For years oil analyst-turned whistleblower, Chuck Hamel, has been saying that the oil company operations in Alaska are a sham. He has become a conduit for whistleblowers working on the North Slope and for Alyeska -the joint pipeline company.

They have bought to him information concerning corrosion, quality assurance, health and safety and many other issues. Basically Hamel’s message has been that it is a disaster waiting to happen. The oil industry has routinely dismissed Hamel's concerns, but for how much longer?

Lloyd’s of London – the global insurers – recorded an annual loss of  £103 million before tax last year after a record £3.3 billion of hurricane-related insurance claims. But they are not alone: Insurers worldwide have been hit hard as a result of last year's devastating hurricanes Katrina and Rita, with total claims expected to reach about £50 billion.

Everyone knows that oil is a problem. In the fight against climate change, oil is seen as the chief villain. Gas, meanwhile, likes to portray itself as a clean fuel. But it is not.

BP is set to make a full recovery after last year's setback with Hurricane Katrina, and has just announced oil production of over 4 million barrels of oil a day in first quarter 2006.

Keen to market its latest gas-guzzler by the trick of online viral marketing, American car company Chevrolet introduced a Web site allowing visitors to take existing video clips and music, and then insert their own words to create a customised 30-second commercial for its 2007 Chevrolet Tahoe model.

The British comedian, Rob Newman, made his name back in the 1990s as part of the cult-series "The Mary Whitehouse Experience". Since then he has become increasing concerned about the politics of oil and climate change.
Next month on British TV, he returns with a one-off show "Robert Newman's History of Oil" in which he looks at oil as the source of global conflict, and the dangers of climate change. He was interviewed by the Guardian Unlimited - listen to him here.

Some of the British media are acting more akin to NGOs than impartial by-standers on climate change. In print, the Independent newspaper has been collecting readers' views. Now ITV is undertaking a special global investigation..

Last week The Independent newspaper in the UK asked its readers what to do about climate change. The response has been overwhelming. “Today we publish a summary of the most popular ideas which, if put into practice, would be potent weapons in the fight against global warming” argues The Independent.

Scientists have discovered that temperatures in the Antarctic are rising three times faster than the world as a whole. They have also found the first signs of record levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that may be trapping heat above the ice sheets of the South Pole. 

Interesting article from today's Independent about how Bush's remarks on oil addicition have boosted the renewable energy sector. So maybe he did some good after all. "When President George Bush talked about the US being 'addicted to oil' this year, even the hardest-nosed investors took notice", ran the paper.