Andy Rowell

Yesterday, after months of painstaking work, Oil Change International launched a report entitled “Lockdown – the end of growth of the tar sands”.

If we didn’t know it already we do now. Climate change is bad for your kids. That was the message yesterday, when the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) published a policy statement and technical report on the effects of climate change on children and concluded that they are “uniquely vulnerable” to the threat.

There must be a certain pleasure if you are a climate activist in blockading a coal mine which is on the land of one of the country’s leading climate sceptics.

For a long time now the oil industry and its supporters have tried to claim that fracking is safe and often opposition is based on ignorance and not the facts.

Four months ago, the UK-based CHEM Trust issued a report and briefing paper on how toxic chemicals from fracking could affect wildlife and people.

What has become clear over the last few weeks is that the UK government is determined to decimate the UK’s fledgling solar industry, no matter the cost to jobs, families and the environment. And this is from a political party, the Conservatives, which normally prides itself on being pro-business.