When you think of the Arctic, you may picture vast glaciers, frigid waters, miles of ice, and probably the quintessential polar bear. The Arctic has been the final frontier for centuries: the ends of the earth. But a new reality is setting in in the region – a reality of a changing climate, and the … Read More
Author: Hannah McKinnon
Untouchable: The Climate Case Against Arctic Drilling
Oil Change International and Greenpeace U.S. – August 2015 DOWNLOAD REPORT There is a clear logic that can be applied to the global challenge of addressing climate change: when you are in a hole, stop digging. If we are serious about tackling the global climate crisis, we need to stop exploring, expanding, and ultimately exploiting fossil … Read More
Shell’s big bets – a sign of desperate times?
The conclusion of an article in the Financial Times the other day was that there was only one way to explain three recent major bets by Royal Dutch Shell, including its 7 billion dollar bet (and counting) on Arctic Oil: the company must know something we don’t because objectively these plays don’t make a lot … Read More
Missed opportunities: Canadian premiers fail to live up to climate rhetoric
Canadian premiers are meeting this week to discuss the so-called Canadian Energy Strategy – an effort by Canadian provinces and territories to come up with a united front on energy in Canada.
Forecasts of convenience: why is the fossil fuel industry mapping our energy future?
Would you take it seriously if tobacco companies announced that smoking trends weren’t expected to change much over the next 30 years? And imagine then, that this is what governments used to make tobacco policy: “Forecasts show that people aren’t going to quit smoking, steady rates of smoking around the world are inevitable, so all anti-smoking policies will assume not much is going to change.”
Signs, signs, everywhere the signs
There are usually clear signals if you find yourself driving towards a cliff. Presumably the smooth paved road you were driving on ends and turns into a less-travelled gravel road, from there, chances are dirt starts to take over where gravel is no longer hauled in. As you get closer to the cliff, lets be … Read More
#StopFundingFossils
As another round of UN climate negotiations wraps up today in Bonn, expectations are taking shape for the end of the year Paris conference where countries will have yet another chance to prove they are ready to take on one of the world’s greatest challenges. Nobody (with the possible exceptions of Canada, Australia, and Japan … Read More
Kick Big Polluters out of the climate talks
– By Greg Muttit and Hannah McKinnon Last week, six European oil companies declared their apparent conversion to the climate cause. To much fanfare, Shell, BP, Total, Eni, Statoil and BG committed to being part of a constructive solution on climate change, asked for a formal role in international climate negotiations, and called for governments … Read More
Not So Fast: new analysis finds 1.6 million bpd of tar sands expansion on life support
Our latest briefing shows just how bad things are looking for tar sands expansion.
Fossil Fuel Fatalism and the Untouchable Arctic
Yesterday at the Royal Dutch Shell AGM in The Hague, the company’s leadership was grilled with questions and concerns about its high-risk plans for offshore U.S. Arctic oil exploration, and how it will square that circle with its apparent commitment to take climate change more seriously. Interventions ranged from powerful statements and concerns from indigenous … Read More