The fire that the locals call “the beast” is back with a vengeance. Last week, the wildfire that ravaged parts of the tar sands town of Fort McMurray in Alberta seemed to have done its worst. But in recent days it has returned and headed to the tar sands camps north of the town, travelling at around 30-40 metres per second.
Oil giant Shell is still struggling to clean up an estimated 90,000 gallons of oil spilt in to the Gulf of Mexico last Thursday. This latest spill has led to increased calls by local residents on President Obama not to open additional leases in the next Five Year Plan for the Gulf.
Over the last two weeks, in excess of 30,000 people have undertaken 20 hugely significant acts of disobedience on six continents as part of the #Breakfree2016 protests against fossil fuels.
The famous quote attributed to Benjamin Franklin is that "In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes”. Another certainty is that you know that the top executives of controversial companies absolutely hate the one day in the year that they are accountable to their shareholders: the AGM.
Great news for those fighting Big Oil in the Arctic, as after spending a whopping $2.5 billion for drilling rights in US Arctic waters, oil companies such as Shell and ConocoPhillips have quietly relinquished their rights to some 2.2 million acres.
Yesterday Australian climate activists blockaded the world's largest coal port and shut it down for several hours, leading to the arrest of 66 people. The protest managed to stop millions of tonnes of coal being exported for a whole day in a hugely significant protest.
