The Energy Challenge - The Future Starts Now

Record oil prices have sent gasoline costs skyrocketing, and America's rickety reliance on oil has claimed the electoral agenda and public attention. Yet, despite increased drilling, burgeoning demand continues to strain supply.

"Domestic gas production in the U.S. has not been proportionally increasing with the dramatic increase in drilling because much of what's being found with drilling has very high production declines during the first year," commented Vince Matthews, State Geologist of Colorado and one of many prominent speakers at the 4th annual Association for the Study of Peak Oil & Gas (ASPO)-USA Peak Oil Conference in Sacramento, Sept. 21-23.

The Peak Oil Crisis: Saving the Chesapeake Bay

A couple of years back the Congress decided that a good way to deal with our dependency on foreign oil was to start using lots and lots of domestically produced ethanol in our cars.

The government, with some help from farm lobbyists, decreed that by 2022 we should burn 36 billion gallons of ethanol a year of which 15 billion gallons was to come from corn. Now this is all well and good, except that corn-based ethanol production will be about 9 billion gallons this year and will require a major increase in corn planting in order to reach 15 billion gallons a year and keep us eating at the same time.

Nigeria calls for way to track "blood oil"

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) -- Nigeria's president called Thursday for help finding a way to fingerprint crude oil stocks in order to combat the theft and lucrative overseas sale of unrefined petroleum, aiming at stopping the flow of "blood oil" from Africa's biggest producers.

Opec plans closer links with Russia to control half of the world’s oil supplies

A top-level delegation from Opec will travel to Moscow next month to forge closer ties between the oil producers’ cartel and Russia.

Speaking at a meeting of Opec oil ministers in Vienna, Abdullah al-Badri, the group’s secretary-general, said that he and other officials would hold a joint workshop with the Russians on global oil supply, demand and market issues. Russia already attends Opec meetings as an observer and was represented this week by Igor Sechin, the Deputy Prime Minister, who said that the Moscow talks would focus on “global energy security” matters and ensuring stable prices.

“Opec is one of Russia’s key partners on the global oil market,” Mr Sechin said. “It is very important for us to create mechanisms of regular dialogue.” He said that Russia had already presented Opec with a draft memorandum of understanding including a variety of proposals.

The prospect of closer ties between Opec, whose 13 member states produce 40 per cent of the world’s oil, and Russia, the world’s second-biggest producer after Saudi Arabia, will alarm consumer countries. Together, Opec and Russia would produce about half of the world’s oil, giving them even greater control over prices if they chose to collaborate.

Investors urge SEC on reporting oil climate impact

LONDON (Reuters) - Major investors from the U.S., Canada and the UK are pressuring the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to require energy companies to assess the environmental impact of oil and natural gas reserves.

A group of 19 environmental, investor and non-profit groups want the regulators, under new proposals, to ask that oil and gas companies disclose reported reserves that have higher than average greenhouse gas emissions associated with their extraction, production and combustion.

... "We urge the SEC to pay more careful attention to the implications of climate change and carbon-related regulations ... since the risks and challenges posed are likely to grow rapidly in the coming years, with significant consequences for the oil and gas industries," the group said in an open letter.

"We are concerned that climate change, and policies adopted to combat greenhouse gas emissions, could render certain assets -- particularly those with high carbon intensity -- uneconomic."

Bolivia protests deepen, tensions with U.S. rise

LA PAZ (Reuters) - Violent anti-government protests mounted in Bolivia on Thursday, creating havoc with its key natural gas industry and increasing tensions with the United States.

In the eastern city of Santa Cruz, a stronghold of groups opposed to President Evo Morales' leftist reforms, protesters occupied government buildings for a third straight day. They included the state-run television network, the land reform office, and the tax agency.

OPEC Won't Crack Under Pressure

LONDON - It will take several weeks before the number crunchers close to the ground determine just how effective OPEC's plea to end excess production will be. But already it seems unlikely that Saudi Arabia, the oil-exporting cartel's biggest producer, would choose to brazenly flout the guidelines and risk an open rift with the group.

Petrobras Oil Reserves Likely to Swell on Iara Field

(Bloomberg) -- Petroleo Brasileiro SA, Brazil's state-controlled oil company, said its Iara offshore field contains 3 billion to 4 billion barrels of oil, its second giant find in a year and enough to supply the country for five years.

