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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.

From the minute it was exposed that Shell’s Arctic Drilling Fleet had been issued a permit to be based in Seattle, we knew it wouldn’t be that simple. And within days, concerned citizens had mobilized – and the organizing has paid off.

If they knew him at all, the world knew Oronto Douglas as the former attorney for the writer, playwright and Ogoni human rights activist Ken Saro Wiwa.

There has been increasing speculation over the last twenty-four hours that the oil price might start to rally upwards.

When oil prices crashed late last year, the high-cost and capital intensive tar sands sector took a hit. The industry had already been showing signs of weakness with underperforming stocks, project cancellations, and serious concerns about market access. But low oil prices have driven a whole new level of cost cutting and project delays.

To coincide with this year’s Earth Day, a group of globally recognised scientists and economists have issued a statement calling for three quarters of the world’s remaining reserves of fossil fuels to remain buried.

As the Albertan election heats up, the worsening economy – in large part caused by the plunge in oil prices – is taking centre stage in the province’s election campaign which comes to a head in early May.