Topic: Poverty

Summary: Health care reformers have been promoting access to primary care as the answer to lifting the quality of care. If we had more primary care physicians, patients would be able to see them on a ... more

Oil Price Ignores Long-Term Supply Worries You could be excused for seeing a grim metaphor for the death of the oil age in the scenes of destruction visited on the U.S. Gulf coast this summer. Howeve ... more

John Michael Greer - Green Wizardry: A response to Rob Hopkins Rob Hopkins is a smart guy, and even though he €™s garbled a fair number of the details, his post raises useful points regarding some of ... more

Judge rules against U.S. government on oil drilling HOUSTON (Reuters) €“ A federal judge on Wednesday rejected the U.S. government's request to dismiss an industry lawsuit challenging its deepwater o ... more

The news on Monday that one in six Americans are now enrolled in government poverty programs (Medicaid, food stamps, unemployment insurance and welfare) was an unsettling reminder of the economic fix ... more

The Peak Oil Crisis: Prospects for China The key question in all this is how much longer China's economic miracle can continue before the realities of finite mineral resources force a slowdown? Anoth ... more

A substantial proportion (up to 86 percent) of the population living in low and middle income countries would be pushed into poverty as a result of purchasing common life-saving medicines, according t ... more

Person #45;to #45;person microloaning is certainly not a new innovation in the field of international development, but what sets Energy in Common (EIC) apart is its comprehensive outlook on fighting ... more

Clinical depression and anxiety during pregnancy results in smaller babies that are more likely to die in infancy, according to new research. The study, which focused on women living in rural Banglade ... more

Early life adversity through poverty, social isolation or abuse in childhood is linked to heightened reactivity, which can lead to heart disease later on, a leading expert on stress and disease said S ... more

Global warming heats up a nuclear energy renaissance: Global warming and the BP oil spill have helped rehabilitate nuclear energy in the eyes of the public €“ and some environmentalists. Public and p ... more

In marketing, identifying customer segments is extremely important to strategy development and ultimately business success.Β  But what is the ethical line between serving a neglected market segment an ... more

One of the problems hindering reduction of poverty and achieving the millennium development goals in the Arab region is the significance of gap and absence of adequate science, technology and innovati ... more

China says to maintain trade cooperation with Iran (Reuters) - Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang told the visiting Iranian oil minister on Friday that Beijing would maintain cooperation with Tehran on e ... more

The wealth or poverty of kidney disease patients' communities impacts the quality of care patients receive before starting dialysis, according to a new study. The results suggest that medical professi ... more

Human rights researchers have systematically canvassed nearly 2,000 households in the Central African Republic to document the devastating human impact of violence in the country. They present a stark ... more

The U.S. Census Bureau released a report last week that includes the latest figures on the number of uninsured in each county, of each state. It €™s an exhaustive breakdown that highlights the wide fl ... more

Relieving poverty during pregnancy can reduce the incidence of low- birth-weight babies and may help break the succession of childhood poor health, a new study has found. ... more

JPMorgan Cuts Forecasts on 2010, 2011 New York Oil Prices as Demand Slows JPMorgan Chase Co. lowered by 5.5 percent its forecast for New York oil prices this year on speculation a slowdown in global ... more

JPMorgan Cuts Forecasts on 2010, 2011 New York Oil Prices as Demand Slows JPMorgan Chase Co. lowered by 5.5 percent its forecast for New York oil prices this year on speculation a slowdown in global ... more

Fires rage for 15 hours after oil pipeline in China explodes BEIJING €” An oil pipeline at a busy Chinese port exploded, causing a massive fire that burned for 15 hours before being put out Saturday ... more

Two studies on Sri Lankan children affected by trauma found that both daily stressors and traumatic events contribute to children's psychological health. The first study, of 400 adolescents who surviv ... more

This week the White House unveiled its new national plan to cut HIV infections and curb the AIDS epidemic. The plan, the first ever since AIDS emerged on the scene some 30 years ago, has the goal of # ... more

Lesser-known provisions of the new healthcare reform law could help build support in the run-up to the contentious mid-term elections, according to Kaiser Health News. Here are some of the changes you ... more

Six lessons from the BP oil spill For years to come, the United States and the oil industry will be absorbing the lessons of the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Regulators will toughen inspections. Oi ... more

A Guest Post By Authors: Mark E Williams, MD , FACP Ward K. Ensminger Distinguished Professor of Geriatric Medicine, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Attending Physician University of Virgi ... more

