UofA Augustana: News & Events

By Murray Green, Camrose Booster

Global warming and the harmful repercussions are arriving sooner than expected. That?s the message author Bill McKibben left with University of Alberta, Augustana Campus students and guests at the Augustana Chapel on Oct. 23.

?Climate change is not a future threat. It is an urgent threat in some places,? explained Bill. ?The melt of the arctic this summer was a powerful signal that things are going very wrong. We need to stop putting carbon into the atmosphere much more quickly than we thought five or ten years ago.?

Sometimes it is hard to think of global warming on a cold miserable day outside. ?It is the scientist?s job to tell us what is going on for the whole planet. The other people we ask to help us are in the insurance industry. They have been telling us for the last 20 years, take this very seriously,? added Bill. ?We want to spread the word as far out as we can. We may not convince every single person, but we need to do something now before it is too late.?

Good things are happening on campus to raise awareness. ?It is a great privilege to be in Alberta and Camrose. It is a real good opportunity to hear what people are thinking and it is a good forum to tell people what the stakes are,? said Bill. ?The decisions that are made in Alberta about its energy future affect the rest of the world.?

Bill knows that the Augustana students are resilient. ?I hope they join in this global fight to find a change. We work with all people, but young people especially, in every country in the world except North Korea. It is always fun to broaden our pool of? minds to find solutions,? said Bill.

Good things are happening on campus to raise awareness. ?I see solar panels going up, but don?t be satisfied with that. We need to do more than just one building at a time. We need a college reform of thinking. We need the world institutions to join us about reducing the amount of fossil fuels used. In Alberta, you have more leverage than other people have,? said Bill. ?We need to persuade Albertans that the future isn?t in tar sands, but rather using the wealth that has been built up to find alternative methods and energy.?

No deed is too small. ?We all can make a difference and you are not alone. Go to 350.org and see for yourself how other people want a change as well. I don?t know if we can win or not, because time is very short. I don?t know if society can act that nimbly and quick enough to turn this around. We have to do it with great speed and urgency.?

You can watch Bill McKibben?s lecture at Augustana Campus on our YouTube channel.

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Source: http://news.augustana.ualberta.ca/2012/11/environmental-activist-challenges-augustana-students-to-get-involved/

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Gas prices likely to fall despite Sandy's havoc

When a storm the size of Sandy hits the country's most populous area, you'd think it would drive up gas prices.

Not this time.

Sandy's trail of havoc in the Northeast might cause temporary price spikes and long lines at gas stations in storm-ravaged areas, but the rest of the country has decent supplies at a time of year when demand is normally low, industry analysts say. And that means a continuation of falling prices that began early in October.

Demand for gas is likely to slide even further because people in New Jersey, New York and adjoining states won't be traveling as much.

"You've got cities that are shut down, people not going to work, people not moving around," said Phil Flynn, senior market analyst for the Price Futures Group, an independent futures broker. "There's so much demand that is not happening."

Although Sandy hit coastal areas hard, only two of the region's nine refineries have been knocked out, and they don't produce enough gas to make much of a difference nationally, said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service.

What could cause problems is the lack of power at giant oil storage tanks and pipelines around New York Harbor, which take in gas from tankers and distribute it to other parts of the country. Without power to move supplies, stockpiles of gasoline could be crimped. But Kloza doesn't think that will last too long.

"The country should not have any kind of an issue," he said. "New Jersey, Long Island, downstate New York, they'll have issues, but they'll mostly be related to lack of power."

Bottom line: Gas prices in much of the country soon should drop toward $3 per gallon or even below that between now and when demand picks up around Thanksgiving, Kloza said.

On Wednesday, the national average for a gallon of gas fell a penny to $3.52.

Gasoline futures spiked more than 20 cents in the morning as traders feared that supplies would become tight. But by afternoon, the gains faded, and prices ended up 3.3 cents to finish at $2.7618 per gallon.

There were lines at stations in the hardest-hit areas. On Long Island, where power was out in most places, 30 cars lined up Wednesday morning at a Citgo station in Rockville Centre, N.Y., which had power in its central business district. There were 50 cars waiting at a nearby Gulf station in the afternoon. By evening, the Citgo and a nearby Mobil were out of gas, but the Gulf station still was pumping.

"It's all about power right now," Kloza said.

Benchmark crude rose 56 cents to finish at $86.24 per barrel in New York. Brent crude, which is used to price international varieties of oil, fell 38 cents to finish at $108.70 per barrel in London.

In other trading:

? Heating oil fell 1.84 cents to finish at $3.0682 per gallon.

? Natural gas rose less than a penny to finish at $3.692 per 1,000 cubic feet.

____

AP Editor Paul Harloff in Rockville Centre, N.Y., and business writer Sandy Shore in Denver contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-10-31-Oil-Prices/id-8e95999abb854257af885ed51cf5ce61

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