Chapter Two : The Operation Of A Market

World Gas Conference In Argentina To Discuss Supply-Demand Balance
Ministers, industry leaders and experts from 81 countries are meeting in Buenos Aires for the 24th World Gas conference with one main topic in the adgenda: the balance between natural gas supply and demand

Summary:

An official Conference at Latinamerica was held on October 5, 2009 with attendees including ministers, industry leaders, experts from 81 countries and other representatives. They discussed about how it would effect the environment, long term development strategies and regional integration. The International Gas Union president stated that due to the decrease in demand for gas in August, it slowed down or canceled projects within the gas industry. He then announced that they will analyze new global projects towards the gas industry. The European Union, Russia, Brazil, Japan and Algeria officials announced that they will address long term supply of natural gas, while the United Kingdom, the United States of America and Trinidad Tobaga have also been invited to help supply natural gas. They have realized that demand for natural gas has increased rapidly in newly emerging countries. Ministers have concluded that they need to improve efficiency and energy in gas consuming and producing countries.

Connections:

The connection between this article and chapter two in the text book is the factor of supply and demand. As the demand of gas decreases dramatically, the supply increases due to the lack of buyers. This affected the price by decreasing it, due to the increase of supply and decrease in buyers. The decrease in price helps motivate buyers to buy more gas because there getting more gas at the same price.

Reflection:

In my opinion, the price for gas will always be fluctuating up and down. This is because when the price of gas goes up, not many people will want to buy it. That would make the supply increase, therefore the price would drop due to the increase in supply. Then there would be buyers again within the gas industry. Many of the newly emerging countries are in need of large amounts of gasoline, while other countries which already have gasoline, consume a lot. This breaks the balance because there is only a limited supply of gas, so the ministers, officials and experts have to think of another alternative in doing the same job without using gas.

Source:

http://en.mercopress.com/2009/10/05/world-gas-conference-in-argentina-to-discuss-supply-demand-balance

Chapter One : Introductory Concepts

It's not just clean air we need, Minister Ambrose. Canadian communities are running out of fresh water.

Summary:
This article talks about how people in Canada are constantly using Canada's supply of fresh water, and things that they can do to conserve water usage in the long run. The scarcity of fresh water in Canada is continuously increasing and being ignored by the public. Communities in different regions of Canada are beginning to think of ways they can get more freshwater for its cities needs. There was an international conference that was held to identify and discuss the issues and ways that they can use to increase the supply of fresh water and avoiding bigger tax bills at the same time. They talked about what people can do to conserve water in their home, including ways such renewing the water that was already used by people, collecting rain water, and more efficient appliances to help conserve the fresh water within Canada. These are just some ways that officials can use to elaborate on this scarcity problem. The cost of doing this operation will depend on the decision of what the people want, whether to reuse water or collect rain water, communities will have to see that they are limited to the amount of fresh water they have.

Connections:
The connection between this article and chapter one in the textbook is scarcity. Water is scarce because it is a limited resource, once its all gone, there is no way of getting it back. People have to find ways of conserving it water instead of wasting it. On average, a person uses about 7100 liters of water a day, which is quite high considering people in third world countries have a very low chance of getting fresh water. These people may suffer from fatal diseases from their contaminated drinking water. Canadians should really think about conserving water or they will end up with their heads stuck in the grounds, thinking of ways to get water due to the lack of fresh water around us.

Reflection:
In my opinion, I think that the Federal Environment Minister should make note to the public that water scarcity is rising within Canada and if we don't make changes now, they may be no more fresh water supply for future uses. This factor may contribute to water receiving a price tag. If we take actions now in conserving water and finding ways we could reuse the water we have disposed, we can prevent a major loss in a natural resource that we humans need to survive.

Source:
http://www.cbc.ca/blueprintalberta/experts/oliver-brandes.html