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Fossil Fuels

Extinction Rebellion And Just Stop Oil Block Oil Facilities Across The UK

April 2, 2022 Extinction Rebellion. , , ,
BREAKING: In the early hours of the morning, Extinction Rebellion UK and groups in the Just Stop Oil Coalition have blocked 10 major oil facilities across the UK. We will continue to block the sites until the UK Government agrees to end all new fossil fuel investments immediately.[1] Extinction Rebellion is blocking the Esso West Terminal near Heathrow Airport, and the Hamble and Hythe Terminals in Southampton. People are locked on at the entrances using large pink oil barrels filled with concrete, with the words ‘END FOSSIL FUELS NOW’ on them. Two people are up bamboo structures at the Esso Terminal and the Southampton locations each have one of the iconic Extinction Rebellion boats blocking the entrances with people locked to them.

The Urgent Need For Climate Action

March 30, 2022 John Scales Avery, Popular Resistance. , , ,
Although the worst effects of catastrophic climate change lie in the distant future, there are recent warnings that tell us that a climate disaster may be nearer than we thought. The Arctic and Antarctic regions are warming more than twice as fast as the remainder of the world. In the Antarctic region, the vast Thwaites glacier, sometimes called "the Doomsday Glacier", has recently exhibited so many cracks that scientists fear that it may shatter into small pieces like a windscreen. If this happens, the event may trigger the collapse of other nearby glaciers through a mechanism called "Marine Ice Cliff Instability". This could mean several meters of sea level rise, threatening all coastal cities throughout the world. Other warnings come from the Arctic.

Fossil Free Research

March 23, 2022 Fossil Free Research. , , ,
Fossil Free Research is a new campaign to end the toxic influence of fossil fuel money on climate change-related research in universities. It is coordinated by international student divestment and climate justice activists with the support of a wide range of academics, climate experts, and university members, as reflected by the letter here.

Reality Check: What The Path To A 1.5C World Looks Like

March 23, 2022 Marlowe Hood, Phys.Org. , , ,
The world needs to rapidly purge fossil fuels from its energy mix if it is to have any hope of limiting global warming enough to avoid disastrous climate impacts, according to a prominent climate scientist. University of Manchester professor Kevin Anderson is lead author of Tuesday's report from the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research detailing how quickly countries must phase-out oil and gas to cap global temperatures at 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the more ambitious goal of the Paris Agreement. As the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) meets to approve a handbook for eliminating carbon pollution, Anderson talked to AFP about the deep social change needed to address the climate crisis, the tendency to sugar-coat the science, and the dangers of short-term politics.

Investors Are Reevaluating The Mountain Valley Pipeline

March 12, 2022 William Limpert, Truthout. , , ,
During a recent hearing about the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC’s) policy statements about fracked gas certificates, Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, the chair of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, defended the MVP. Manchin claimed the pipeline is 95 percent completed, but opponents cite the company’s own reports, which indicate “final restoration of the pipeline right-of-way is now about 55% complete.” Moreover, two recent federal court rulings have thrown out key MVP permits, as three more federal agencies have been sent back to the drawing board after failing to analyze the MVP’s harmful impacts. The court ruled that the United States Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management inadequately considered actual sedimentation and erosion impacts, prematurely authorized stream crossings, and failed to comply with a Forest Service rule.

AIG To Stop Insuring Coal, Tar Sands, And Arctic Drilling

March 2, 2022 Kenny Stancil, Commondreams. , , ,
Climate justice advocates celebrated Tuesday in response to insurance giant AIG's announcement that it will no longer invest in or provide insurance coverage for any new Arctic drilling activities nor will it finance or underwrite the construction of any new coal-fired power plants, thermal coal mines, or tar sands projects, effective immediately. AIG also said that it will immediately stop investing in or underwriting "new operation insurance risks" of coal-fired power plants, thermal coal mines, or tar sands projects owned by corporations that derive 30% or more of their revenue from those industries or generate over 30% of their energy production from coal.

Woman’s Quest To Safeguard Funds To Clean Up Oil And Gas Industry’s Mess

February 27, 2022 Julie Dermansky, DeSmog. , , ,
After the Biden administration’s bipartisan infrastructure law was passed, the administration hailed the bill’s $4.7 billion package to cap orphaned oil and gas wells as a move to tackle “super-polluting methane emissions,” saying it will combat the climate crisis and create jobs. But it is possible that, without tight rules, these public funds could be spent in ways that contradict those goals — and go to the very entities that enabled these environmental messes in the first place. Though the administration claims it will establish safeguards, currently there are no rules to compel state oil and gas regulators to use the federal funds in a way that prioritizes plugging the inactive and supposedly ownerless wells that are emitting the most methane, or even any methane at all.

More Than 1,100 Groups Tell Biden: Stop Fossil Fuels Now

February 25, 2022 Build Back Fossil Free, Popular Resistance. , , ,
Washington, DC - After his first year in office, President Biden and his administration have failed to take meaningful action to keep fossil fuels in the ground. We are sending a powerful, unified message to Biden and demand that he use his executive authority to stop approving fossil fuel projects and exports, end new federal fossil fuel leasing and development on public lands and waters, and declare a national climate emergency. We also delivered Biden a gigantic presidential pen and executive order at the White House. The Build Back Fossil Free campaign has organized a huge letter to Biden reiterating our demands for bold executive action to keep fossil fuels in the ground, protect communities from the toxic impacts of coal, oil, and gas development, and declare a climate emergency* to advance energy justice. 

