Progress Daily

A scientific analysis of north European genes carried out at three Japanese universities has isolated the date of the genetic mutation that resulted in blond hair to about 11,000 years ago. The hair colour gene MC1R has at least seven variants in Europe and the continent has an unusually wide range of hair and eye shades. Just how such variety emerged over such a short period of time in one part of the world has long been a mystery. If the changes had occurred by the usual processes of evolution, they would have taken about 850,000 years. According to a new study, published under the aegis of the University of St Andrews, north European women evolved blonde hair and blue eyes at the end of the Ice Age to make them stand out from their rivals at a time of fierce competition for scarce males.

“Cavegirls were first blondes to have fun,” by Roger Dobson and Abul Taher.

“European hair and eye color: A case of frequency-dependent sexual selection?” by Peter Frost.

The Age of Coal began when declining supplies of wood in Great Britain caused its price to climb. Two centuries later, oil took the place of coal as “the king of energy sources” because of its convenience and its high flexibility in many applications, but coal was neither exhausted nor scarce. Oil substitution is simply a matter of cost and public needs, not of scarcity. The countries richest in oil have minimized their oil investments during the last 20 years, mainly for fear of creating a permanent excess capacity such as that which provoked the crisis in 1986 (when oil prices plummeted to below $10/bbl). In fact, countries such as Saudi Arabia or Iraq (which together hold about 35% of the world’s proven reserves of oil) produce petroleum only from a few old fields, although they have discovered but not developed more than 50 new fields each. To “cry wolf” over the availability of oil has the sole effect of perpetuating a misguided obsession with oil security and control that is already rooted in Western public opinion – an obsession that historically has invariably led to bad political decisions. The worst effect of the recurring oil panic is that it has driven Western political circles toward oil imperialism and attempts to assert direct or indirect control over oil-producing regions.

So says Leonardo Maugeri, Group Senior Vice President for Corporate Strategies and Planning for the Italian energy company eni: “Oil: Never Cry Wolf – Why the Petroleum Age Is Far From Over.”

Click here for a chart of colonial and US energy consumption by source.