The two big challenges for this century are world poverty and climate change. The clean development mechanism (CDM) has the potential to address both, through integrated programmes that will be in com ... more

Because of the large number of comment on this post, this thread is being closed. Please comment on http://campfire.theoildrum.com/node/6680. If there is a comment on this thread you want to respond t ... more

This is a second copy of this post, because of the large number of comments on the first thread. This is a guest post by Gary Peters, a retired geography professor with a long time interest in popula ... more

Gas taxes give us a break at the pump When drivers hit the road in large numbers for the Fourth of July holiday, they will have something extra to celebrate €” the lowest gasoline taxes since the ea ... more

Gas taxes give us a break at the pump When drivers hit the road in large numbers for the Fourth of July holiday, they will have something extra to celebrate €” the lowest gasoline taxes since the ea ... more

This is a second copy of this post, because of the large number of comments on the first thread. This is a guest post by Gary Peters, a retired geography professor with a long time interest in popula ... more

This is a guest post by Gary Peters, a retired geography professor with a long time interest in population issues. I have added some discussion questions at the end. - Gail Earth €™s population is ap ... more

Gulf gas shortage threatens oil production Gulf states seeking to prolong the lives of aging oilfields face a big problem: insufficient gas to pump in to maintain their crude output. And the problem i ... more

I have moved around the United States over the past few years, and whenever I mention my hometown Gary, Indiana, two things come up no matter what:Β  The Jackson family and the economic downturn of th ... more

Summary: #0160; Deficit Hawks want to slash both Medicare and Social Security, and they seem to be in control of the President €™s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. #0160;Hoveri ... more

Speaking at a Third Way event earlier this week, House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (MD) had this to say about the deficit: €œOn the spending side, we could and should consider a higher retirement a ... more

Atul Gawande gave the commencement speech at Stanford €™s School of Medicine this year. Below, the speech, which was published in the New Yorker http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2010/06/ ... more

People without insurance were about as likely to use the emergency room as those with private health insurance in 2007, with utilization rates only a few percentage points higher, according to a new d ... more

BP And Goldman Sachs Sued For Oil Fraud Dozens of small oil and gas producers across Oklahoma and the Midwest are suing Goldman Sachs, BP and ConocoPhillips, claiming the defendants conspired to defra ... more

Summary: #0160; A startling study published in the New England Journal of Medicine reveals that just as doctors in some towns are more aggressive in treating their patients, physicians in some places ... more

Believe it or not, your small business has an edge. No, you might not be as well-funded, well-connected or even as well-established as the big guys. But something convinced you to go out on your own. ... more

This paper aims to resolve a fundamental policy question: Should international institutions concerned with the environmental hazards produced by artisanal and small-scale gold mining attempt to direct ... more

This paper appraises the initiatives of the Global Mercury Project (GMP); a project designed to minimise the impacts of mercury use in the artisanal and small-scale gold-mining (ASM) sector. The envir ... more

The growth in health, welfare, and wealth of 18th century Europe was a glittering spire when set against any measure of the grand history of humanity. A pinnacle set abruptly at the end of a very long ... more

Summary-Not long ago, a New York Times editorial repeated a statistic that you may have heard before: one in four Americans are projected to die of cancer. " Not true. For most Americans-including the ... more

Animal experimentation is horrible and terrible. Even in the most ethical of studies suffering is inflicted upon animals that otherwise would not have happened; entire genotypes of animals doomed to a ... more

Shell says Middle East needs to solve "gas puzzle" KUWAIT (Reuters) - The Middle East needs to solve the conundrum which leaves it sitting on 40 percent of the world's gas reserves and yet suffering ... more

Shell says Middle East needs to solve "gas puzzle" KUWAIT (Reuters) - The Middle East needs to solve the conundrum which leaves it sitting on 40 percent of the world's gas reserves and yet suffering ... more

Peak oil predictions At the launch of BP's most recent Statistical Review of World Energy in early June 2009, BP's chief executive, Tony Hayward, said that as the oil price went over $90, consumers "b ... more

In the Inland Empire locale of Southern California, failure to detect breast cancer in its early, more treatable stages is common among black women, and researchers have discovered that the cause may ... more

Unbearable lightness?: To make cars frugal, they will have to become lighter €”and more expensive WHEN it comes to motor vehicles there is widespread belief €”at least in America €”that bigger is not ... more

