MUENCHHAUSEN, Dec. 7, 2011

MUENCHHAUSEN
AN ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER ABOUT ENVIRONMENT,
RENEWABLE RESOURCE TECHNOLOGY,
AND RELATED TOPICS
By BOOTSTRAP PRESS, INC.
BETHESDA, MD
JJGREENBARON(at)VERIZON.NET
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DECEMBER 7, 2011
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WELCOME!
The Green Baron (TGB) welcomes one and all who take the time to read Muenchhausen. He aims to “tell it like it is” as much as possible, and avoid advocacy and ideological positions. There are enough of those to go around in other publications.

The Green Baron also welcomes comments from anyone who may read Muenchhausen. Please send comments to the e-mail address above.

70th ANNIVERSARY
December 7, 2011 is the 70th Anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, HI, that forced the USA to enter World War II. The United States Congress formally declared war on Japan on the morning of December 8, with the Senate voting unanimously and with one vote against, by Jeannette Rankin (D-MT) in the House of Representatives. She was defeated for reelection in November 1942 (can't imagine why, ha, ha!). The European Axis powers, Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, declared war on the United States on December 11, 1941. This may have been a mistake on their part, but presumably they were bound by the Tripartite Agreement they had signed with Japan in 1940.


"The date that live in infamy!"
December 7, 1941, also is said to be the 70th Anniversary of the day the first trainload of prisoners of the Nazis, almost entirely Jews, was transported to the concentration camp at Chelmno, Poland, for extermination. The big gas chambers were not yet available for this purpose, so the prisoners were sealed into vans and killed with the vehicles' exhaust gases.

EVEN SAUDI OIL IS FINITE
What happens if and when Saudi Arabian oil production begins to decline substantially or, through some astonishing technological breakthrough, an economically viable replacement for oil and perhaps other fossil fuels comes into use? On Nov. 15, TGB was able to pose just that question to H.R.H. Prince Turki 'al-Faisal 'al Sa'ud of Saudi Arabia. He told TGB, "In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, even if oil is depleted, our main resource is people. We also have other mineral wealth and resources. We already are planning for the time that oil plays out (1).



Prince Turki: Plans against oil decline

"In 2010, we established the King Abdullah Center for Alternative Energy. We need to develop alternative energy for one reason: Our internal consumption of oil is going up. We also plan to install extensive solar energy arrays ans a seawater desalination plant." TGB: "Ahem! The Saudis can get superlative technical help for such ventures right next door, in Israel. But oh dear, we couldn't have that, now could we!?"

MEANWHILE, MEXICO. . .
seems to plan to stay with oil production for a while longer. TGB reads in various publications that Mexican oil production has peaked and is headed for decline. Thus, Enrique Peña Nieto, who plans to run for the presidency of Mexico as the PRI candidate in 2012, told TGB that Mexico will plan new ways to invest in and work on generating energy, most likely with new technologies that can revive oil fields currently declining. To encourage such economic activity, Peña Nieto even speaks of--gasp!!!--inviting foreign investors and firms to benefit from Mexican hydrocarbon extraction and sales--again, gasp!!!--participating along with PEMEX, currently the Mexican hydrocarbon monopoly. He gave no time frame for these activities. Peña Nieto did tell TGB, however, that Mexico will, in the future, look to alternative sources of energy, as well (2).


Peña Nieto: May invite foreign firms in



COP17
The 17th UN climate conference, known as COP17, will soon end in Durban, South Africa (nice place to be in December!). The principal objective of COP17 was to open the way for implementation of the second phase of the Kyoto Protocol of December 1997, which, supposedly, is to expire in 2012, unless renewed. News reports have it that Canada may opt out of the Kyoto Protocol and its successors (TGB would expect that if the Conservatives lose Canada's next general election, such a move would be reversed). Meanwhile, Su Wei, China's head negotiator at COP 17, charged that the European Union conferees were trying to move the goalposts and to make "unfair" demands on developing countries to curb carbon emissions. He also suggested that there should be agreement on a second phase of Kyoto, but that developing countries should not be bound to emission reductions by treaty (3).

TGB recalls hearing of a Chinese cabinet minister, pinned down in discussions of this topic, saying that his country will indeed work on environmental protection, but only after certain development goals are met.


Durban, South Africa. Must be nice there in December!

REFERENCES:

1. Press conference with H.R.H. Prince Turki 'al-Faisal 'al-Sa'ud of Saudi Arabia, National Press Club, Washington, DC, Nov. 15, 2011.

2. Press conference with Enrique Peña Nieto, possible candidate for presidency of Mexico, National Press Club, Washington, DC, Nov. 15, 2011.

3. Clark, P. "Divisions deepen at UN talks on climate".  Financial Times, Nov. 30, 2011, p. 6