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If you ask communities on the frontline of the fracking industry in the US what their greatest concern is about the controversial technology, often the reply is the threat to their drinking water.

Nigeria lost one of its most iconic, out-spoken and passionate advocates for social and environmental justice last week with the cruelly early death of Oronto Douglas at the age of forty eight.

In the desperately dark days following BP’s Deepwater Horizon accident in April 2010, one of the issues that I highlighted on this blog was the dangers of BP’s chemical Corexit, which the oil giant was using to disperse the oil.

The Obama administration’s inconsistent approach to climate change was laid bare again last night after the US Interior Department reconfirmed Shell’s controversial lease sale in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska.

The oil industry often prides itself in pushing the boundaries of technology. The whole fracking revolution has been driven by the industry pioneering new techniques to exploit oil and gas that was previously out of reach.

Twenty years ago the oil giant Shell was embroiled in two separate controversies, which still haunt the company to this day.

In the months that followed BP’s devastating Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010, one of the biggest mysteries was what happened to the 200 millions gallons of spewed black crude.

It could all be over before it even began. The boom could turn to bust before a well is even drilled. The British fracking industry now faces growing resistance from numerous influential voices.

It is hard to believe but it is nearly five years since BP’s reckless behaviour caused arguably America’s worst environmental disaster.

Not content with polluting our air and water and causing immeasurable harm to both the environment and health, the fracking industry has now come up with a novel idea: the consumer should pay for the polluting process as well.