New PLATFORM report reveals RBS is UK bank most involved in financing loans to tar sands companies

Tar sands extraction in Canada is devastating Indigenous communities, wildlife and vast areas of boreal forests, as well as being many times more carbon-intensive to produce than ‘conventional’ oil. “We are seeing a terrifyingly high rate of cancer in Fort Chipewyan where I live. We are convinced that these cancers are linked to the Tar...

Legal challenge against Shell’s Arctic Chukchi plans

First Nation and environmental groups in Alaska are legally challenging Shell’s permit to drill in the Arctic Chukchi Sea this summer. The Chukchi lies north of the Bering Strait between Alaska and Russia and is habitat for endangered species including bowhead whales, walrus and polar bears, which play a crucial role in the way of...

Stealing the “S” from Shell – tar sands activists hit London

Most of my news from this year’s Camp for Climate Action arrived by twitter: “climatecamp: Balcony of Shell building occupied, big ‘Shell’ sign now reads ‘hell’…” “climatecamp: Tarsands activists are now giving speeches at bp headqrtrs having stopped by at national portrait gallery in Trafalgar square” “climatecamp: Bp is one of the biggest players in the extracion...

The Fight for the Mountains & the Forests

AlJazeera International (in English) recently broadcast several investigative programmes on popular movements opposing destructive fossil fuel projects, as part of its People & Power series. The shows cover local resistance to Barrick Gold in Argentina/Chile, Talisman’s oil operations in the Peruvian Amazon and mountain removal coal mining in the Appalachians. What the film-makers didn’t realise...