Detail of Telemaco Signorini's masterpiece "The Riverbank" ("L'alzaia"), painted in 1864. It shows the hard work of five men pulling a heavy barge against the current along the Arno river, nea ... more

Detail of Telemaco Signorini's masterpiece "The Riverbank" ("L'alzaia"), painted in 1851. It shows the hard work of five men pulling a heavy barge against the current along the Arno river, nea ... more

There is ample evidence to suggest that improving the on-farm productivity of small-scale farmers and integrating them into commercial markets is a promising strategy for alleviating poverty and lever ... more

Despite the potential for states to receive increased federal support for their Medicaid programs in 2014, in the short term, at least two states--Michigan and Tennessee--expect things to get worse be ... more

Raining on Rio's parade: An Olympic city faces a sudden loss of oil revenue THEIR new-found hoard of oil still lies 7,000 metres (23,000 feet) beneath the Atlantic Ocean, but the signs are that it has ... more

Research undertaken in South India (Taylor, 2008), investigated the local economic impact of small businesses and considered whether female entrepreneurs in India exhibit different economic behaviour ... more

Climate change adaptation and mitigation need to cut across all poverty reduction efforts, including any post-2015 architecture. However, low carbon development (LCD) debates to date have been mainly ... more

Regulation theory offers a cogent analytical framework to explain the contemporary environmental challenge, capitalism's responses to environmental issues and the challenge of sustainable development ... more

Lisa Margonelli: Drill Better Baby! Personally, I can't get too upset about the possibility of drilling off the coasts. While I love walks on unspoiled beaches, I don't believe we in the U.S. have any ... more

Beginning today, states can apply for federal funding to expand their Medicaid programs to cover low-income people earning up to 133 percent of the poverty level. If implemented nationwide, this massi ... more

Americans under the age of 35 can expect their individual health insurance premiums to rise by about 17 percent, or roughly $42 per month, by 2014, according to a RAND Health analysis for the Associat ... more

Americans under the age of 35 can expect their individual health insurance premiums to rise by about 17 percent, or roughly $42 per month, by 2014, according to a RAND Health analysis for the Associat ... more

The following guest essay is by Kevin Kane. Kevin is an energy market strategist, Asia political affairs analyst, and Korean language linguist living in Seoul, South Korea. Kevin previously published ... more

In the resource depletion soup, one ingredient looms large €“ social equity. Equality is a function of population, social status aspirations and resources. With a small population, everyone can have ... more

In the resource depletion soup, one ingredient looms large €“ social equity. Equality is a function of population, social status aspirations and resources. With a small population, everyone can have ... more

The following guest essay is by Kevin Kane. Kevin is an energy market strategist, Asia political affairs analyst, and Korean language linguist living in Seoul, South Korea. Kevin previously published ... more

Nuclear Power Beats Coal, Gas When Lending Costs Low, IEA Says (Bloomberg) -- The International Energy Agency, an energy policy adviser to 28 countries, said it expects nuclear power to be a more com ... more

Appearing on CNN yesterday morning, Senator Orrin Hatch (R, Utah) groused about what he called the €œEuropeanization € of health care. Translated, that means that we have decided to take a more coll ... more

(TrendHunter.com) The Barnardo campaign against child poverty has caused a lot of controversy. The print advertisements have the tag line, "There are no silver spoons for children born into poverty," ... more

Peter Foster: The church of Peak Oil The problem with Peak Oil the theory isn €™t that it €™s wrong in noting that industry depletes resources, and that oil may, sooner or later, reach a production pl ... more

In his wonderful new book The Checklist Manifesto (Metropolitan Books, 2009), surgeon and author Atul Gawande explains how successful surgery depends on the complex interactions of surgeons, nurses, ... more

This is a guest post by Kevin Rietmann, known as KLR on The Oil Drum. A collapse in demand for petroleum products happened in the late 1970s and early 1980s. JD, proprietor of the blog Peak Oil Debu ... more

This is a guest post by Kevin Rietmann, known as KLR on The Oil Drum. A collapse in demand for petroleum products happened in the late 1970s and early 1980s. JD, proprietor of the blog Peak Oil Debu ... more

Overall, the changes in the reconciliation bill will make the Senate bill more progressive €”and fairer. #0160;My prediction: the bill will pass. Those who oppose universal coverage are becoming an ... more

About 2,400 poor adults on the waiting list to join AdultBasic, Pennsylvania's state insurance program for those who don't qualify for Medicaid, were hit March 1 with a near doubling of their monthly ... more

