Over the past decade, the Greenland ice sheet has been getting darker, and less reflective, absorbing more solar energy. This past summer a record breaking melt extended over the entire surface area of the ice sheet.
Greenland expert Jason Box has been studying and publishing about this phenomenon, and has become concerned about the possible role of increasing wildfires worldwide, and increased darkening of the ice sheets.
The only way to nail the science is to go to the top of the ice sheet and take samples - Dr Box, along with Bill Mckibben, and videographer Peter Sinclair, are kicking off the Dark Snow project to raise funds for for such an expedition, the first crowd-sourced scientific expedition to the arctic.

For more information, visit the Dark Snow Project website: http://darksnowproject.org

Hilarity ensued in response to Randall's tale of the “crazy ass honey badger.” Watch what the walruses have to say about their disappearing habitat as Randall narrates.

In the last 30 years, we’ve lost as much as three-quarters of the floating sea ice cover at the top of the world. The volume of that sea ice measured by satellites in the summer, when it reaches its smallest, has shrunk so fast that scientists say it’s now in a ‘death spiral’.

For over 800,000 years, ice has been a permanent feature of the Arctic ocean. It’s melting because of our use of dirty fossil fuel energy, and in the near future it could be ice free for the first time since humans walked the Earth. This would be not only devastating for the people, polar bears, narwhals, walruses and other species that live there - but for the rest of us too.

The ice at the top of the world reflects much of the sun’s heat back into space and keeps our whole planet cool, stabilizing the weather systems that we depend on to grow our food. Protecting the ice means protecting us all.

If you'd like to sign Greenpeace's petition asking to have the Arctic declared a global sanctuary, free from things like drilling for oil, you can do so here.

Six activists with the environmentalist group Greenpeace International have occupied a Russian oil rig to protest drilling in the Arctic. The rig belongs to the Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom, which is set to become the first company to produce Arctic oil through drilling operations in the Pechora Sea. Amy Goodman of DemocracyNow! speaks live with Greenpeace’s executive director, Kumi Naidoo, just as he and other activists are being hosed by the rig’s crew in an effort to thwart their protest. Naidoo says the group is being sprayed by ice cold water by Gazprom employees as they remain on the rig. "We want to draw global attention to what is the defining environmental struggle of our time, and time is running out for us to avert catastrophic climate change," Naidoo says. "That’s why we are here." Greenpeace is promoting a resolution at the U.N. General Assembly that would protect the Arctic region from any drilling or unsustainable fishing.

Full transcript available here.

Time to Rebel! Five Ways We Can Break the Big Banks' Death Grip on the Economy

Wall Street’s incredible greed and arrogance may have finally handed us the tools and leverage we need.
Read it at Truthout.

Court orders Occupy Hong Kong to leave HSBC

Occupy Central in Hong Kong, one of the last outposts of the global protests sparked by the Occupy Wall Street movement, has been ordered to clear its encampment outside one of the world's largest banks.

Credit Card Debt Collection Flawed

Up to 90 percent of cases filed by credit-card companies to collect bad debts may be flawed, according to one New York judge who says he has heard as many as 100 in one day. The problem, say many of the judges who oversee the slew of suits filed by American Express, Citigroup, and other credit-card companies, is that they all follow the same he-said-she-said pattern—companies eager to collect debts try to make their cases with partial records and improper documents, leaving substantial holes in their arguments. The companies disagree, with one American Express spokesman telling The New York Times that the company has “a strong process in place to ensure accuracy of testimony and affidavits provided to courts.”

Occupier Charged With Terroristic Felony

David C. Gorczynski, 22, was charged on Tuesday with attempted bank robbery and terroristic threatening, both felonies, as well as one misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct. Police detained him after he walked into an Easton, PA Wells Fargo branch with a sign that read “You’re being robbed” and another that said “Give a man a gun, he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob a country.”

Police Take Down Occupy Memphis

Officers with the Memphis Police Department on Friday morning began dismantling the Occupy Memphis camp on Civic Center Plaza in Downtown Memphis, WMC-TV reports.

The effort began around 4 a.m. Friday. City of Memphis CAO George Little told the news station the site has evolved into a homeless encampment.

Continue reading »

The mayor and other residents of Point Hope, Alaska share their concerns about Shell's offshore drilling plans in the Arctic. Residents of this town, also known as "Tikigaq," have survived for generations off the bounty of the Chukchi Sea, which is now threatened by pollution, noise, and the risk of an oil spill that would come with offshore drilling.

As one woman puts it, "The ocean, to us, is our garden. I really don't want drilling in my garden."

The Arctic ice we all depend on is disappearing. Fast. Soon it could be ice free for the first time since humans walked the Earth. This would be not only devastating for the people, polar bears, narwhals, walruses and other species that live there - but for the rest of us too.

Oil companies are using melting sea ice to drill for more of the oil that is causing global warming in the first place. In fact, Shell’s Arctic fleet will be arriving any day now to begin exploratory drilling off the coast of Alaska this summer. That's just madness. It's time for us to take back sanity from those who have lost the plot.

Our leaders won't listen to her, but they'll listen to you. What do you have to say to those who want to destroy the Arctic?

Greenpeace, Jude Law, Radiohead and hundreds of thousands of people around the world are coming together to demand we save the Arctic from oil drilling, industrial fishing and militarization. Join us at http://www.savethearctic.org

Shell is due to begin exploratory drilling at two offshore sites in the Alaskan Arctic in the coming weeks. If Shell is successful this summer, an Arctic oil rush will be sparked and the push to carve up the region will accelerate. Russian oil giant Gazprom is also pushing into the offshore Arctic this year.

It is time to Save the Arctic.

Did you catch the video of the private party hosted by Shell Oil in Seattle at the Seattle Space Needle last week? The party was to be a celebration of the impending offshore drilling operations into the Arctic, complete with a replica of the Kulluk oil rig that will be doing the drilling, and inviting the widow of the man who designed the rig to symbolically tap the arctic and fill her glass with some alcoholic drink pouring from the top of the miniature rig. But lo and behold the rig's pump malfunctions and spews all over the elderly widow! Epic PR Fail!

What ensued therein was a marvel to behold, people frantically trying to stop the spewing "oil rig," only to find that nothing was working as it should. Pure comedy gold that was way to good to be true, which can only mean...The Yes Men!

But who was the charming elderly widow? Also, I didn't think the Yes Men had delved into ecological issues before, so was there another accomplice? Watch the video up at the top and find out how this delicious hoax that fooled several mainstream media news outlets and went viral was pulled off and who the cast of characters were.

Watch the video below to see the original spoof Shell Oil party video in full: