In the end the sentence was predictably severe. Yesterday Tim DeChristopher, who has become an unlikely here for the climate change movement, was sentenced to 2 years in jail and fined $10,000. His crime had been not to hurt anyone or deface any building but to throw a virtual spanner in the works of the … Read More
Month: July 2011
The Norwegian Murderer, Climate Denial and Watermelons
Sixteen years ago I wrote a book called Green Backlash, that looked at the growing backlash against the environmental movement worldwide. One chapter, called “Culture Wars and Conspiracy tales”, looked at the warped view of many of the conspiracies of the right wing and far right. The book examined the many ways in which environmentalists … Read More
Canada’s “Pipeline Through Paradise”
One of the biggest problems for proponents of the tar sands (apart from frying the climate and polluting the local rivers and ripping up ancient boreal forests) is getting the dirty oil to hungry markets. The route south from Alberta to America and the refineries of the Gulf coast hinges on the controversial Keystone XL … Read More
“Cowboy” Cairn Gags Greenpeace
One of the many ways in which powerful polluters try to silence their critics is through legal intimidation. And Cairn Energy, which is involved in controversial drilling in the Arctic, is no exception. For months Cairn has been dogged by Greenpeace, which has been campaigning against its Artic operations off Greenland. On Monday about 60 … Read More
Two More Oil Spills…
Just as BP slowly begins to rebuild its tarnished reputation, it has slipped up again. Not in a catastrophic company-threatening way like it did last year but a much smaller spill, this time in Alaska. Although the amount spilt – some 2,100 to 4,200 gallons of fluid – is infinitesimal compared to the Deepwater Horizon, … Read More
Shale Gas Investment is “Eye-Watering”
The world’s largest mining company, BHP Billiton has signalled it too wants to get in on the shale gas revolution sweeping the US, despite the growing controversy over fracking. In a deal announced late last week, BHP agreed to pay $12.1bn for Houston-based gas developer Petrohawk, with a view to spending nearly $50 billion developing … Read More
What if the Carbon Bubble Bursts?
For many years now, a number of activists and analysts have argued that if we are serious about tackling climate change then the reserves of oil and gas in the ground need to be seen as liabilities and not assets. At the moment an oil company is judged by investors by the strength and size … Read More
Keystone Spill Risk “Flawed”, Argues Expert
Last week, came the news that an Exxon pipeline had ruptured into the beautiful Yellowstone river. This was quickly followed by the revelations that the controversial Keystone XL pipeline would pass under the same stretch of river, raising doubts over its safety and capacity to clean up any spill. Now this has been followed by … Read More
“Shell has cheated us for too long”
For hundreds of communities across the Niger Delta the daily unseen struggle against Shell continues. At the end of last week four Ijaw communities gave the oil giant a 14 day ultimatum, demanding that Shell finally implement an agreement that they reached in 1999, twelve years ago. Fearing the company will not honour the agreement, … Read More
Now its Yellowstone To Keystone
You would have thought that Rupert Murdoch had enough on his plate right now without one of his paper’s backing the highly controversial Keystone XL tar sands pipeline in an editorial yesterday. Despite the deep controversy surrounding the specific project and the safety of pipelines in general, which have been reigntied by Exxon’s Yellowstone spill, … Read More
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