BP Dropped By National Portrait Gallery

February 24, 2022 Alex Green, The Ecologist. , , ,
The National Portrait Gallery has announced the end of its partnership with BP, becoming the latest institution from the world of art and culture to distance itself from the oil giant. The Royal Shakespeare Company and Tate have already ended sponsorship deals with BP following environmental campaigns launched by artists and employees. BP has been the main sponsor of the National Portrait Gallery’s annual portrait award since 1989 when it took over from tobacco company John Player & Sons. Portraiture The prize did not take place this year or last year while the gallery’s central London building is closed for redevelopment. In a joint statement, the gallery and BP confirmed they would not be renewing their current partnership when its contract ends in December.

A Growing Wave Of Litigation Spurs Climate Action

February 21, 2022 Stella Levantesi, DeSmog. , , ,
In France, three non-governmental organizations sued the oil company Total over alleged “inadequate” environmental and human rights assessments of its oil project in Uganda and Tanzania. In Australia, a student filed a consumer complaint with Ad Standards against the financial services organization HSBC for claiming to support the protection of the Great Barrier Reef despite its links to fossil fuel operations. In South Africa, three civil society organizations launched a case alleging that the government’s plans to obtain new coal power threaten various constitutional rights. These are just a handful of the hundreds of cases of climate litigation that have arisen worldwide over the past few years.

Fossil Fuel Industry Doesn’t Create As Many Jobs As It Says It Does

February 16, 2022 Wenonah Hauter , In These Times. , ,
For years now, any discussion about climate action or the need to move off fossil fuels has run headlong into a familiar quandary: The industries fueling the climate crisis create good jobs, often in areas of the country where finding work that can support a family is incredibly difficult. This leaves activists gesturing towards well-intentioned goals like a “just transition,” a promise that likely rings hollow for workers and many labor unions because it’s hard to see where this has actually happened — even though, by every measure, we need to create some real policies that turn this vision into reality. While there are encouraging examples of labor unions throwing their support behind robust climate plans, it has proven difficult for the climate movement to find its way out of the jobs versus environment framing.

Shell Needs To Be Dismantled – Here’s How

February 13, 2022 Marie-Sol Reindl, Open Democracy. , , ,
It has been a turbulent year for the oil and gas giant Shell. Last May, Dutch courts ruled that Shell must drastically reduce its carbon emissions. In October, ABP, a major shareholder, divested from the company. The following month, the firm announced plans to move its headquarters from the Hague to London and drop its iconic prefix, ‘Royal Dutch’ (the company is now just Shell plc). And, in recent weeks, it has come under fire for its mammoth 14-fold increase in quarterly profits, having made $16.3bn (£12bn) pre-tax profit in the last quarter of 2021, while gas prices surged across Europe. Now, as Shell presents itself as a global leader in the green energy transition, it is still actively investing in new oil and gas drilling.

Activists Target Public Relations Groups For Greenwashing Fossil Fuels

January 28, 2022 Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson, Inside Climate News. , , ,
Duncan Meisel used to help climate activists tell their stories, as a communications adviser to environmentalists trying to convince the public that oil and gas companies must change to avert a climate crisis. Now he is putting pressure on consultants shaping those industries’ own messages. Clean Creatives, the group Meisel helped found, is at the vanguard of a new tactic in the environmental movement: to target advisers who, activists claim, help fossil fuel companies continue polluting and slow government action by distorting climate debates. Last September, Clean Creatives published an “F-List” of advertising and public relations groups it accused of spreading “climate misinformation” on their clients’ behalf.

Divestment Campaigns And Reinvestment Efforts Gain Strength

January 26, 2022 Grist. , , , ,
With over 80 percent of the world’s population experiencing extreme weather linked to climate change, university endowments have become a focal point for students, faculty, and community members eager to snuff out their schools’ support for the fossil fuel companies most responsible for fueling the climate crisis. Major universities, including Boston University, the University of Minnesota, and Harvard University — which boasts the largest endowment of any school in the world — are among the latest to commit to pull billions from fossil fuel funds. In their wake, others are following suit. In July, Maine became the first U.S. state to legally require divestment of public funds from fossil fuel assets.

Activists To Delaware Legislators: Sign Green New Year’s Resolutions

January 11, 2022 Delaware Coalition, Popular Resistance. , , ,
Dover, DE - A coalition of progressives and environmental groups are challenging lawmakers to sign on to a set of green New Year’s resolutions to kick off the 2022 session. Says participant Phillip Bannowsky, “this is a way to separate the committed from the compromised.” The activists claim in their text that confronting the climate crisis “has been impeded by the short-sighted interests of powerful economic players.” Specifically, they call for a Green Amendment to the Delaware Constitution and support current legislation in the pipeline, including HB 259, requiring an emergency alert system to inform citizens when disasters like Croda’s November 25, 2018, toxic leak erupted, which injured workers at their Atlas Point plant as well as neighbors and motorists on the Delaware Memorial Bridge.
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