scholarly journals Projecting the global impact of fossil fuel production from the Former Soviet Union

Author(s):  
Steve Mohr ◽  
Jianliang Wang ◽  
James Ward ◽  
Damien Giurco

AbstractDetailed projections of the Former Soviet Union (FSU) fossil fuel production has been created. Russian production has been modelled at the region (oblast) level where possible. The projections were made using the Geologic Resource Supply-Demand Model (GeRS-DeMo). Low, Best Guess and High scenarios were created. FSU fossil fuels are projected to peak between 2027 and 2087 with the range due to spread of Ultimately Recoverable Resources (URR) values used. The Best Guess (BG) scenario anticipates FSU will peak in 2087 with production over 170 EJ per year. The FSU projections were combined with rest of the world projections (Mohr et al. 2015b), the emissions from the High scenario for the world are similar to the IPCC A1 AIM scenario.

2020 ◽  
Vol 114 ◽  
pp. 11-22
Author(s):  
Kevin D. Mohr ◽  
Gabriela Alvarez Avila ◽  
Carlos Solé ◽  
Kasturi Das

The title of our panel promises to explore whether investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) is a barrier, a facilitator, or neither regarding the global fight against climate change. This is an issue of urgent concern because there is a growing consensus that the world economy needs to transition away from fossil fuels aggressively to avoid the worst case climate scenarios, which would require a massive flow of investment out of fossil fuel production and into the production of renewable energy sources (RES). Broadly speaking, state policymakers have two sets of tools at their disposal to encourage that transition: (1) tools to encourage investment in RES (carrots); and (2) tools to discourage investment and hasten divestment in hydrocarbon production (sticks). One way to frame the question is whether the ISDS system—designed as it is to protect foreign investment in a largely policy-neutral way—acts more as a facilitator of carrot-side policies, more as a barrier to stick-side policies, or neither? Put somewhat differently, does a strong ISDS system that would facilitate RES investment necessarily cause regulatory chill of stick-side policies aimed at divestment from fossil fuels, or is there a way to harmonize these seemingly divergent goals?


Radiocarbon ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Túlio César Aguiar Silva ◽  
Carla Carvalho ◽  
Bruno Libardoni ◽  
Kita Macario ◽  
Felippe Braga de Lima ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Fossil fuels are of utmost importance to the world we live in today. However, their use can cause major impacts on the environment, especially on water resources. In this regard, algae have been intensively used as a strategy for remediation and monitoring of environmental pollution due to its efficient absorption of contaminants. In this work, samples of seaweed collected in Niterói/RJ—contaminated with kerosene and diesel—were analyzed by radiocarbon (14C) accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) and by n-alkane quantification with gas chromatography to evaluate bioaccumulation in function of the dosage of contaminants. The biogenic content measured by radiocarbon analysis resulted in 95.6% for algae contaminated with 10 mL of kerosene and 67.6% for algae contaminated with 10 mL of diesel. The maximum intensity of n-C17 n-alkane in algae with 5 mL, 10 mL, and 15 mL of diesel was 768.2, 1878.1, and 5699.2 ng.g-1, respectively. While the maximum concentration of n-C27 in algae with 5 mL, 10 mL and 15 mL of kerosene was 3.3, 35.9, and 150.3 ng.g-1. We concluded that, for both contaminants, their incorporation into algae increases as the contamination dosage increases, making this methodology an effective technique for monitoring and remediation of urban aquatic ecosystems.


2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-156
Author(s):  
Mediel Hove

This article evaluates the emergence of the new Cold War using the Syrian and Ukraine conflicts, among others. Incompatible interests between the United States (US) and Russia, short of open conflict, increased after the collapse of the former Soviet Union. This article argues that the struggle for dominance between the two superpowers, both in speeches and deed, to a greater degree resembles what the world once witnessed before the collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in 1991. It asserts that despite the US’ unfettered power, after the fall of the Soviet Union, it is now being checked by Russia in a Cold War fashion.


Author(s):  
S. Nazrul Islam

Chapter 4 provides a few case studies of rivers to illustrate the consequences of the Commercial approach. These rivers are: the Colorado River of the United States; the Murray-Darling river system of Australia; the Amu Darya and Syr Darya of the former Soviet Union; the Nile River of Africa; and the Indus River of South Asia. It shows that in each case, the application of the Commercial approach has led to river fragmentation and excessive withdrawal of water, leading to exhaustion of rivers, which in turn led to salinity intrusion and erosion, subsidence, and desiccation of the deltas. The ecology of the river basins has been damaged, including loss of aquatic and terrestrial biodiversity. In case of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya Rivers, this damage includes the destruction of the Aral Sea, once considered the second-largest inland waterbody of the world. In each case, the Commercial approach has led to conflicts among co-riparian countries.