Oil Production Gets Tougher Abu Dhabi, the emirate that holds almost all of the United Arab Emirates' oil reserves, has ambitious plans to boost oil-production capacity to 3.5 million barrels a day by ... more

Lawmakers in Massachusetts are taking a new look at how they set rates for health insurance plans, which nearly all residents are mandated to carry (or face a tax penalty) as of 2006. The affordabilit ... more

Study sees efficiency as key to meeting energy needs The big buzz at the CERAWeek conference may be natural gas, but a new study says it's time to light a fire under energy efficiency to meet future e ... more

This is a guest post by Richard Heinberg. It is a shortened version of a longer post published by the Post Carbon Institute. What if the economy doesn €™t recover? In 2008 the U.S. economy tripped do ... more

Shell's discounted bid for Arrow reflects the present world oversupply of gas The bid and Arrow's decision to take it seriously despite the price discount reflect the much more complicated outlook fo ... more

Some innovations help women more than othersTWO recent innovations have garnered a lot of attention for the way they empower women. One is microcredit, a system of lending to very poor people, the maj ... more

Want the Good Life? Your Neighbors Need It, Too We live in a world of deep inequality, and the gap between the rich and the poor is widening. We in the rich world generally agree that this is a probl ... more

Want the Good Life? Your Neighbors Need It, Too We live in a world of deep inequality, and the gap between the rich and the poor is widening. We in the rich world generally agree that this is a probl ... more

Food security tests Africa €™s unity agenda An immediate paradox is the reality that we continue to face hunger and poverty in a context where large tracks of agricultural land remain under- and unus ... more

A huge earthquake hits Chile but it has fared far better than poverty-stricken HaitiJUST six weeks after an earthquake killed over 200,000 people in Haiti, another huge tremor has shaken Latin America ... more

This article theoretically proves that a poverty trap problem is a result of endogenous fertility behaviour. The theoretical results were supported by empirical evidence from Thai farmer census data a ... more

Shale Drilling Moves North, Upending Canada Gas Forecasts An unconventional drilling technique that sparked a boom in U.S. gas production has made its way north. Companies in Canada, the world's four ... more

U.S. driving decline is in reverse The historic drop in driving that began in 2007 and the dramatic decline in gridlock that accompanied it have ended, according to a report today by a firm that trac ... more

The impact of global warming on food prices and hunger could be large over the next 20 years. But even as some poor populations are hurt, others would be helped out of poverty, according to a new Stan ... more

Wednesday, the New York Times once again launched an attack on what has become known as €œthe Dartmouth research. € As regular HealthBeat readers know, more than two decades of studies done by medic ... more

Crude diplomacy: Iraq, Iran and the politics of oil Iraq is now trying to recover its glory, with plans to quadruple production or more. This could transform the global oil industry; it also threatens ... more

Jeremy Rifkin: The third industrial revolution My sense is that we're nearing an endgame for the modern age. I think we had two singular events in the last 18 months that signal the end. First, in Ju ... more

Even Boulder Finds It Isn't Easy Going Green "What we've found is that for the vast majority of people, it's exceedingly difficult to get them to do much of anything," says Kevin Doran, a senior rese ... more

Do the uninsured die because they don €™t have access to medical care €”or because more than three-quarter of the uninsured are poor? #0160; In part 1 of this post, I explained that we know that pover ... more

If we had universal coverage, how many lives would be saved? #0160; This is the issue that the Atlantic €™s Megan McArdle and the Washington Post €™s Ezra Klein were debating last week. The controvers ... more

Not expanding drilling may cost U.S. $2.4 trillion WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. economy will lose $2.4 trillion over the next two decades if the federal government does not allow oil and natural ga ... more

The history of modern humankind has undergone two major energy transitions, marked by the invention and development of agriculture and the discovery and exploitation of oil. The two energy transition ... more

The history of humankind has undergone two major energy transitions, marked by the invention and development of agriculture and the discovery and exploitation of oil. The two energy transitions parti ... more

This is a guest post from Erica Thompson, formerly with the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC Report) and now working on a PhD at Imperial College, London. She attended the ITPOES report launch on o ... more

Climate Change May Spur Unstable Oil Prices, Regions, U.S. Says (Bloomberg) -- Climate change and U.S. reliance on fossil fuels could have €œsevere consequences, € including potential surges in oil ... more

(TrendHunter.com) War, drugs, poverty and human crisis are happening all around us and are now even portrayed in the pages of high-fashion magazines. The Harper €™s Bazaar March 2010 issue covers €˜ ... more

