Year: 2012

Frankenstorm: Hurricane Sandy an Outgrowth of Global Warming’s Extreme Weather?

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Forecasters say Hurricane Sandy is a rare hybrid superstorm created by an Arctic jet stream from the north wrapping itself around a tropical storm from the south. Jeff Masters, director of meteorology at the Weather Underground, warns that such a "Frankenstorm," as it is called, is an outgrowth of the extreme weather changes caused by global warming.

Market Monsters

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The monstrosity of capitalism gains new strength as political leaders fight for a return to growth by dissecting society. Though many nations are rising up against the monetary elite, most North Americans are still zombified.

The end of our collective love affair with brands?

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Yesterday was a day that produced the most extraordinary news. For the last 8 months or so, the No To Costa campaign in Totnes, supported by Transition Town Totnes, among others, has been campaigning to stop Costa Coffee from opening a branch in Totnes. Communities always lose battles like that don’t they?

Economic Growth: The missing link in environmental journalism

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Environmental journalists are like doctors. Doctors run from patient to patient, harried, dealing with symptoms more than causes. They’re too busy dispensing pills to talk about holistic health. It’s an approach that makes money for the health industry but isn’t so great for public health.

Our Words Are Our Weapons

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In ancient China, the arrival of a new dynasty was accompanied by “the rectification of names,” a ceremony in which the sloppiness and erosion of meaning that had taken place under the previous dynasty were cleared up and language and its subjects correlated again. It was like a debt jubilee, only for meaning rather than money.

Why the U.S. is NOT the new Saudi Arabia

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Last week’s energy news included a piece from the Associated Press with a headline reading: "U.S. poised to become world’s top oil producer; may soon overtake Saudi Arabia." If the reporter had actually examined figures available from the U.S. Energy Information Administration website carefully instead of simply parroting oil industry sycophants, he would have ended up with a headline more like this: "Marginal gains in U.S. oil production mean continuing high prices and imports for Americans."

Shale oil: The latest insights

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The impact of unconventional fuels like shale oil on the global energy system is still an issue of great uncertainty. Not so much because of the size of the tank (the resource base), but due to the large physical effort necessary to obtain a sizeable supply of this type of fossil fuel. For instance, to exploit tight shale oil formations we need large capital expenditures to obtain relatively low flow rates from many horizontally drilled wells.