The second marine impact story is from Alaska. Oil giant Shell, which was poised to start oil exploration in the Beaufort Sea, cannot proceed until the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decides whether the potential for environmental damage was properly considered by the federal agency that issued an exploration permit to the oil company.
A […]

Two stories on the impact of oil on marine mammals with environmental and Indigenous groups fighting back against the oil industry.
Two environmental groups have accused the British Government of covertly sponsoring Royal Dutch Shell’s Sakhalin-2 oil and gas project off east Russia, which they say is causing major environmental damage and threatening a rare […]

Hugo Chavez has infuriated his critics by laying out the road map for moving his oil-rich nation to a socialist state, proposing a radical constitutional reform which could have at its centre indefinite re-election for himself.
Addressing the National Assembly, Chavez laid out 33 changes he plans to make to the constitution he introduced in 1999. […]

More bad news on the climate. Yesterday we blogged on how Arctic ice may be melting faster than previously thought. Now other scientists are warning that the tipping point for climate change could be closer than previously thought.
They are predicting that the loss of the massive Greenland ice sheet may now be unstoppable and lead […]

BP has once again been accused of serious safety breaches after a fire broke out at its Prudhoe Bay operations in Alaska.
On August 6 a fire took hold at one of three so-called gathering centres within BP’s Prudhoe Bay operations. According to a letter sent to a congressional committee by long-term oil industry critic Chuck […]