(TrendHunter.com) Now if all charities were like this, I think world hunger and poverty would be alleviated in about two years. Leave it to a beer company to solve the world €™s biggest problems. The ... more

This is a guest post from Erica Thompson, formerly with the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC Report) and now working on a PhD at Imperial College, London. She attended the ITPOES report launch on o ... more

Whilst living in comfort and security amidst plenty unimaginable to their ancestors, Malthusians of the developed world look at the poverty and suffering caused by kleptocratic governances elsewhere, ... more

Below the fold is a guest essay from a friend of mine who posts on The Oil Drum as 'Rock climber' who is an internal medicine M.D. practicing in East-central Minnesota. The post is a shortened version ... more

Below the fold is a guest essay from a friend of mine who posts on The Oil Drum as 'Rock climber'. The post is a shortened version of a longer essay on the interrelationships between health care, huma ... more

Yemen clashes continue, ceasefire offer rejected SANAA (Reuters) - Yemen rejected a ceasefire offer from Shi'ite rebels on Sunday and said fighting was continuing, as neighbouring Saudi Arabia accused ... more

Growing Pentagon Focus on Energy and Climate The Pentagon released its Quadrennial Defense Review on Monday, a wide-ranging report laying out rising priorities for keeping the peace and, when needed, ... more

This is a guest post by Suraj Kumar, who posts under the name sunson. He is a software engineer living in Bangalore, India. This is a link to his blog. Picture this: A remote Indian village in the Gan ... more

Morality was on the menu at this year's Davos summitBANKER-BASHING and worries about the inability of the world #8217;s systems of governance to tackle increasingly pressing global problems were the u ... more

Health reform may be stalled in Congress, but you need only look to the overburdened Medicaid program to find evidence of the continued toll the current economic crisis is taking on Americans €™ abili ... more

This is a guest post by Suraj Kumar, who posts under the name sunson. He is a software engineer living in Bangalore, India. This is a link to his blog. Picture this: A remote Indian village in the Gan ... more

This article sets out the importance of the Kyoto Protocol process to be decided at the Copenhagen COP XV Conference of December 2009. It clarifies the latest aspects of the clean development mechanis ... more

We hear a lot about Haiti's problems with its recent earthquakes, but we don't hear much about its underlying energy problems. It seems to me that these underlying energy problems were a big part of i ... more

We hear a lot about Haiti's problems with its recent earthquakes, but we don't hear much about its underlying energy problems. It seems to me that these underlying energy problems were a big part of i ... more

Community Food Enterprise: Local Success in a Global Marketplace (article and report excerpts) It's time to connect the headlines between persistent unemployment in the United States and growing food ... more

China Sees Oil at $80 a Barrel BEIJING €”China's economic planning agency predicted that international oil prices will average $80 a barrel this year €”about 25% higher than last year €”reinforcing a ... more

When I sat down to research this post, I thought I would write a post about barter, since it seemed like if our current financial system failed, barter would be one possible form of back-up. But when ... more

When I sat down to research this post, I thought I would write a post about barter, since it seemed like if our current financial system failed, barter would be one possible form of back-up. But when ... more

Everyone agrees on the importance of entrepreneurship for the development of regions in which new businesses are started. Their contribution to the creation of new jobs, wealth and a new 'life' for th ... more

IEA to Meet CFTC, OPEC, Banks on Curbing Speculation (Bloomberg) -- The International Energy Agency will meet OPEC, banks and U.S. and U.K. regulators in Tokyo next month to discuss limiting energy-pr ... more

According to the headlines, 10 percent of Americans are unemployed. The truth is that closer to 17 percent of #0160; the population cannot find full-time work; this number includes workers who have be ... more

Let €™s begin by addressing #0160; some of the myths:First, the Massachusetts vote was not a €œMassacre €: Brown won 51 percent of the vote.Secondly, this was not a referendum which shows that the p ... more

The desperate race to reach survivors of the tragedy in Haiti #8226; THE extent of the devastating earthquake in Haiti will become clearer this week. The Red Cross has suggested that the death toll ma ... more

Jeff Rubin At €˜The Business of Climate Change €™ (video) Jeff Rubin, the former Chief Economist of CIBC World Markets, speaks at The Business of Climate Change conference. Mr. Rubin predicts $225 p ... more

Food Shortages Coming? Famed Investor Jim Rogers Thinks So A severe food shortage is on its way, according to well-regarded investor Jim Rogers. Food inventories are the lowest in decades and "[m]any ... more

