Veronika Wild

-Image by Copilot   What Do We Mean by the Cryosphere? Just to recap, the Cryosphere refers to all frozen water on Earth — snow, sea ice, lake and river ice, glaciers, ice caps, ice sheets, permafrost, and ice shelves. It forms a major component of the Earth system, strongly influencing climate, oceans, ecosystems and the global energy balance. Although frozen water appears across the globe, the Polar Regions contain its largest and most climate-critical components. I have had to split the Polar section into two parts as well, so watch out for Part II shortly. If you thought things were looking bad in the Alps, the rate of warming in Polar Regions is even faster — closer to three to four times faster than the global average. As one researcher remarked in a journal article, the words "glacially slow" have taken on a new meaning. If we hear little about these changes, it's most likely because because polar regions are vast, remote and seemingly indestructible. T...

  -Image by Copilot For this post I am using Australia as an example. While the challenges described here are shared by fuel-dependent nations everywhere, Australia represents a particularly acute case — one of the most geographically isolated countries on earth, almost entirely dependent on shipping and aviation for both imports and exports. Tasmania sharpens that picture even more. An island’s island - dependent on ferries, flights and a supply chain that stretches even further. It is a preview of what vulnerability really looks like. How We Got Here After World War II, many countries were determined never again to be vulnerable — not just with respect to fuel, but also food and the basic materials needed to produce manufactured goods. This usually led to government subsidies to farmers and the stockpiling of large quantities of commodities such as Germany's "butter mountains," and France's "wine lakes." Australia had guaranteed prices for wool - the gov...

-Image by Copilot The queues at petrol stations are not new, and we have been told that even if the Strait of Hormuz reopened today the effects would linger for many months. As of early April 2026, ship transits through the strait had collapsed from around 130 per day in February to just 6 in March — a fall of about 95% — and some 230 loaded oil tankers remain waiting inside the Gulf. A temporary ceasefire was agreed on the 8th of April, but the Strait has not meaningfully reopened. In Part I we'll have a look at what people did in the past and what they are doing now. In Part II, we will look at how we could wean ourselves off oil and make sure that we aren't caught short again.  World War II Rationing Many people alive today remember rationing of fuel in World War II. Check out the wonderful British series "Foyle's War"  to get a flavour of the times. There were coupons and harsh penalties for those who were less civic-minded and needed to be reminde...