The assessment released yesterday is the first estimate of recoverable oil from the discovery announced Aug. 11. Petrobras, as the Rio de Janeiro-based company is known, said in January its Jupiter field in the same region contained gas quantities similar to its Tupi area, the largest oil find in the Americas since 1976.

How Real Is OPEC's Production Cut?

OPEC's production-cut announcement in the wee hours of Sept. 10 took nearly all the weary reporters and analysts assembled in OPEC's packed Vienna headquarters by surprise. Saudi Arabian officials, who usually call the shots at OPEC, were telling their contacts before the meeting that they were happy with the current state of the market and not terribly worried by the 30% fall in prices since mid-July. In fact, Ali Naimi, Saudi Arabia's dapper oil minister, said more than once with satisfaction that the desert kingdom had worked very hard to bring prices back down to earth from near-$150-per-barrel levels.

So why a cut? The answer is that in the strange world of OPEC, where words have special meaning, this cut may not be a cut at all. For the sake of unity in the organization, the Saudis appear to have yielded to pressure from hard-liners such as Algeria, Iran, Libya, and Venezuela to put what at least seemed like a cut into OPEC's post-meeting communiqué.

IEA asks India to do away with fuel subsidies

NEW DELHI: International Energy Agency on Thursdasy asked India to remove subsidies on fuel to moderate demand in the country that had contributed to high international oil prices.

IEA Executive Director Nobuo Tanaka, on a visit to India, yesterday met Petroleum Minister Murli Deora to make a case for removing fuel subsidies and inviting New Delhi to become a member of association of oil consumers in US and Europe.

Two Britons Among Expat Oil Workers Kidnapped in Nigeria

(Bloomberg) -- Two Britons were among five foreign oil workers abducted by unknown gunmen in Nigeria's southern oil region earlier this week.

``There were two Britons seized on Tuesday and we're in touch with the Nigerian authorities to press for their release,'' James McLaughlin, a spokesman for the British High Commission in Nigeria, said by phone today from Abuja.

Niger Delta Militant Group Calls Ceasefire in Nigeria Oil Region

In Nigeria, the main militant group in the Niger Delta has called for a ceasefire. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) made the announcement Thursday in response to the creation of a government agency to develop the oil-rich region.

John Michael Greer: The retrofit economy

I’ve suggested several times in these essays that the broad shape of the most likely future facing industrial society, at the end of the age of cheap abundant energy, can be sorted out very roughly into three phases: the age of scarcity industrialism, the age of salvage societies, and – if we are lucky – the ecotechnic age, when new societies based on sustainable high technology will rise on the ruins of our own unsustainable time. For a variety of reasons, any typology of this sort is easy to misunderstand, and it seems worthwhile just now to clarify what I intend to say, and what I don’t, in proposing this model of the future.

The most important point that needs making, it seems to me, is that these three phases are to some extent ideal types, and the forms they take on the ground of actual history will be far more complex, messy, and idiosyncratic than the simple outline suggests. This isn’t simply a result of the fact that none of these phases have arrived yet. The same thing can be said, after all, of the use of economic phases to talk about history that’s already happened.

Nuclear is the real threat to the fuel-poor, not wind energy

Recent allegations that a dash for wind would cause a big increase in fuel poverty crumble when you do the numbers. Nuclear is the real worry.

Vietnam may cut coal exports to meet domestic demand

Vietnam may cut overall exports of the fuel by 89 percent by 2015 to satisfy rising domestic demand, the nation’s largest producer said.

Overseas shipments may plunge to three million tons from around 28 million tons this year, Do Dinh Nguyen, general manager of imports and exports at Vietnam National Coal & Mineral Industries Group, said at a conference in Guangzhou, China, Wednesday.

The death of OPEC

Saudi Arabia walked out on OPEC yesterday. It said it would not honor the cartel's production cut. It was tired of rants from Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and the well-dressed oil minister from Iran.

As the world's largest crude exporter, the kingdom in the desert took its ball and went home.

Australia: Truckers gear up for cost hikes, emission trading

THE announcement last week that Kenworth Trucks would be sacking more than 80 workers — reducing production from 23 trucks a day to just eight — was a blast on the air horn for the Australian road transport industry.

The slowing economy, record fuel prices and rising interest rates have made for a rocky road in 2008, but for road transport operators a handful of looming speed humps will test even the most experienced operators.

