21st Century Vision

Has Saudi Oil Peaked?

Ever since its rich reserves were discovered more than a half-century ago, Saudi Arabia has pumped the oil needed to keep pace with rising needs, becoming the mainstay of the global energy markets. But the country's oil fields now are in decline, prompting industry and government officials to raise serious questions about whether the kingdom will be able to satisfy the world's thirst for oil in coming years.

For more information about the state of the Oil Industry worldwide and whether production has peaked or not then visit -

Association for the Study of Peak Oil & Gas
Peak Oil
Oil Crash
Die Off

Water 'wake-up call' given by UN

More than 2.6 billion people – over 40 per cent of the world's population – do not have basic sanitation, and more than one billion people still use unsafe sources of drinking water, warns a major report released today by WHO (the World Health Organization) and UNICEF.

“The growing disparity between the haves and the have-nots in terms of access to basic services is killing around 4,000 children every day and underlies many more of the 10 million child deaths each year. We have to act now to close this gap or the death toll will certainly rise."

See Unicef Report....

Eight Millennium Development Goals were agreed by the Member States of the United Nations at the Millennium Summit in 2000. The targets state that the proportion of people worldwide not having access to an improved water source, and the proportion of people worldwide not having access to adequate sanitation facilities, should be halved between the baseline year of 1990 and 2015

The global sanitation target will be missed by a staggering half a billion people – most of them in rural Africa and Asia – allowing waste and disease to spread, killing millions of children and leaving millions more on the brink of survival.

The silent emergency...
Why world's taps are running dry....

Global Energy Strategy Needed

Climate change is probably one of the major issues facing us all in the future. Running close to it is the worldwide depletion of oil and natural gas. The next three decades will see the ending of the “carbon economy" as we know it. Nation states cannot tackle this problem alone. There has to be a global response. Does our Government have a global strategy?

Petroleum geologists have known for 50 years that global oil production would "peak" and begin its inevitable decline within a decade of the year 2000. Moreover, no renewable energy systems have the potential to generate more than a fraction of the power now being generated by fossil fuels. The transition to declining energy availability may signal a transition in civilization, as we know it. Read more...

Energy & Instability

Will energy demand be the cause of future war, friction and terror in the world in the next two or three decades. Does it already explain what is happening in Iraq and Afghanistan? There is now growing evidence that industrial countries are running out of energy resources and that this may form the basis for instability in the future

Today, the U.S. is importing over 64% of its oil from foreign countries. Of the total imports, 18.2% came from Persian Gulf countries. High oil imports are seen as a threat to the economy and national security. Facts at a glance

British Gas is set to increase its prices for the second time this year as it UK energy supplies dwindle and wholesale prices rise ever higher. The UK, formerly a net exporter of gas and oil, is set to become a net importer in the next year or so for the first time since North Sea oil was discovered in the 1970s. This means UK energy suppliers will be forced to bid for energy sources on global markets and will grow increasingly dependent on overseas suppliers. Read more...

UK 'will lead climate change efforts'

Britain will use its forthcoming EU presidency and G8 leadership to push for more action on climate change. Lord Whitty has said.

"Internationally our first priority is climate change, in the long term probably the most important issue we face as a global community"

But as we see in a previous post (Aug 17th) a cross Party group of MPs has reported - On present trends,the Government would fail to meet its target of reducing Britain's CO2 emissions by 2010.

Global warming is serious and the first thing we need is the truth.

Global Warming Effects Us All

Increasingly severe summer rainstorms like the one which led to the flood that devastated Boscastle are beginning to suggest the influence of global warming, according to one flood scientist.

Also a report by the Office of Science and Technology last April gives the most chilling picture yet of how global warming will affect the lives of millions of Britons over the next half century. They state that risks of flooding are growing to "unacceptable levels" because of climate change with up to 4 million Britons facing the prospect of their homes being inundated. The report shows that many towns in Britain are threatened by rising sea levels, river flooding and the overwhelming of Victorian drains by flash floods.

More on Flood scientist's warning...
More on Office of Science & Technology report…

More Action Needed On Global Warming

With the Government under criticism by an all Party House of Commons Committee for falling down on the strategy to tackle global warming that Stephen Twigg outlined for us in 2002 and with a House of Lords Committee stating that Tony Blair must increase efforts to persuade the US and Russia to sign the Kyoto treaty to tackle global warming then what do some of our MEPs think about this. Here is what they told us,

Theresa Villiers, Conservative MEP. The US rejection of Kyoto was deeply regrettable. I would like to see intensive negotiations between UK and other EU countries and the US to try to get the global strategy on climate change back on track. No matter how effective the EU approach on this issue, it will have limited impact unless we can persuade the US to take this seriously as well. There is far more that the US could be doing to tackle this problem effectively. If Tony Blair has the influence over the US President that he claims, he should be using it to get Mr Bush to take effective measures on climate change.

