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Published online 3 June 2009 | Nature 459, 627 (2009) | doi:10.1038/459627b

News in Brief

Economic gloom threatens renewables investment

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  • The prediction by IEA on May 27, 2009 about the 3.5% drop on global electricity consumption comes as a real pleasant surprise. It is a piece of wonderfully encouraging yet engaging news in this time of the highly fluctuating oil price (from the peak of $147 last year to a low of $36 this March and now lingering above $65). The world should not be at the mercy of the non-renewable fossil energy source. To counter the over-dependency on oil, we must make every effort to use less oil and use it efficiently. Besides, research on renewable sources must go on at all cost ? the only way to make the environment sustainable for our children?s children and their children. We OWE them that much. (Tan Boon Tee)

    • 03 Jun, 2009
    • Posted by: B T Tan

  • The idea that we can "stimulate" our way of this economic slump is misguided since the world has now entered a phase of energy decline and so the economy must decline with that. See an essay I wrote on this topic: www.energybulletin.net/node/48731 and see recent comments by Prof. Kjell Aleklett of ASPO international where he reanalyses the IEA's own oil data to show that oil production volumes in the future will be much lower than IEA predictions: www.platts.com/weblog/oilblog/2009/05/the_latest_peak_oil_projection.html Michael Lardelli

    • 04 Jun, 2009
    • Posted by: Michael Lardelli