Expected energy shortages in Kyrgyzstan will affect school children

Last winter countries in Central Asia experienced severe energy shortages, the situation being most severe for Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. In temperatures down to 30 degrees below zero electricity disappeared for days and weeks, with grave consequences for households, hospitals and schools. Kyrgyzstan is now preparing for a new winter with energy shortage. Daily power cuts are now reality in the capital Bishkek, and “winter holiday” from 20th of December till February is already announced for all schools.

Albertans risk higher electricity bills if we fail to develop new transmission lines

CALGARY /CNW/ - Alberta's Market Surveillance Administrator (MSA), Martin Merritt, argued in a public address today that Albertans will face higher electricity bills if the province does not find fair and timely ways to develop new transmission infrastructure.

"I am concerned that electrical transmission projects in this province may not be keeping up with our economic growth," he told a downtown Calgary Rotary Club. "We need more than the supply necessary to meet Alberta's needs. We need a system that allows electricity to flow freely around the province. That requires adequate transmission capacity."

An urban legend to comfort America: oil is oil, even if it is not oil

A common reply to warnings about peak oil is that we have vast reserves of oil. True, but misleading and of limited significance over short- and medium-term horizons.

When the world relied mostly on oil from the wonderful super-giant fields, the distinction between different types of oil was trivial except to those in the oil business. Sweet, sour, deep — these were technical terms. Now that these conventional sources are peaking, we must turn to unconventional sources. Calling unconventional sources ”oil” leads to serious confusion.

Wherever I lay my hat

I never thought I would spend my honeymoon on other people's couches in London, but that's what happened after my husband and I got kicked out of our flat. In three months, our energy bills trebled and so did the prices at our local supermarket. Freelance clients weren't paying, cash flow became non-existent, choices had to be made between eating and paying the rent. We chose eating. Our landlord asked us to leave. What I didn't realise was that we would be entering an emerging group of full-time couch surfers; people who have found a more communal, environmentally friendly, even utopian, way of living.

Bolivia natural gas repairs could take 15 days

BRASILIA, Brazil: A top Bolivian official says it could take 15 days to repair a damaged natural gas pipeline and fully restore gas shipments to neighboring Brazil.

Finance Minister Luis Alberto Arce says military security for Bolivian natural gas operations is being doubled, after a blast by saboteurs forced a 10 percent cut in natural gas exports to Brazil.

Brazil gets half its natural gas from Bolivia, using it to power its energy grid and as fuel for cars and cooking. Brazil will use diesel fuel to counter the shortage.

Kyrgyzstan: Energy Crisis Challenges Bakiev’s Presidency

Deep dissatisfaction brews among the Kyrgyz population as power cuts have been introduced throughout the country. Although President Bakiev hastened to reassure that heat and electricity supply will not be interrupted this winter, local observers say there are few mechanisms to make it possible, which seriously challenges Bakiev’s leadership.

Drought and low reservoir levels left impoverished Kyrgyzstan without ability to produce energy from hydropower stations this year. In order to save water for winter the government had to introduce electricity cuts, which last up to eight hours in capital Bishkek.

As the lamps and refrigerators die out so do lifts and water pumps leaving many households without hot and cold running water. Thousands businesses suffer huge losses and have to close. Some entrepreneurs decided to leave for Kazakhstan and Russia to save their funds.

Iraq ditches plans for no-bid oil contracts

AN IRAQI plan to award six no-bid contracts to Western oil companies has been withdrawn, those involved in the negotiations say.

Iraq's Oil Minister, Hussain al-Shahristani, told reporters at an OPEC summit meeting in Vienna on Tuesday that talks for one-year deals, which were announced in June and subsequently delayed, had dragged on for so long that the companies could not now fulfil the work within that time frame.

Underground coal mines to solve energy crisis

New underground coal mines could be created under plans to solve the energy crisis facing Scotland.

SNP ministers have been in talks with the Coal Authority to explore the possibility of a new generation of environmentally friendly, coal-burning power stations.

However, they came under fire for revealing that phasing out nuclear energy is their top priority, despite it offering a cheap and secure source of power with low carbon emissions.

UK: Energy cost 'pushing 10% into debt'

Soaring energy bills will push one in 10 households into debt with their fuel supplier by the end of next year, it has been warned.

