In January 2009, much of the world’s attention will focus on the shift of power from President Bush to Barack Obama. But the US is not the only place where there will be a significant power shift. The presidency of...
It was Benjamin Franklin who once said: “Certainty? In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes.” In these uncertain times, with a volatile oil price, rising temperatures and a sea-change of political will and ideology in the White...
As many part of the world celebrated an Obama victory last week, his resounding success would have caused deep concern to the Canadian oil sands industry and Canada’s Prime Minster, Stephen Harper. During the campaign, Obama condemned US reliance on...
If he was still alive, I wonder what Ken Saro-Wiwa would make of it all, if he could see his beloved Delta stuck in a vortex of violence that seemingly has no end. For a man who preached peace, he...
The following article ran in the Guardian (UK) and was written by Jeremy Leggett. It is based on the publication of this report (large pdf). If eight companies across a broad spectrum of UK industry had warned, five years ago,...
In what is a truly symbolic victory for the people of the Niger Delta, the oil giant Shell has been ordered to hand over the huge Bonny oil terminal to the local population. Although details are only now becoming public,...
At the end of last week, the head of the UN Climate Change secretariat argued that, instead of sidelining the fight against climate change, the global credit crisis could hasten efforts to create “green growth” industries by revamping the financial...
Two weeks ago a jury in Britain ruled that it is acceptable to break the law if you are protesting against climate change. They acquitted six Greenpeace protestors who had been charged with $70,000 worth of criminal damage after painting...
For nearly twenty years anyone concerned about climate change has been worried about the millions and millions of tonnes of frozen methane locked in the permafrost slowly melting and being released into the atmosphere. It was seen as a nightmare...
It was inevitable that some sections of the Canadian press would defend tar sands, but the arguments they are using are fundamentally flawed. In an editorial entitled “'Dirty oil' beats bloody oil” today, the Calgary Herald tries to hit back...
