Blogs & Ecology

Would a dramatic reduction in demand for oil caused by a green vehicle revolution cause the same type of reduction in oil prices that the global financial crisis has?

Overall, I don't see why not.

In fact, I'm guessing that the eye-opening impact of the financial crisis on oil demand and prices is exactly what major oil producers are afraid of should the world experience a green vehicle revolution.

Think about all the benefits that our society would receive from an oil demand-destroying green vehicle revolution that lowers gas prices via efficient, clean technologies rather than via a global financial crisis:

The big story of the year in Southeast Asia was the global economic downturn. A rice and food price crisis hit the region last summer. It was compounded by the dramatic rise of oil and gas prices. When prices of these commodities began to stabilize, Wall Street announced the crash of several banks and major financial institutions in the United States.

According to BurmaNet News, an increasing number of elephants in northern Myanmar are being killed for its ivory and skin for over a decade. Myanmar has the largest elephant population in Southeast Asia.

Zhou-jiugeng, Commissioner of Nanjing Housing Administration Bureau, is now a celebrity on the internet.

Angola, as everyone knows, is a beautiful country. With around 1,246,700 km2, Angola retains the most diverse landscapes, from Benguela's naturally warm water beaches to the dense and rich Maiombe forest in Cabinda or the legendary Namibe desert, the only place in the world where the special welwitschia mirabilis grows.

Iranian automaker Saipa has unveiled its newly-designed domestically-manufactured new car. Kosoof,a leading Iranian photo blogger, has published several photos of this new car.

dawn_1o9 reports that pre-paid GSM SIM cards are now available in Myanmar, but costs and application procedures are still prohibitive. Mobile phones have been used in the protest actions against the ruling Junta.

Anti-government protesters are still occupying Bangkok’s two major airports. Thailand’s tourism officials have estimated that 240,000 passengers are still stranded in the country.

Initial flight schedules have been released for stranded passengers. Tourists who want to leave Thailand are embarking on a bus trip towards Malaysia even if they will have to pass Thailand’s southern provinces, where an insurgency exists.

Some bit of not so bad news: Thailand’s tourism authorities have issued a list of hotels offering accommodation for stranded passengers. A special flight was arranged for Thai Muslim pilgrims to their annual Haj pilgrimage to Mecca. Foreign governments are making extra efforts to help their citizens.

As of this writing, the airport crisis is still not over. Dozens of empty planes were allowed to leave Bangkok, but protesters still control the two major airports in Thailand.

About seven months after the global food crisis was showing up on people's radar and two months after the global financial crisis made headlines, Trinidad and Tobago's Prime Minister decided that the time was right to address the nation regarding the state of the economy.

A striking moment

Ye, a daily paid worker on the construction site, recalled what happened at the moment. “A BANG was heard shortly after some one crying ‘run! The steel bars are falling!”’, he described, “and soon the tunnel started to collapse from the south to north.”

This collapse he recalled has dominated the internet as a heated topic in these a few days, referred to as the most serious accident of subway construction ever in China.

The Green Prophet writes: “Air pollution from transportation is costing Arab countries $5 billion in damages, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Minister of Environment and Water recently announced. The cost is calculated based on the number of deaths, medical care for health problems and chronic diseases that are attributed to air pollution.”

Egypt has launched a fierce campaign against sexual harassment in the aftermath of the recent events here, here, here, here, and here. But people working in the media industry do not seem to get the idea.

Diaspora blogger Child of the Revolution speculates as to why “the highest ranking woman in the Castro regime…has been unexpectedly fired…from her high-profile post as Minister for Foreign Investment.”

A blog was set-up promoting East Timor's local products.