The National Housing Federation said hikes in the cost of gas and electricity would force many low-income families to have to choose between heating their homes or eating this winter.

Energy bill: Drowning in Washington

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- An energy summit is taking place Friday on Capitol Hill and all 100 senators - including the presidential candidates - are invited to attend. But with all the partisan sniping on The Hill, it's hard to tell if a comprehensive energy bill will be signed into law anytime soon.

Arkansas: Mass transit makes pitch to the masses

The idea of increasing area bus service and exploring other mass transit options is meeting less skepticism than in the past, with nearly all central Arkansas mayors and county judges on the Metroplan Board of Directors encouraging exploration if not actual service.

Mass transit usually brings to mind visions of tracks and stations and people jostling each other on the morning commute, but nowhere in central Arkansas, including Little Rock, is the population density sufficient enough for even light rail service.

Stylish scooters sip gas, attract buyers

It's probably not surprising that with high gas prices, Americans rediscovered mopeds and their close cousins, scooters.

The question: How long will this latest love affair last?

Districts eye four-day school week

Elementary district officials say they know that they will spend an additional $229,000 on electricity alone this year compared with last based on the same number of kilowatt hours used, Allsbrooks said. Gasoline prices for operating buses is another cause for concern.

We have learned to live with $100, and cheap oil is not in our interest

Might the present oil shock dissipate as it did in the 1970s and we head back to cheap oil again? The working assumption of most people is that it won't and that the age of cheap oil will never return – not just in our lifetimes but never, ever. But the oil price has dipped below $100 a barrel and the fact that Opec plans production cuts does suggest that some producers at least feel that cheaper, if not cheap oil, is on the cards.

Oil goes on binge while we seek sober clarity

As oil prices crossed the threshold into triple-digit figures this year, peak oil was taking its place as more than just a theory that the world would run out of sufficient quantities of oil that was financially viable to extract. But it is more likely as an eventuality that would come to pass, probably within a decade.

An upward price trajectory for oil made it far easier to understand the link between prices and energy resource depletion, even though peak oil analysts cautioned that recession was bound to follow a price spike, thus reducing demand and lowering prices. This in turn would cause further price hikes, setting in motion a roller-coaster effect.

Invest wisely and thou shalt reap benefits of long-term resolve

Rule No. 3: There are no new eras -- excesses are never permanent.

Ignore "new era thinking" and "permanent shortage" beliefs based on the assumption that this time it's different. It never is, even under the guise of the "new economy," "peak oil," "finite supply of land" and "no more oceanfront property." Housing bubbles come and go.

The Big Question: What's happening to the price of oil, and how is it affecting the world?

Why are we asking this now?

Because the price has been bouncing around so much recently, although the general trend is firmly down. This week the value of oil dropped below the psychologically significant $100 per barrel mark for the first time since February, but it rebounded back up again yesterday following a surprise announcement from the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) that its 13 member countries are to cut production by more than half a million barrels per day (bpd). Apparently they're a little concerned about the rapid fall in price since its eye-watering peak of $147 in early July.

Critical Q & A!

As with gold, what we are now witnessing in oil is merely a technical correction, and nothing more. Massive support lies at the $107 - $110 level in oil. But even if oil were to break that level, it would most likely hold the $90 to $95 level, and then resume its bull market.

In terms of fundamentals, all of my research indicates that the world has effectively reached "peak oil" — and that supplies are now in a virtually perpetual state of decline, save an occasional new oil find here or there.

Additionally, supply constraints and disruptions from terrorism and wars will unfortunately continue. Upward pressure on oil will also be created when the dollar resumes its bear market.

Bottom line: Once this technical correction in oil is over, I expect to see oil's bull market resume, with oil reaching $200 per barrel early next year, if not sooner.

Coming to New Haven, CT Saturday, Sept. 27, 2008: "Oil, War and the Future of American Foreign Policy" - A Forum with Michael T. Klare

Michael Klare, one of the world's most renowned experts on energy and security issues, unearths declassified documents and highlights forgotten passages in prominent presidential doctrines to show how concerns about oil have been at the core of American foreign policy for more than 60 years, rendering our contemporary energy and military policies virtually indistinguishable.

"Blood and Oil" calls for a radical re-thinking of U.S. energy policy, warning that unless we change direction, we stand to be drawn into one oil war after another as the global hunt for diminishing world petroleum supplies accelerates.