In the clamour to be green, it is often forgotten that women are more likely to be poor and earn less than men in all countries of the world. They have much less political, economic and institutional ... more

The Washington Post reports that union leaders are close to cutting a deal with Democrats on the so-called €œCadillac tax, € the 40% tax on expensive insurance plans that the Senate has proposed to ... more

The Peak Oil Crisis: 2010 €“ An Annus Horribilis While our leaders and the media continue to tell us that we have turned an economic corner and that all will be well soon, the underlying data, for th ... more

The following is a guest post from Stoneleigh, former editor of The Oil Drum Canada, who now writes at The Automatic Earth. The essay explores the natural patterns that occur in human systems. Adapti ... more

Exxon €™s 40% Failure Rate, Hungarian Flop, Lead to XTO Takeover (Bloomberg) -- Exxon Mobil Corp. seeks more than added reserves with its takeover of XTO Energy Inc. The biggest U.S. oil company also ... more

A provision in the House and Senate versions of the health reform bill could mean big bucks for some hospitals, like the world-renowned Mayo Clinic, but could cause significant losses to others, repor ... more

The following is a guest post from Stoneleigh, former editor of The Oil Drum Canada, who now writes at The Automatic Earth. The essay explores the natural patterns that occur in human systems. Adapti ... more

Jeff Rubin: Why energy efficiency means higher consumption Efficiency may be the holy grail of the economist, but it €™s a total head fake for the conservationist. And while one is being used to promo ... more

Title: Poverty, Poor Education Shave Years Off the Life SpanCategory: Health NewsCreated: 1/4/2010 4:10:00 PMLast Editorial Review: 1/5/2010 ... more

Report Cites Crippling Infighting at Nuclear Site The infighting among the federal officials in charge of the Savannah River Site, a federally owned nuclear site in South Carolina that won one of the ... more

Another year. Another decade. Older, wiser and on an unchanged trajectory. Though it may not feel like it, 2010 puts us 5 years beyond the annual peak in world oil production. 2005 was also the ina ... more

Another year. Another decade. Older, wiser and on an unchanged trajectory. Though it may not feel like it, 2010 puts us 5 years beyond the annual peak in world oil production. 2005 was also the ina ... more

Russia 2009 oil output hits new high after 2008 blip MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian oil output grew by around 1.5 percent in 2009 to a new post-Soviet high, putting the world's largest crude producer on ... more

Aging suburbs lose appetite for driving The generation that gave birth to suburbia and the two-car garage is reaching the age where for many driving no longer seems like such a swell option. As Americ ... more

Chinese firm says won't pay Goldman on options losses BEIJING (Reuters) - A small Chinese power generator on Tuesday rejected demands from a Goldman Sachs unit to pay for nearly $80 million lost on t ... more

2010 could be a year that sparks unrestIF THE world appears to have escaped relatively unscathed by social unrest in 2009, despite suffering the worst recession since the 1930s, it might just prove th ... more

The average low-income person loses 8.2 years of perfect health, the average high school dropout loses 5.1 years, and the obese lose 4.2 years, according to public health researchers. Tobacco control ... more

Natural gas surges on record supply drop NEW YORK €” Natural gas prices jumped Thursday after the government reported that supplies fell by the largest amount ever for this time of year as frigid wea ... more

As the holidays approach we will probably be highlighting some of our better content from years past. The below essay, on the day of Fed Chairman Bernanke's reappointment, is perhaps an apppropriate e ... more

Aramco president: Oil demand will grow 40% by 2030 (MENAFN - Qatar News Agency) - Saudi Aramco president and CEO Khalid A. Al-Falih said during a recent visit to company markets in Asia "The developin ... more

A Close Look at the Details You have to hand it to them: on a Saturday, at the 11th hour, in the midst of a blizzard that shut down the nation €™s Capitol, Senate Democrats finally nailed ... more

Energy scarcity and not peak oil needs global focus As I write these lines on the train from Amersfoot to Frankfurt, with white, fluffy snow as far as the eye can see, the world seems engrossed with t ... more

As the holidays approach we will probably be highlighting some of our better content from years past. The below essay, on the day of Fed Chairman Bernankes reappointment, is perhaps an apppropriate ex ... more

We hear and read a lot about the federal government stimulus money, but do we know what we €™re really funding? And how much of the money is being spent in your local area? You can find out on ProPubl ... more

