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For years a growing number of voices – from activists, analysts and scientists - have been warning that we cannot afford to burn all the reserves of fossil fuels if we are going to keep global warming to 2 degrees. They argue that huge amounts of oil, coal and gas risk becoming “stranded assets”, which can never be burnt.

Twenty four hours after Shell’s seismic announcement that it was pulling out of the Arctic “for the foreseeable future” the announcement is still making waves.

Irony. You have got to love irony. Just imagine, in a cartoonish kind of way, that there is a climate villain out there defying all logic and reason and hurting the planet at its most vulnerable point.

The issue of water is slowly creeping up the political and media agenda in Canada. After last Thursday’s televised leaders' debate being held in the run up to next month’s general election, one columnist for the influential Globe and Mail noted about the subject of water that “So many opportunities to bring up what should be the topic du jour – yet no one touched it.”

There is a temporary reprieve this morning for the oil industry as the oil price has climbed one percent on the news that US drilling has slowed yet again.

If nothing else, President Obama’s energy and climate policy is certainly contradictory. Although desperate to have a positive legacy, he has recently been criticised for allowing Shell to drill for oil in the Arctic just days before visiting the Arctic himself to warn about climate change.

The oil cartel, OPEC, has confirmed what has been obvious to many for months: US shale production is in deep, deep trouble as the fracking boom bursts in the face of low oil prices.

In the run up to the crucial UN climate talks in Paris in December, it goes with saying that the climate sceptics and deniers will be out in force trying to scupper any meaningful potential deal.