Cleared: Jury decides that threat of global warming justifies breaking the law

The threat of global warming is so great that campaigners were justified in causing more than £35,000 worth of damage to a coal-fired power station, a jury decided yesterday. In a verdict that will have shocked ministers and energy companies the jury at Maidstone Crown Court cleared six Greenpeace activists of criminal damage.

Thou shalt go green

When the Rev. Richard Cizik talks, his message isn't what one might expect from the most prominent public voice representing the national organization of America's evangelical movement.

Religion and social issues aside, Cizik, 57, has become well-known the past few years for pushing a theme not usually associated with the evangelical movement: taking care of the Earth.

Transport - go green or go under

Are there any political leaders in the EU who say we must (urgently) move towards renewable-energy-transport and that road-building can no longer be our top transport priority? The issue is getting urgent and we must prepare for the risk of oil depletion and global warming, which could result in a six-metre rise in sea levels.

Even a small risk of oil running out should be enough to make us urgently review our transport sector. The economic arguments are powerful: There is big money to be made by "electrifying" Europe's transport fleets and the car industry is indeed quietly moving towards the electric car. But the political will is missing.

NASA study illustrates how global peak oil could impact climate

The burning of fossil fuels -- notably coal, oil and gas -- has accounted for about 80 percent of the rise of atmospheric carbon dioxide since the pre-industrial era. Now, NASA researchers have identified feasible emission scenarios that could keep carbon dioxide below levels that some scientists have called dangerous for climate.

When and how global oil production will peak has been debated, making it difficult to anticipate emissions from the burning of fuel and to precisely estimate its impact on climate. To better understand how emissions might change in the future, Pushker Kharecha and James Hansen of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York considered a wide range of fossil fuel consumption scenarios. The research, published Aug. 5 in the American Geophysical Union's Global Biogeochemical Cycles, shows that the rise in carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels can be kept below harmful levels as long as emissions from coal are phased out globally within the next few decades.

"This is the first paper in the scientific literature that explicitly melds the two vital issues of global peak oil production and human-induced climate change," Kharecha said. "We're illustrating the types of action needed to get to target carbon dioxide levels."

Peak Oil peak

The Peak Oil crowd is in a struggle with reality. The sandwich-board energy theorists who claim, "The end is near" for oil, are glumly looking at the crash in the price of crude. What was supposed to be heading for $200 now seems set to dip under the $100 mark. Over at Peak Oil: The End of the Oil Age, the Web site operator is absorbing the shock. "Oil prices have fallen and with it the mass interest in the Peak Oil phenomenon."

It looks grim. "The hits on this Web site have fallen, my webstore DVD stocks have suddenly stopped shrinking rapidly and it is business as usual again." But the writer adds: "Don't be fooled by falling oil prices."

At OPEC, cooling rivalries, extending a hand

VIENNA, Austria - The just ended OPEC meeting was about more than what a barrel of oil can fetch on the open market as the global economic picture grows dim.

OPEC heavyweight Saudi Arabia gave a nod, at least symbolically, to fellow member states that have grown increasingly uneasy about the rapid decline in crude prices. The Saudis attempted to placate rival Iran, and laid the groundwork for a potential new alliance with Russia, the world's second largest oil producer.

But OPEC's announcement that it would cut output by more than 500,000 barrels by sticking closer to quotas did little to change what most consumers care most about — the cost of filling up a car with gas or heating a home over the winter.

Bolivia tells U.S. ambassador to leave, protests mount

LA PAZ (Reuters) - Bolivia's leftist president, Evo Morales, ordered the U.S. ambassador on Wednesday to leave the country, blaming him for intensified opposition protests that shut down a natural gas pipeline to Brazil.

Iraq ends talks with French oil company

BAGHDAD - France's Total says the Iraqi Oil Ministry has discontinued negotiations to develop an oil field in southern Iraq.

Total and U.S.-based Chevron were jointly negotiating a technical support agreement for the development of West Qurna oil field near the southern city of Basra.

Kazakhtan to hike oil export duty by 85% in October

ASTANA (RIA Novosti) - Kazakhstan's government announced on Thursday it will increase the customs duty on oil exports by 85% to $203.8 per metric ton on October 13.

...The government said the move would ensure stable supplies to Kazakh oil refineries and yield over $1 billion in revenue to the national budget.