SMT Reports Geoscientists See Coming Increases in Oil Prices Approximately 50 percent of respondents predicted global peak oil supply to occur either between ten and twenty years from now, or beyond ... more

Mexico's drug cartels siphon liquid gold: Bold theft of $1 billion in oil, resold in U.S., has dealt a major blow to the treasury MALTRATA, MEXICO -- Drug traffickers employing high-tech drills, miles ... more

Mexico's drug cartels siphon liquid gold: Bold theft of $1 billion in oil, resold in U.S., has dealt a major blow to the treasury MALTRATA, MEXICO -- Drug traffickers employing high-tech drills, miles ... more

Kaiser has just posted a report which suggests that the Medicare Buy-In will be even more expensive than I thought. It turns out that median family income for Americans 55 to 64 who don €™t have insur ... more

The Peak Oil Crisis: Copenhagen €“ Prelude to Extinction? Although world oil production is likely to start declining in the next few years, followed by world coal production in another 20 or so years ... more

There is much to be hammered out before a final health reform bill emerges from Congress. Disputes over the public plan, abortion, financing and when reforms will actually take effect continue to dela ... more

This paper outlines the innovations systems approach of bringing research into use for the eradication of poverty in Africa. It describes the benefits that this approach can bring to the poor and that ... more

Designers think they can teach MBAs and philanthropists a thing or twoTIM BROWN, the boss of IDEO, a consultancy that helped shape Apple #8217;s first mouse, does not have solutions to daunting global ... more

ASPO.TV News - Acknowledging the Reality of Peak Oil (video) The reality of oil depletion is undeniable. Volumes of publicly available data, collected over many decades, demonstrate that the world may ... more

The energy space-time continuum, a big picture-portrait. Not a pretty one. The nations set to gather soon in Copenhagen are on a twisting, misty, potholed road in a car with one rickety headlight and ... more

Peak Oil Demand Between recent consumption data and the International Energy Agency's World Energy Outlook 2009 report released last month, it's time for some serious questions when it comes to oil de ... more

Poverty and environmental deterioration are among the gravest challenges faced in the developing world today. The relationship between poverty and the environment is complex and highly influenced by t ... more

When I first started my Phd 4+ years ago, I was fascinated, concerned and rather obsessed with the various details surrounding the limits-to-growth phenomenon, a situation I had been blissfully unawar ... more

When I first started my Phd 4+ years ago, I was fascinated, concerned and rather obsessed with the various details surrounding the limits-to-growth phenomenon, a situation I had been blissfully unawar ... more

The Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues is back and better than ever #8230;we hope: The commission #8217;s wider scope will also force some tough choices in deciding priorities, ... more

Peak oil: Social, economic, political and financial impacts and historical background - Colin J Campbell and Walter Ryan-Purcell [PDF] A debate rages as to the precise date of peak oil production, but ... more

Below a snapshot of how health care reform would help one underinsured household.A single profile is hardly a definitive assessment of how reform will affect the many #0160; families that are now payi ... more

This world of ours is not overpopulated. There is no overpopulation. A great many aspects and consequences of human society and human nature are wrong, unpleasant, and downright malign - but a lack of ... more

Oil's expanding frontiers In 1914, the Bureau of Mines said U.S. oil reserves would be exhausted by 1924. In 1939, the Interior Department said the world had 13 years worth of petroleum reserves. Then ... more

Though the evidence continues to be contradictory as to whether report cards and healthcare data have much impact on quality--or whether consumers even use such data--public policymakers continue to t ... more

COP15 failure and Peak Oil success: Why exaggerate Global Warming? OECD leaders go far out of their way to never, ever mention Peak Oil. This in fact is the biggest real world driver for worldwide Ene ... more

No Plan for Oil Shortages in North America Munroe found numerous studies about peak oil by the GAO (U.S. Government Accountability Office), which were apparently dropped from any further consideration ... more

Saudi Aramco Will Increase Asia €™s December Oil Supply (Bloomberg) -- Saudi Arabian Oil Co. will supply more crude to refiners in Asia as rising prices threaten to hurt the world economic recovery. ... more

Interview With Russian President Dmitry Medvedev: 'Oil And Gas Is Our Drug' SPIEGEL: In a recent article that you wrote entitled "Go, Russia," you spoke of your country's "humiliating" economic "backw ... more

International Energy Agency warns falling investment risk to economic recovery PARIS (AP) €” The global financial crisis has led to a dangerous drop in energy investment around the world which could ... more

