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Banks need to clean up their green act
Before they benefit from any kind of bail-out, banks should commit to reducing their investment in fossil fuels. – This article was originally published at https://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/oct/08/fossilfuels.banks. On the same day as it became apparent that RBS would need billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money to save it from collapse, the government’s climate change watchdog warned that we should…
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Life in the Landscape of Hydrocarbons – Exit Strategy III
By James Marriott – This article was first published in Platform’s Carbon Web newsletter, issue 10. How was it that the marshes of Hoo St Werburgh – so good for grazing cattle and sheep, so rich in birdlife – were turned into a site for Kingsnorth Power Station – with its chimneys and access roads,…
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Preventing an industrial tipping point
This article was first published in Platform’s Carbon Web newsletter, issue 10. BP, Shell & the Canadian tar sands Under the pristine boreal forest in Northern Alberta lie the Canadian tar sands, a vast carbon time bomb that if ignited will dramatically increase the chance of passing a climate change tipping point. While a rational…
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Out of Sight, Out of Mind
This article was first published in Platform’s Carbon Web newsletter, issue 9. Is carbon capture and storage a safe climate mitigation option? As climate change increasingly becomes a defining political theme for the 21st Century, coal, oil and gas companies have not suffered the existential crisis that might have been expected. Instead, they are betting…
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“Somewhere as Yet Undiscovered”: Thoughts on Power, Desk Killing and Resistance
Article by Dan Gretton in Vertigo: Volume 3, Issue 9; Summer 2008 ‘Reich Secret Business: Berlin, 5th June 1942 Modifications to special vehicles now in service at Kulmhof (Chelmno) and for those now being built Since December 1941, 97,000 have been processed by the 3 vehicles in service with no major incidents. However, in the…
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Exit Strategy – BP and the Refuelling of Heathrow
This report was first published in Platform’s Carbon Web newsletter, issue 8. A climate change delivery system Imagine a 747 departing from Heathrow. Don’t look at the body of the plane, but at the fuel tanks. In the first 600 seconds after take-off the engines consume 200 gallons of Jet A high-octane fuel. The Jet…
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A game as old as empire
Economic hit men (EHMs) are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. They funnel money from the World Bank, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and other foreign “aid” organizations into the coffers of huge corporations and the pockets of a few wealthy families who control the…
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Iraq oil law in the balance
This article is from the Carbon Web Newsletter Issue 7, 30 May 2007 As Carbon Web goes to press, the Iraqi government’s end-of-May deadline for parliament to pass the controversial oil law is just days away. Like the US government’s 2006 deadline, this one looks set to be missed – again due to arguments over…
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A change of culture at BP
As Tony Hayward stepped up to become Chief Executive of BP, media attention focused on Browne’s dramatic departure. But what does the Hayward era promise? – This article was first published in platform’s Carbon Web Newsletter, Issue 7. Hayward, like Browne, is a driller. With a PhD in geology, he spent 22 years in BP…