Trade gap widens to 16-month high on oil; jobless claims dip

WASHINGTON (AP) — America's trade deficit shot up in July to the highest level in 16 months as oil imports hit an all-time high, offsetting strong export growth, and the deficit with China climbed to the second highest level on record.

Norway's energy industry to hike capital spending

Norway's oil and gas industry will raise investments to $22.9 billion, or 132.8 billion kroner , in 2009 as companies increase exploration, the statistics office said.

Gazprom faces fine for restricting access to gas pipeline

Russian gas monopoly Gazprom will reportedly be fined for restricting access to its pipeline network for gas producer Transnafta, according to the Financial Times, which quoted the Russian Federal Anti-Monopoly Service.

France seeks European 'shared vision' for Arctic issues

ILULISSAT, Denmark (AFP) - France, which holds the European Union presidency, called Wednesday for a joint European approach to resolving the challenges in the Arctic, a region on the front lines of global warming.

"What we clearly need is a shared vision of the issues at stake, of the policies to face them in a region which is particularly sensitive to the impact of man's influence on his environment," Laurent Stefanini, French ambassador for the environment said.

Old forests help curb global warming too: study

PARIS (AFP) - Old-growth forests remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere, helping to curb the greenhouse gases that drive global warming, according to a study to be published Thursday.

Many environmental policies are based on the assumption that only younger forests, mainly in the tropics, absorb significantly more CO2 than they release.

Head for the hills: U.S. economy collapsing under debt

I don't know whether to laugh or cry. Or find a cave to hide in.

As the United States collapses under a mountain of debt worth trillions, another Wall Street investment bank struggles to stay afloat and global economies start to crumble -- the Bay Street guru who warned oil would skyrocket to US$200 a barrel has suddenly changed his tune.

Jeff Rubin, CIBC World Markets chief economist, is no longer talking about $200 oil by 2010 and in his latest Canadian Portfolio Strategy Outlook Report scales back other predictions for crude. Instead of crude averaging $125 this year, followed by $150 next year, Rubin now says it will be at $115 this year and $130 next year.

To me that's still overly optimistic. But peak oil advocates -- who paint a Mad Max future where we kill our fellow man for a drop of precious black gold -- would say I'm wrong.

The Green Rush: Full transcript of interview with Zac Goldsmith

I don’t know whether the issue of peak oil has been taken out of context or whether it's been blown out of proportion, but the truth is every one of our economic models, every one of our projections, all our assumptions are based on the availability of affordable oil. And, if peak oil theory is correct, and there are lots of people in the oil industry who say that it is, then we ought to know that, and I'd like to see a process where there is an audit of world oil supplies so we can start factoring the reality into our projections. Because if peak oil is true, if it's around the corner, or if we've already hit it, then the impact on our lives will be far greater in the short term than the consequences of climate change. It's a massive, potentially a massive issue. It may be nothing, it may be massive, but we ought to know the truth.

Prince Charles calls for 'wartime' effort against deforestation

LONDON (AFP) - Britain's Prince Charles called on the world Wednesday to act with a "sense of wartime urgency" to protect the rainforests, warning they were "umbilically connected" to the phenomenon of climate change.

The heir to the British throne told a black-tie dinner in London that rainforests "are the world's lifebelt", acting as the "world's air conditioning system" and helping store the largest body of flowing water on the planet.

Most Europeans 'very concerned' by climate change: EU survey

BRUSSELS (AFP) - Most Europeans are very concerned about climate change, but a sizeable minority feel they don't know enough to help counter it, a major EU opinion poll released Thursday suggested.

A majority of the 30,000-plus interviewed throughout the European Union and candidate countries thought that neither industry nor national governments nor the EU itself was doing enough to tackle the problem.

Record number of icebergs off Canadian coast

German photographer Rolf Hicker, who captured the image off the coast of Newfoundland in north east Canada, said: "I remember for years in Newfoundland where we hardly saw any icebergs.

"But in 2007, there was a record number of icebergs with four or five times more icebergs than they had ever seen in one season.

"For me this is a clear sign that something very bad is happening in the Arctic."

Watch as Greenland melts

A new webcam set up in Ilulissat will allow the world to watch as global warming eats away at Greenland's ice cap.

(Look like the English link isn't active yet, but you can see the Icecam here.)