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From Oil Road to Fire Road – of oil pipelines, gas pipelines and climate chaos
Authored by James Marriott of Platform drawing on the collective experience of so many others in Platform and the multiple organisations we’ve collaborated with. Prompted by an invitation from the Climate Cultures Festival in Berlin to speak about Crude Britannia and The Oil Road, co-authored with Mika Minio-Paluello, I returned to the Baku-Tiblisi-Ceyhan Oil Pipeline…
26 Nov 2021 james -
Just Transition in Glasgow – now is the time for ‘For’ and ‘Against’
“We need a massive programme of retrofitting homes”. Francis Stuart of the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) is outlining his understanding of the social project that needs to take place, the transformation of pretty much the entirety of the housing stock of Scotland – and indeed the UK. Stuart sits behind a long table…
19 Nov 2021 james -
The Open Wound – keeping eyes on the constant injustice of oil production in Nigeria
26th Anniversary of the murder of Ken Saro-Wiwa and 8 Ogoni comrades Authored by James Marriott of Platform drawing from the collective experience of so many others in Platform and the multiple organisations we’ve collaborated with. On the morning of 10th November 1995 in a Port Harcourt goal, Nigeria were murdered: Ken…
9 Nov 2021 james -
How to Capture the Future and Store Capital – the plans for CCS in Liverpool Bay
You can see the future from Formby Beach. You don’t even need to climb up on one of steep sand dunes to catch a glimpse of it. It is out there yellow and white lights blinking in the grey dusk away to the North West. It has supplanted the red dots of the turbines on…
5 Nov 2021 james -
What the Gas Price hike means – the Tales of Two Cities
Hot on the heels of the Petrol Panic comes the Gas Price Panic and the Electricity Price Panic – my head spins as I try to take in each of these fossil fuel driven convulsions. It is worth the effort to unpick this ball of yarn and lay out the tale it reveals. It is…
20 Oct 2021 james -
Petrol Panic II – taking on the barriers to climate action
Week two of the Petrol Panic – Monday 4th October. It looks like the pumps are working as normal in the BP petrol station at 232 Priory Road in Anfield, Liverpool, fed by road tankers filled at the gantries of Stanlow Refinery, 12 miles to south on the banks of the Mersey. But the Petrol…
12 Oct 2021 james -
Profiting from the Panic – how to use a squeeze in the oil flow to financial advantage
Petrol Panic grips the nation. A second week of fuel shortages on the forecourts threatens to hobble the economy, or at least erode support for the Tories in their heartlands and overshadow the Conservative Party Conference. Will queues at the petrol pumps in Manchester crowd the prime minister’s show? The Shell stations in Bolton were…
4 Oct 2021 james -
‘Much More than a Road’ – battling another motorway in Crude Britannia
Another consultation document to go through. Another online form. Another swamp of documents. They are drowning us in data. This is the Community Impacts Consultation for the Lower Thames Crossing issued by the UK government agency, National Highways (formerly Highways England). Again and again we go over the same ground. (We have blogged on these…
23 Sep 2021 james -
Oxfordshire Pension Fund Begins Fossil Fuel Divestment
Oxford, UK: A year after Oxford University decided to divest from fossil fuels, the Oxfordshire local government pension fund has begun excluding fossil fuel investments from their own fund. On 10th September, the administering committee for the scheme, worth approximately £3 billion and with around 65,000 members, voted to move the full value of the…