Doubling the current US price of petrol, from $4 a gallon, to $8 by way of a tax, could bring about all sorts of benefits... if you can overlook the negatives first that is. Cheap gas is unfair. Driving creates huge social costs in the form of traffic, health-damaging pollution and global warming that aren't suffered solely by the person buying the gasoline. Governments usually set up idiotic systems ... Read full entry

Some of the consequences of rising petrol prices are actually quite positive, including less traffic congestion, reduced pollution, improved health and fitness, and, saving the best for last, possibly even four day work weeks: [US] Companies, colleges and governments are moving to four-day weeks. Brevard Community College in Cocoa, Fla., went to four days for the 2007 summer session and saved $268,000 in energy costs. There were unforeseen ... Read full entry

Apparently Earth's oil reserves are twice the size of published estimates, according to Richard Pike, CEO of the UK Royal Society of Chemistry, who says the inaccurate reporting of the capacity of multiple reservoirs is distorting the overall figure. Oil companies produce a bell-shaped probability distribution for how much each oil reservoir might hold, and then quote as an indicator of the reservoir's capacity a figure they are 90 ... Read full entry

Grossly distorted picture If you've never understood economists, then this article in last week's edition of, ahem, The Economist, will probably do little to change that. Focusing on GDP per person also affects comparisons of economic health over time. During the past five years, world GDP has grown by an average of 4.5% a year, its fastest for more than three decades, though not as fast as ... Read full entry