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Energy and environment: heads up

Just a quick heads up on some energy and environment - related issues.

We're going to do a more detailed post on issues related to oil production, biofuels and global warming later in the week, but for now check out some of these stories featured in today's edition of The Oil Drum's article roundup, "Drumbeat".

Some of the stories that caught my eye:

1. The New York Times ran an article on oil depletion and advanced recovery techniques that are helping oil companies get more barrels of crude oil out of older, existing fields. Will these technological advancements succeed in pushing back "peak oil"?

Thanks to Paul at Infectious Greed for providing the initial link.

2. The Chinese water shortage is for real. The Oil Drum links us to a Yahoo! news story about a lack of water due to droughts and high temperatures in certain provinces of China.

3. More news of near slave-labor conditions in Brazil, this time in connection with biofuels production. Brazilian sugar plantations are said to be home to exploitative working conditions, and a large threat to the environment.

4. "We don't need no stinking subsidies...yet". A report from New Zealand energy users suggests that, "Renewables don't need help to compete". At least not until 2015, anyway.

That's it for now. More to come, soon.

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