Word: gas
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...economies, increasing costs across a wide range of industries, boosting inflation, undermining government budgets and stirring up unrest among citizens who are already feeling the bite of slower growth. In India, as elsewhere, the main reason governments impose controls on petroleum products such as diesel, kerosene and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is to help millions who live on less than $1 a day - and to give politicians a chance to stay in power on election day. "There's the economics of it and there's the politics of it," says Suman Bery, director-general of the National Council of Applied...
Food scraps are a recent focus for recyclers in part because, unlike glass and plastic, organic waste will decompose once it's put in the ground. But that becomes a problem in municipal landfills. As buried food breaks down in these oxygen-free environments, it produces methane, a greenhouse gas that has a warming effect 23 times as potent as carbon dioxide. Global methane emissions from garbage are estimated to be as high as 70 million metric tons a year. By recycling organic waste--composting it--methane emissions are eliminated...
...Gwat, the riots were a fitting reaction. He believes that along with the rise in prices, the quality of fuel at many gas pumps has plummeted. "Our fuel is not fine," he says. "They have started to mix in kerosene. It damages the engines." The managers of two Texaco stations in Yaoundé refute Gwat's claim. Not even the finest fuel would have spared Gwat's taxi the ravages of years of chugging along rutted dirt roads and up and down Yaoundé's muddy hills in the tropical humidity and pounding rainstorms. It requires several runs...
...Cameroon's topography and weather cannot change, although better road conditions could improve the fuel efficiency of vehicles. And, so far, the kinds of ideas floated by U.S. and European politicians - gas-tax breaks or increasing use of biofuels - have not yet been broached in Cameroon. Instead, politicians in Yaoundé have tried to ease the burden by cutting taxes and import duties on basic foods. And they have promised to review fuel prices and to build more refineries to boost fuel supplies. Although Cameroon has rich offshore oil deposits of its own, it has only one refinery...
...Cameroon is hardly alone among its African neighbors in needing to import gasoline despite possessing huge oil deposits of its own. But building new refineries could take years, and require many millions of dollars in foreign aid. Until then, Gwat is hoping gas prices do not rise much further. "I spend a lot of my earnings on fuel," he says. "I earn well, but still it is only 150,000 francs [about $353] a month." And given what he pays to fill up in Yaoundé, he'd gladly settle for the new U.S. average price...