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Would you pass the Koala Bear test?

I've just returned from a wonderful few days in Perth, Western Australia, where the motorists don't as a rule try to kill you (unlike in most of Asia) and if you are a tourist at least, you can come away with the false impression that the cork-hatted people have got the balance between work and...

Posted to ICIS Blogs (Weblog) by Anonymous on 10-08-2008
The big challenges

As delegates gather for this year's European Petrochemical Association meeting in the unreal world of Monaco (unrealf or 99.9 per cent recurring of us), I thought it was worth summarising some of the issues discussed on this blog over the last few months. We've dealt with: *Oil-price volatility...

Posted to ICIS Blogs (Weblog) by Anonymous on 09-27-2008
The world is round after all

I asked my boss two years ago what were his favourite business books. His list included The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the 21st Century by Thomas Friedman. Of course I rushed out and bought the book. It has sold by the truck load and was quoted by Mohamed Al-Mady of SABIC during his speech at...

Posted to ICIS Blogs (Weblog) by Anonymous on 09-16-2008
A drowning man will clutch onto anything

A drowning man will grab hold of any floating debris - even a plastic bag made from standard-grade Chinese polyethylene (PE). Hence, last Friday a statement by Wang Tianpu led to a few days of excited speculation about the cancellation of several Chinese cracker projects . The president of Sinopec Corp...

Posted to ICIS Blogs (Weblog) by Anonymous on 09-12-2008
Uncle Sam back from the dead?

A very interesting report by McKinsey (you can sign up free for their online newsletter which only takes a minute) expands on the theme of reverse globalisation which I talked about last week. The cost of shipping a standard 40-foot container has tripled since 2000 and labour cost increases have risen...

Posted to ICIS Blogs (Weblog) by Anonymous on 09-10-2008
Yes, I know - I was wrong!

Anybody who has had the misfortune to have to listen to me ranting on about Peak Oil of late might have heard - if they managed to stay awake long enough - that I predicted crude could not fall below $100 a barrel because of the fundamentals. I must admit my first reaction when I heard on the radio this...

Posted to ICIS Blogs (Weblog) by Anonymous on 09-10-2008
"Reports of my death......

are greatly exaggerated" wrote Mark Twain who twice had the misfortune (or perhaps good fortune, given that he was still breathing!) to read his obituary in newspapers. A full list of all those whose deaths were reported prematurely is included here in this A-Z of journalistic blunders from Wikipedia...

Posted to ICIS Blogs (Weblog) by Anonymous on 08-29-2008
Can I have those coconuts, please?

This article, by David Strahan, author of The Last Oil Shock, says that it would take three million coconuts to power one flight from London to Amsterdam on 100% biofuels. Some of the comments posted at the end of this excellent article, first published in the New Scientists, agree with Strahan that...

Posted to ICIS Blogs (Weblog) by Anonymous on 08-27-2008
Even the goldfish will get it

Another great article in The New Scientist talks about a new system for mapping much more precisely the impact of climate change on eco-systems. Designed by The Nature Conservancy , the system - linked with Google Maps - will enable conservationists to work out expected changes in precipitation and sea...

Posted to ICIS Blogs (Weblog) by Anonymous on 08-19-2008
The river doesn't just run black

China and the environment might not be only about rivers changing colour several times a day and factories belching out air pollution that kills hundreds of thousands of people prematurely every year. Elizabeth Economy outlined the extent of China's environmental problems in her book, The River Runs...

Posted to ICIS Blogs (Weblog) by Anonymous on 08-17-2008

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