From The Economist, an article on Iraq, Iran and the politics of oil. How Iraqi oil is changing the world: OPEC could be in for a serious shake-up. The political hydraulics of OPEC: Iraq and Iran vie to best Saudi as the world's leading producer of oil and it's China that looms as final arbiter. A review of Oil, Islam, and Conflict: Central Asia since 1945 by Rob Johnson. A review of The Squeeze: Oil, Money and Greed in the 21st Century by Tom Bower (and more) and Crude World: The Violent Twilight of Oil by Peter Maass (and more and more and more and more and more and more and more and more). From New Scientist, an article on extreme oil: Scraping the bottom of Earth's barrel. From TED, Rob Hopkins on a transition to a world without oil. A review essay on the excesses of today's quest for crude. An animated investigation by Oxfam follows the gas money from the pump, through the corporate profits, to the government coffers and bribes. An article on Edward Burtynsky's obsession with oil. Business leaders warn that peak oil is a far more urgent matter than we think. An excerpt from Power Hungry: The Myths of "Green" Energy and the Real Fuels of the Future by Robert Bryce. Thomas Beamish on the Gulf spill and the Hobson's choice of oil production — by the numbers, the facts are chilling. Here's a debate on what the spill means for offshore drilling. A spill of our own: Oil comes with risks, and the only way to reduce them is use less of it (and an interview). The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is bad — no one would dispute it, but just how bad? Johannes Urpelainen on the Gulf spill and clean energy politics. What we do know is that unfettered oil drilling was to Dick Cheney’s domestic concerns what the invasion of Iraq was to his foreign policy. Paying for the oil spill: A guide to who's on the hook.
