According to Royal Dutch Shell, solar could overtake oil as the world’s dominant energy source within the next 50 years. While analysts have long debated how much and how quickly solar could displace oil, this is probably the first time that a supermajor oil company has – through its own analysis – come up with quantifiable numbers. Chevron and Exxon-Mobil, two other supermajors who are increasing their renewable portfolios at exponential rates, also foresee a similar picture, although not quite as quickly.
Are Renewables & Conventional Oil more ethical than Oilsands?
This is a piece that I posted to my personal blog over eighteen months ago. My perspective here was to promote discussion (and there was a heated twitter debate between myself and two friends) and ultimately make people think about the impact of their personal choices first and foremost. This debate/discussion is still relevant.
Culled from www.blackpolitico.blogspot.ca
While we wait for the hydrogen-powered cars of the future, does no one think of the socio-political issues around drilling in the Middle East? Sure, you can suck up oil from the ground using a straw in those places, but at what cost to the people there? At what cost to generation X of the United States and its allies, who aren’t fighting a war for world peace or to bring down a tyrant – as was the case in the first two world wars, respectively – but who are fighting instead so that the West can have oil at $70 per barrel?