Author(s):  
Roger D. Markwick

World War II has never ended for the citizens of the former Soviet Union. Nearly 27 million Soviet citizens died in the course of what Joseph Stalin declared to be the Great Patriotic War, half of the total 55 million victims of the world war. The enduring personal trauma and grief that engulfed those who survived, despite the Red Army's victory over fascism, was not matched by Stalin's state of mind, which preferred to forget the war. Not until the ousting of Nikita S. Khrushchev in October 1964 by Leonid Brezhnev was official memory of the war really resurrected. This article elaborates a thesis about the place of World War II in Soviet and post-Soviet collective memory by illuminating the sources of the myth of the Great Patriotic War and the mechanisms by which it has been sustained and even amplified. It discusses perestroika, patriotism without communism, the fate of the wartime Young Communist heroine Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, the battle for Victory Day, the return of ‘trophy’ art, the Hill of Prostrations, and Sovietism without socialism.


Molecules ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 802 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel Antonio Díaz-Pérez ◽  
Juan Carlos Serrano-Ruiz

Concerns about depleting fossil fuels and global warming effects are pushing our society to search for new renewable sources of energy with the potential to substitute coal, natural gas, and petroleum. In this sense, biomass, the only renewable source of carbon available on Earth, is the perfect replacement for petroleum in producing renewable fuels. The aviation sector is responsible for a significant fraction of greenhouse gas emissions, and two billion barrels of petroleum are being consumed annually to produce the jet fuels required to transport people and goods around the world. Governments are pushing directives to replace fossil fuel-derived jet fuels with those derived from biomass. The present mini review is aimed to summarize the main technologies available today for converting biomass into liquid hydrocarbon fuels with a molecular weight and structure suitable for being used as aviation fuels. Particular emphasis will be placed on those routes involving heterogeneous catalysts.


1984 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 95-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
William S. Bishop ◽  
John L Graham ◽  
Michael H. Jones

Despite its importance, the volatility of derived demand in industrial markets has not been studied by marketing scholars. Here we present a description of how fluctuations in demand for fossil fuels during recent years have caused precipitous changes in demand for turbomachinery equipment used to produce the fuels. This volatility in demand for fossil fuel production equipment is viewed both from the perspective of industry and that of five individual companies. Finally, a number of marketing strategies that can serve to dampen otherwise volatile sales performance are proposed for industrial firms.


1991 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 233-245 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth W. Thompson

In a recent report by Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of International Affairs, “Education in U.S. Schools of International Affairs,” Princeton's former president Robert F. Goheen presents several crucial factors in the apparent decline of international studies in the U.S. The private sector, which at first demanded broadly-educated professionals, have recently shown little enthusiasm for students of international affairs. This has resulted in lack of funding and lack of interest in the field of international studies. This is paradoxical primarily because the students of international affairs undergo a multidiscplinary curriculum, facilitating their adaptation to practically any field of work following graduation, contrary to those students who have chosen a strict and narrow profession. Unfortunately, much of the fault, according to the report lies with the universities and the graduates themselves, who fail to articulate properly their comparative essential advantage in the broad field of their education. Thompson expounds on a more serious ramification of the decline in interest in international studies: the imminent failure to foresee future international crises. As the case of Iraq's growing power in the Middle East has demonstrated, the U.S. looked the other way, toward the developments in the former Soviet Union, and was not able to act in time to circumvent Iraq's aggression. With the world looking to the U.S. for strategic leadership in ethics and power, Americans cannot afford to deny American youth a strong foundation and education in international studies.


2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 377-386 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Burri

Abstract In spite of great progress in energy efficiency and in the development of renewable energy the world is likely to need significant amounts of fossil fuel throughout this century and beyond (the share of fossil fuels in the world mix has remained at about 86% of primary energy from 1990 to today). Gas, being the by far cleanest fossil fuel is the ideal bridging fuel to a world with predominantly renewable supplies. Thanks to the recent perfection of unconventional technologies there is no shortage of gas for this bridging function for at least the next 100-200 years. EASAC and several other European Institutions, notably the German Academy of Technical Sciences (acatech) have in the last few years carried out expert studies to assess the alleged environmental risks of unconventional hydrocarbon exploration and production. All these studies have, in agreement with other competent studies worldwide, come to the conclusion that there exists no scientific reason for a ban on hydraulic fracturing. With good practices, clear standards and adequate control the method causes no enhanced risks to the environment or the health of humans. Special attention has to be paid to the surface handling of drilling and fracking fluids. In Europe alone many thousand frac jobs have been carried out by the industry in the last 60 years without any severe accidents. The mishaps in North America have largely been the cause of unprofessional operations and human error. Especially in places with high air pollution, like many megacities of Asia, natural gas has to be seen as a unique chance to achieve a rapid improvement of the air quality and a significant reduction of CO2 emissions. This is also true for Europe where especially the use of domestic natural gas brings important benefits to the environment. The alternative to gas is in many regions of the world an increased consumption of coal, with all negative consequences.


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