Sarah Ludford, Liberal Democrat MEP. The EU has promoted the Kyoto accord in the face of US opposition and is seeking to persuade the Russians to ratify to achieve the 55% of carbon emitting countries needed for the protocol to take force. The EU needs to get tough and tell the US, which produces more CO2 emissions than any other country accounting for nearly a quarter of all CO2 emissions on the planet, that it is wrong not to curb its pollution. Tony Blair may spin a line, which sounds eco- friendly, but he has done nothing within his special relationship with the US to make the US see sense.

Jean Lambert, Green Party MEP. We continue to challenge the UK Government’s aviation expansion programme both at home and in the European Parliament, condemning it for recklessly and deliberately increasing the contribution fuel from aviation will make to climate change; aviation is the quickest growing emitter of greenhouse gases on the planet. I don't think anywhere in the world has developed an adequate strategy to respond to climate change because it means tackling head on the production/consumption, growth-driven dynamics of the global economy.

Promises Not On Target

In April 2002, we questioned Stephen Twigg MP about the impact of carbon dioxide emissions on climate change and the dangers of this to our environment. Stephen Twigg told us then,

The issue of Climate Change and global warming is a high personal priority for me. The protocol for the first time sets legally binding targets for developed countries who agreed to reduce their combined emissions of a basket of six greenhouse gases overall by at least 5.2% below 1990 levels by 2008-12. The UK Government does fully support the Kyoto protocol but is also setting its own domestic targets to tackle climate change. The UK Government has a domestic goal to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 20% below 1990 levels by 2010.

Two days ago , a powerful cross-party group of MPs alleged that our strategy is seriously off course. They said,

Britain's strategy for countering climate change is seriously off course, and the Government is likely to miss one of its key global warming targets. On present trends, the committee said, the Government would fail to meet its target of reducing Britain's CO2 emissions by 2010, and would fail by a substantial margin - increasing the "carbon gap". The main reason for this, the MPs say, is that although emissions from industry and energy production are down, there is still a rapid and unceasing growth in CO2 emissions from aircraft, lorries and cars.

Clearly the hopes of two years ago have not been fulfilled and we would expect an explanation from our Government – and especially after Sir David King, the government's chief scientific adviser has warned that,

There is more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than for 55m years, enough to melt all the ice on the planet and submerge cities like London, New York and New Orleans

Read about the cross-party MPs report..

Trade Justice For All

Over the last decade protests over globalisation have been about the type of globalisation that has been imposed on the world mainly from Washington. It has been a policy that has tended to favour the rich over the poor countries. We asked one of our Green MEPs about this Jean Lambert

I am particularly concerned about the current trade negotiations on public services (the GATS) and its implications both for our services in the UK and for the delivery of services in the developing world. Trade policy is of key importance in building a more secure world and MEPs bear the responsibility of challenging the neo-liberal free trade dogma which dominates current EU policy both at home and at the World Trade Organisation, and which exacerbates the poverty and inequality in much of the developing world. Tackling this deepening poverty and inequality both within and between nations wouldn’t just make real progress towards a fairer world – it would also be a far more effective way of building a more secure world than the pre-emptive and illegal strike on Iraq.

We need a radical reform of the world trade rules to the heart of the decision-making process. The existing trade rules are rigged against some of the world's poorest people and need completely rewriting. The WTO, which embodies the ‘free trade at all costs’ approach of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), needs to be replaced with an institution that embodies a new General Agreement on Sustainable Trade (GAST). The European Commission must review its trade position in the WTO and we will continue raising public awareness of the situation.

Is Trade Fair

We asked Joan Ryan MP - Does the government accept that trade justice is central to any strategy of poverty reduction? Joan answered

The Government is committed to reducing the debts of the most poverty-stricken third world countries and accept that trade justice has a fundamental role in achieving this aim. To this end we announced, back in September, a new £50 million package to help developing countries create more jobs, increase exports and reap benefits from the multilateral trading system.

The Trade Justice Movement does not agree that the Government is doing enough and questions its strategy

The UK Government believes unfettered free trade can deliver a triple whammy - reducing third world poverty at the same time as benefiting British consumers and British businesses. The organisations in the Trade Justice Movement say, 'No, it can’t'. The benefits of trade will only reach the poor – at home and in the Third World – if international trade rules are deliberately weighted in favour of poor people and the environment. The Trade Justice Movement says the UK Government is pushing these free trade policies in the face of historical evidence that these are not the key to helping very poor countries develop.

Go to Joan's full answer...