Tom Whipple

The peak oil crisis: oil & the arctic meltdown

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Last week brought the news that this summer the Arctic icecap shrank to an all-time low of roughly half the size it was in 1980. While this is the lowest ever seen since satellite monitoring began 33 years ago, some experts are saying that the summer of 2012 was probably the smallest the icecap has been in the last million years. The announcement triggered a spate of newspaper and magazine stories pondering the meaning of this development.

It now appears that the arctic is melting much faster than the models have been predicting.

Thousands surround Spanish Parliament in bid to “Occupy Congress” and stop austerity

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Thousands of people surrounded the Spanish Parliament in Madrid on Tuesday to protest austerity measures and the loss of public confidence in elected leaders. The “Occupy Congress” protest came as the conservative administration of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy prepares to unveil further austerity measures on Thursday. After hours of protest, police in riot gear charged against demonstrators with batons and fired rubber bullets. Thirty-five people were arrested, and at least 60 people were injured. We go to Madrid to speak with independent journalist Maria Carrion.

Innovative crops of the Alai Valley

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The High Pamir and Pamir-Alai mountains of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan form one of the world’s most remote and beautiful landscapes. But with this isolation and dramatic scenery are extreme climate and socio-economic marginalization that results in communities here being some of the poorest in Central Asia…Farmers in this region rarely have enough money to risk investing in new crops that might improve their economic situation. But the ingenuity of some local farmers who are interested in expanding beyond the confines of traditional staple crops, is leading an agricultural transition towards micro-innovation.

Real food right now and how to cook it: Grapes

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Grapes are a special fruit. From inspiring myth (think Dionysus and Bacchus) to sustaining WWII troops in the form of raisins, grapes have been involved in so much of human history. Although I grew up eating lots of raisins and grapes, as I imagine so many American kids in the 70s and 80s did, I didn’t really value the fruit until I was old enough to appreciate wine. The magic that happens between the grape harvest and the first pour into the wine glass is something thrilling – and it’s amazing to think that the beverage we let stain our teeth is (essentially) the same beverage that the ancient Persians, Romans, Greeks and Egyptians drank.

Shale gas – Sept 27

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-Fracking Regulations In States Leave Wells Without Inspection, Environmental Group Says
-Report leaves debate open on contested Wyoming fracking study
-The Amazing Confusion Over European Shale
-Matt Damon’s ‘The Promised Land’ Takes on Natural Gas and Fracking

Bringing the harvest in

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Where was the sun? It’s not been a great year for us gardeners. It never really became summer here in Wales. It felt like we were stuck in spring and a cold one at that…The big corporations are having a great time though, at Glencore they reckon that the worst drought to hit the US since the 1930’s “will be good for business”, as they can profit from rising prices…I could go on, but it just gets too depressing and I’m more interested in how, as Transition activists, we’re to address these issues.

How the Arctic death spiral fuels ‘Wicked backlash on our weather’

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Since the fossil-fuel revolution after World War II, Arctic temperatures have increased at twice the global rate, illustrating a phenomenon called Arctic amplification. Thus, sea ice has melted at an unprecedented rate and is now caught in a vicious cycle known as the ice-albedo feedback: as sea ice retreats, sunshine that would have been reflected into space by the bright white ice is instead absorbed by the ocean, causing waters to warm and melt even more ice.