Verb nounification strikes again
Turning verbs into nouns into verbs and vice versa has been going on since cavemen learned to grunt. (more…)...
The Oracle of Oil, book review
THIS is a curious time to publish a biography of M. King Hubbert. The story of how this brilliant but irascible Shell geologist accurately forecast in 1956 that US oil production would peak and go into terminal decline by 1970 is by now well worn. (more…)...
Reasons to be fearful
This article was first published in New Scientist, 27 July 2013.
DOOM-MONGERS of the climate variety might want to look away now – we apparently have more time to save the planet. A recent study published in Nature Geoscience suggests it will warm more slowly than feared, perhaps buying an extra decade for action. (more…)...
Europe’s carbon price is down but not out
This article was first published in New Scientist, 27 June 2013.
THE world's biggest carbon market, the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme, is now widely regarded as a basket case. (more…)...
Inside the frack-heads’ not-so-secret agenda
This piece was first published in the ODAC Newsletter, 14 December 2012.
The announcement on Thursday that the government is lifting its moratorium on fracking held all the surprise of turkey on the Christmas menu. (more…)...
What price Iraq?
This article was published in Middle East Oil & Gas Monitor, 16 October 2012.
The fate of the world economy depends critically on Iraqi oil, according to a report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) published last week. (more…)...
Liquid air: the birth of the nitrogen economy
This article was first published in gasworld in September 2012.
Everybody’s heard of the hydrogen economy, with its promise of limitless low carbon energy. But after decades of R&D, the dream seems scarcely any closer. Apparently still confounded by major technical challenges, the hydrogen economy remains an elusive mirage – always ‘just 10 years away’. (more…)...