If you were confident enough to put your money where your mouth is that crude prices were about to reach their peak, you were among good company with industry representatives who debated the merit of prices reaching US$150 per bbl. The topic created buzz about how high prices would climb if they continued, or, more likely, how long it would take to fall to $115 per bbl. Indeed, prices have dropped nearly $30 during the past month from about $145 to $117 and are on a road - on average - to further decline as the Energy Information Administration estimates lower prices based on reduced demand. For in-depth analysis, read FUEL magazine’s September article about the supply and demand of crude oil, what caused the significant price plummet, and what these changes mean for the short and longer term.

So that seems to be one stressing element of our lives we can eliminate for the time-being, but we’re nowhere near out of the woods with the distressing state of the energy industry and its ties to climate change, food prices and the environment, just to name a few issues that keep some people up at night. These problems continue to be at the forefront of these same people’s mind, not surprisingly. But what is surprising is the thousands of scientists, professionals, educators and students that will gather for a first-time meeting Oct. 5-9 in my backyard of Houston, Texas, to discuss the latest research and trends (10 plenary sessions in all) in energy, water resources, climate change, agriculture, science education, earth sciences and related disciplines.

Why is this a first-time event and what is the significance of the timing? Seems this would be a regular event, like the multiple-time-a-year meetings the United Nations hosts to stay on the cusp of global environmental issues. For challenges that impact the world, seems a bit slow on the uptake to round up these industry participants.

This first joint annual meeting is a collaboration that showcases the sciences of The Geological Society of America, American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, Soil Science Society of America, and Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies, all of which are sponsoring organizations. Also participating is the Gulf Coast Section of the Society for Sedimentary Geology and hosted by the Houston Geological Society.

You can bet we’ll keep an eye on upcoming event developments and certainly be on site to see how this unfolds.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 13th, 2008 at 9:37 pm and is filed under Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.