The article, also conveniently posted on the FT's website, notes that the "first authoritative public study" says that output from the world's oilfields is declining faster than previously believed. According to the study -- due to be published next month by the International Energy Agency -- the annual rate of output decline is 9.1 percent. (To be fair, the IEA homepage carries a statement expressing "dismay" that the report was "made made public without our input and verification."
But according to the FT, the report's "findings suggest the world will struggle to produce enough oil to make up for steep declines in existing fields, such as those in the North Sea, Russia and Alaska, and meet long-term demand," the FT wrote. "All the increase in oil demand until 2030 comes from emerging countries, while consumption in developed countries declines."
According to the paper, the IEA report will also warn that the world needed to make a "significant increase in future investments just to maintain the current level of production".
Investments? Yes. In oil field production? Hell no.
The report affirms the growing belief by economists, government officials and other business leaders that we cannot drill or dig our way to a secure energy future.
We need to instead invest in clean energy alternatives, alternatives that already exist and are only awaiting leadership from worldwide businesses and governments to be brought to scale. Last month's last-minute renewal of alternative energy tax credits was a huge boost but now we need our leaders invest in what New York Times columnist Tom Friedman calls ET -- energy technology.
Opinion research shows us that the public believes that green energy is real and with appropriate investment can meet the world's growing demand for energy. We'll soon learn whether a new administration and Congress will recognize this growing force and get with the program.
If they don't, the report from the International Energy Agency suggests that someday soon, we'll look back with great nostalgia on the days when gasoline was "only" $5 a gallon.
]]>Now it is true -- as noted on the Green Data Center blog -- that the IBM ads are marketing material through and through, but I have to say that it is some of the best marketing material I've ever seen. The ads (see below for an example) make a strong financial argument that we all need to hear.
The concept is simple: a young woman brings an energy efficiency plan involving the firm's data centers to her boss who all but ridicules her as a tree-hugging, granola-eating idiot. When the boss asks why in the world he should sign off on her plan, she calmly responds: "This plan could cut our energy costs by 40 percent and we spent $18 million on energy last year."
Mr. Bluster can't sign the papers fast enough.
Luckily business leadership is listening and turning marketing material like the IBM ads into reality. The Wall Street Journal reported recently that big computer makers are spotting a trend.
"Rising electricity prices, coupled with new computer servers that run hotter and require more power, has corporate technology buyers looking for ways to cut back," the article by William Bulkeley says. "Power use in data centers -- the large, climate-controlled rooms that house a company's computer servers, storage devices and communications switches -- doubled from 2000 to 2006 and now accounts for about 1.5% of U.S. electricity consumption, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. A recent McKinsey & Co. report says that world-wide, the centers' carbon emissions exceed those of Argentina."
And growing quickly. Forbes.com today has a story about Cisco and its plans for worldwide data center domination. "The giants of the Internet--Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, Amazon--plus fast-moving Chinese upstarts like Baidu and TenCent, are building more of these giant centers. Microsoft figures it will expand its network of data centers 64-fold over the next few years, just to handle some 200 services, including Xbox online gaming, video and corporate software rented over the Web."
I've said it before and I'll probably say it again: Congress will adopt global warming legislation once enough states and big business interests see the "green" light. Until then, sound energy policy will too often be ridiculed as nothing more than good PR.
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