rare earths that would be most affected in a shortage is neodymium, the key component of an alloy used to make he high-power, lightweight magnets for electric motors of hybrid cars, such as the Prius, Honda Insight and Ford Fusion, as well as in generators for wind turbines. Close cousins terbium and dysprosium are added in smaller amounts to the alloy to preserve neodymium's magnetic properties at high temperatures. Yet another rare earth metal, lanthanum, is a major ingredient for hybrid car batteries."

Downloading is the eco-friendly method of buying music.

No surprise, really. A new study by Carnegie Mellon and Stanford researchers, financed by Microsoft and Intel, finds that downloading CDs is far less energy intensive than ordering them online for home delivery or picking one up at the mall - provided you drive to the mall. If you walk, the energy cost is about the same as downloading. Notice in the chart the huge portion of total energy cost accounted for by transportation.

Chart: NYT.

A bit gratuitous of me, but I don't hear talk out of Ottawa about modernizing our antiquated power grid, financing sustainable-energy development, sprinkling a bit of the $48 billion (Cdn.) in our taxpayer-funded stimulus money on cities that want to emulate Montreal's bike-rental network (maybe now that Boston's interested, Ottawa will pay attention), or just cleaning up the Sydney Tar Ponds and the global eco-disgrace of Athabasca.

So we look to provinces and municipalities for innovation. Here's a marvelous example in the Toronto Transit Commission's "greening" of a traditional subway station:

 

 

 

 

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 Futurama is in tribute to GM's pavilion at the 1939-40 World's Fair, whose theme was "Building the World of Tomorrow." Arguably the last of the great world's fairs, the exhibition marked a time of North American confidence in the future as it emerged from the Depression. The 700-foot Trylon spire and adjoining Perisphere orb, as large as a city block, were embraced by New Yorkers as whimsical mascots. The spirit of optimism managed to eclipse fears of the growing conflict in Europe and the Pacific Rim.

 

For the purposes of this blog, the inception of the Great Recession in the U.S., the epicentre of the crisis, is taken as the start date for the global slump. The U.S. has been in recession since December 2007.