Interview With Ian Gordon IAN: Well I do subscribe to the theory of peak oil. But again, I think the demand for oil is going to drop precipitously. Simply because no one €™s gonna be working. Again if ... more

Volatility here to stay in an uncertain oilpatch There is quite the bun fight going on these days among oil price prognosticators, with much of it taking place on editorial pages and through the airwa ... more

Shale gas row gets nasty Today Daniel Yergin, author of the seminal oil industry tome €˜The Prize €™, wrote in the Wall Street Journal that shale gas is a game changer for US energy. Those who follow ... more

China OGP halts coverage of crude, products stockpiles BEIJING (Reuters) - China OGP, an oil industry newsletter issued by Xinhua news agency, will no longer publish data on China's stockpiles of cru ... more

Islam, the Holy Quran and the Hadith lays great emphasis on Zakah (Zakat) as a social tool to bridge the differences between the rich Muslims and poor Muslims. This research paper underlines the impor ... more

Nineteen percent of cancer patients receiving treatment in the UK last year were in "fuel poverty"-- when a household is forced to spend more than 10 percent its income on total fuel use, according to ... more

A post-oil world gets less sci-fi by the day: Dwindling supplies and no plan B €“ are we heading for Mad Max scenario? It is 30 years since the film Mad Max was made, launching the career of Mel Gibs ... more

A post-oil world gets less sci-fi by the day: Dwindling supplies and no plan B €“ are we heading for Mad Max scenario? It is 30 years since the film Mad Max was made, launching the career of Mel Gibs ... more

China's push for oil in Gulf of Mexico puts U.S. in awkward spot Reporting from Beijing - A Chinese company's gambit to drill for oil in U.S. territory demonstrates China's determination to lock up t ... more

Obama says U.S. must win clean-energy race Reporting from Washington - President Obama, citing a global competition for development of clean-energy alternatives to oil, insisted today that the United ... more

Rubin: $100/barrel oil will return by Memorial Day Oil prices will reach $100/barrel by the end of this winter, and we'll see a return to $1.40/litre ($4/gallon in the US) gasoline prices by Memorial ... more

The Peak Oil Crisis: More Reports The main conclusion of the British report is that there is a "significant risk" that conventional oil production will peak before 2020, and that forecasts which delay ... more

Economist's advice to Big Food: Change or face fate of GM Renowned economist Jeffrey Sachs warned the food industry that it risks disaster if it doesn't get behind changes that will deal with climate ... more

Which Americans have been married most?FOR almost half of America's brides and grooms, wedded bliss eventually turns to divorce misery. But many go on to marry again (and then again) in the search for ... more

The world will not halt the rate of reduction of biodiversity by 2010SEEKING to alleviate poverty, reduce world hunger and protect biodiversity sounds, to your correspondent #8217;s ears, like somethi ... more

Economist's advice to Big Food: Change or face fate of GM Renowned economist Jeffrey Sachs warned the food industry that it risks disaster if it doesn't get behind changes that will deal with climate ... more

The Non-Tragedy of the Commons The 2009 Nobel Prize for economics is a useful reminder of how easy it is for scientists to go wrong, especially when their mistake jibes with popular beliefs or politic ... more

The Clash Over Clean Power: Utility chiefs are juggling the conflicting goals of green energy and low rates €”and self-interest reigns Power companies used to have one simple task: providing inexpens ... more

The White House has praised the Mayo Clinic and other Midwest clinics for performance ratings, but critics argue that Mayo's low- to no-acceptance of Medicare/Medicaid skews the results. Critics say t ... more

Lester Brown released a new book this week called Plan B 4.0, Mobilization to Save Civilization. The book is for sale, but it can also be downloaded free as a PDF. I participated in a conference call ... more

(TrendHunter.com) De €™Longhi Perfecta espresso machines have been called works of art and now the Italian company is actually turning their iconic espresso machines into canvases to benefit Oxfam Am ... more

Below, a guest-post by HealthBeat reader Frederick L. Moolten, M.D. Professor of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, he has devoted several decades of his career to cancer researc ... more

Lester Brown released a new book this week called Plan B 4.0, Mobilization to Save Civilization. The book is for sale, but it can also be downloaded free as a PDF. I participated in a conference call ... more

Peak Oil, Revisited In May 2006, I reported in reason that global oil reserves were ample to supply humanity's needs for liquid fuels until at least 2030, despite headline-grabbing predictions that ou ... more