Blog

Another grim, painful milestone is reached. It is now a quarter of a century since Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Ogoni 9 were murdered in Nigeria by Shell.

There is growing international pressure on the Philippine President, Rodrigo Duterte, to repeal a controversial, dangerous, draconian Terror Bill, which is in the process of becoming law in the country.

Twice as many Americans want climate action, not war. It is that simple.

History is repeating itself. Just as some of the pioneers of the current environmental movement in the UK, who cut their teeth in the nineties fighting the Tories’ road building programme were demonised and attacked, so are today’s anti-fracking activists.

Sometimes the long, lonely struggle for justice does not take years, but decades. And at long last, four Nigerian women’s search for justice against Shell may be coming to an end.

Once again Big Oil has been forced to rely on brutal militarized force to bludgeon, bully, beat and intimidate peaceful water protectors fighting the Dakota Access Pipeline. But in the face of such violence and intimidation, the growing movement against new fossil fuels will not be intimidated, it will only grow.

They are used to standing shoulder to shoulder in the face of adversity fighting for their country. But next weekend, hundreds of veterans will come together again, potentially for one last time. Their mission this time is not to fight for their Government. But against it.

“Call the White House. Tell them this is unacceptable!!” someone tweeted yesterday, as people watched in horror as heavily armoured Police and law enforcement agencies moved to clear the water protectors in North Dakota fighting to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline.

The contrast could not have been greater. Over the weekend, speaking on the eve of the G20 summit in Hangzhou, history was made as President Obama and Chinese President, Xi Jinping, announced that the world’s biggest emitters of greenhouse gases would formally ratify the Paris agreement on climate change.

So it’s official. Confirming what many people already suspected, especially in areas of the Middle East or the Horn of Africa, climate change can be a cause of conflict.