RBS financed Canadian Tar Sands company goes under
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Aug 2, 2011
Big Canadian tar sands company’s downfall shows that RBS’ tar sands finance is risky and reckless. OPTI Canada Inc. is in the process of being acquired by Chinese oil and gas exploration and production company CNOOC Ltd. CNOOC will pay US$2.1m for the Alberta-based company focused on developing major oil sands projects in Canada. OPTI Canada has...
Geoengineering and synthetic life – BP’s “solutions” to climate change and the energy crisis
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Jun 29, 2011
While drilling holes in the Atlantic seafloor and mining tar sands, BP has also been working with Craig Venter’s Synthetic Genomics to geoengineer microbes that could be injected into tar sands to release methane and create algae-based biofuels, according to Jim Thomas of etc group writing for The Ecologist yesterday. He also investigates BP’s role in driving science-fiction schemes to re-engineer atmospheric...
Follow the Money – RBS article in Foto8 Magazine
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Nov 16, 2010
(This article first appeared in the current, oil-themed issue of Foto8 magazine – http://www.foto8.com/new/in-print/8-magazine ) Despite the fact that there is not a single drop of crude to be found underneath the streets of London, the city acts as one the international capitals of the oil industry. Companies operate here to take advantage of the complex web...
RBS AGM – the aftermath and the follow up
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May 19, 2010
On the 28th of April, RBS held its Annual General Meeting in Edinburgh. Amidst the various motions relating to executive bonuses and a report back on the rocky road to recovery, two people raised concerns over the impact that RBS’ investments were having on indigenous communities in very different parts of the world. Eriel Tchekwie...
FT folds to Shell pressure before AGM
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May 18, 2010
The Financial Times pulled an Amnesty advert challenging Shell’s pollution in the Niger Delta today. The full page ad was due to appear the morning of Shell’s AGM, to contrast the company’s $9.8 billion profit with its role in causing Nigerian communities to drink polluted water, eat contaminated fish, farm on spoiled land, and breathe in air...
BP’s ‘absentee landlords’ under pressure to stop tar sands
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Apr 19, 2010
Yesterday, people from all over the country streamed into the Excel Conference Centre in the London Docklands to take part in the financial theatre that is the BP Annual General Meeting. One of the people who was protesting outside remarked that there was a “surprisingly low shareholder turnout of hedge fund managers in suits, and...
New PLATFORM report reveals RBS is UK bank most involved in financing loans to tar sands companies
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Feb 27, 2010
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...
Tar Sands & corruption in Colorado
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Dec 18, 2009
As the California Zephyr climbs slowly into the Rockies, my fellow train passengers in the observation carriage stare in silence through the enormous windows, as we pass hundreds of miles of narrow gorges, red rock cliffs and frozen waterfalls. Coyotes run through the snow as the train approaches, while studious bald eagles perched above streams ignore us,...
Tar Sands in Chicago!
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Dec 15, 2009
Waking up in Indiana on Monday morning as my train trundles along the flat shores of Lake Michigan, BP’s mega-refinery at Whiting welcomes me to the outskirts of Chicago. Belching out pollutants over the local communities and into the lake since 1889, the refinery turns 410,000 barrels of crude into petrol, jet fuel and petroleum coke every...
Eni’s new tar sands projects threaten Congo rainforest
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Nov 9, 2009
Plans by oil company Eni to develop tar sands and oil palm in the Congo Basin risk irreversible damage to biodiversity, local communities and our climate, and break the company’s own guidelines, according to Congolese human rights organisations and their international partners. In a report published today, Energy Futures? Eni’s Investments in tar sands and palm...
C Words launches
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Oct 3, 2009
C Words started today at Arnolfini, Bristol with a wonderful launch day of exhibitions, discussions, introductions and food. The season began with a fascinating discussion around recuperation. The day has been driven by ideas and conversations. The highlight for me was the extraordinary personal testimony of a Canadian First Nations activist fighting back the invasion...
“We’ve shut the bank down!”
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Sep 3, 2009
This news also came in on Tuesday via the climate camp twitter: “climatecamp: 12 climate campers have just blockaded RBS. Go campers go! Big group about to leave for Bank of England too” “climate camp: Up to 20 campers inside rbs. On second floor too. Dressed as construction workers. More info as it arrives!” “climatecamp: Cyclists...
