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Yadkin River

The big questions for 2012 - FT.com - 0 views

www.ft.com/...16-11e1-b7ec-00144feabdc0.html

2012 outlook -

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  • With America gazing inward, some will look to China for money and leadership. This began visibly to happen in 2011, when European officials ended an EU summit by jetting straight off to Beijing, in a humiliatingly unsuccessful effort to drum up Chinese interest in buying more European debt.
  • But the leadership of China’s Communist party will also spend much of the year jostling for position. While the identities of the new president and prime minister are widely assumed to be known – with Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang slated respectively for those positions – the slots just below the top two are up for grabs. China’s urge to concentrate on domestic affairs will be accentuated by a growing nervousness about political and economic instability at home.
  • and growing social unrest in China’s manufacturing heartlands
  • ...17 more annotations...
  • But it will also ensure China has little energy to devote to elaborate international co-operation.
  • Economic inequality: Peaceful acceptance of deep differentials is coming to an end
  • The big debate of 2012 will be over the role of government in the economy,
  • Public v private: The state starts to run out of time on how big it should be
  • Although this sounds like an economic issue, it is really about politics.
  • Headlines such as this recent one in the Los Angeles Times – “Six Walmart heirs are wealthier than US’ entire bottom 30 per cent” – epitomise the new mood. Such scrutiny of the lives and deeds of the “1 per cent” will become obsessive.
  • Yet there is compelling evidence that high inequality is also bad for a nation’s health: it leads to higher political instability and more violence and it hurts competitiveness and growth.
  • Social unrest: Technology to power rolling disruption to outright revolution
  • In Russia, shame among educated classes that Vladimir Putin is just the latest tsar, combined with growing economic desperation and corruption in rural areas, makes another Russian Revolution plausible if not probable. And I would not be surprised to see mass protests in several central Asian countries, in Pakistan, again in Iran, in Algeria, Mexico, Venezuela or Cuba.
  • The difference from traditional technology is speed, scale and resilience. The immediacy, apparent veracity and emotional power of words and images that are instantly transmitted to thousands and then millions of people can transform existing currents of dissent into a raging flood
  • This year, elections will take place in the US, France, Russia, Taiwan, Mexico, Egypt and South Korea. China will also change leadership.
  • Energy: Fuel’s decisive shift in supply will boost security – at a price
  • Energy efficiency in the advanced countries has risen sharply, implying that their demand has peaked, and vast, commercially exploitable discoveries of oil and gas – especially gas – have been made in politically stable areas, including in the US. This suggests that in future gas will account for a much larger proportion of world energy supply. While these developments are positive for geopolitical stability, they may pose difficulties for the climate.
  • This is positive because gas is much cleaner than coal.
  • This means it will reclaim its role as the world’s biggest energy producer and, incredibly, become a net energy exporter.
  • Even in 2040, respected forecasts now envision that fossil fuels will still supply 80 per cent of the world’s energy needs.
  • However, energy security and national security for much of the world will be improved, as the influence of rogue oil states diminishes.
Yadkin River

HCL Clean Tech Finds Sugar for Ethanol in Mississippi Woods | Green Prophet - 0 views

www.greenprophet.com/...hcl-cleantech-mississippi

hcl CleanTech Correnti miss sugar woods

shared by Yadkin River on 04 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • Interesting article but, let me shed some light with a few points of fact that nobody in the company will offer. One, at the time this article was posted, Eran was no longer CEO. Eran was deposed and a new CEO was hired in June of 2011. Two, the pilot in Durham was no longer operational (they’re trying to move it elsewhere) and proved nothing along the lines of this process being commercially viable. In actuality, far more was proven to the contrary. Three, the company is woefully behind on researching and proving their proprietary solvent extraction process which is the lynchpin to their success. The reality is they haven’t proven they can reliably make ANY sugar from wood on a pilot level, much less extract the acid THEN recover the acid and solvent. Bottom line, if you’re expecting sugars to be made from wood in Grenada in 2012, and most likely ever, don’t hold your breath. Unfortunately for Khosla, the DOE and the state of Mississippi, they will be forced to realize this in due time.
  • No problem, Karin. Happy to bring a touch of veritas to the table. Additionally, you could check the HCL CleanTech company website to verify the legitimate CEO is Philippe Lavielle and contact him for comment. You could also reach out to Steve Piccot, Director at Southern Research Institute in Durham, NC, and ask him who authored a certain $9 million DOE grant proposal.
Yadkin River

Steel companies braced for price falls - FT.com - 0 views

www.ft.com/...66-11e0-931e-00144feab49a.html

Correnti steel CleanTech china chinese yadkin

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  • October 9, 2011 2:46 pm
  • The steel industry faces tough times with companies braced for falling prices as buyers delay orders because of extreme nervousness about global economic weakness.
  • China. The country has been the chief locomotive in driving up the expansion of the global industry.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • aid he foresaw the turbulence spilling over into 2012 – a year he said was likely to be marked by “short-term economic and financial issues impacting long-term economic sustainability”.
  • According to a survey for the Financial Times by six industry experts, growth in world steel shipments is set to slow to 4.9 per cent next year after a likely 6.6 per cent this year.
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