In Indonesia, a loud and politically committed generation of punk bands are shaking big business and getting results The briefing took place in a small commercial office in Jakarta, with no insulation from the heat, smog or noise of the bustling Indonesian capital. The 24 young Indonesians in attendance were scheming about how best to get themselves arrested. Young activists in developing countries...
Carlos Sandi of the Shuar tribe calls on Peruvian government to clean up site contaminated by crude Indigenous protesters have occupied Peru's biggest oilfield in the Amazon rainforest near Ecuador to demand the cleanup of decades of contamination from spilled crude. The field's operator, PlusPetrol of Argentina, says the protest has forced it to cut back production by more than half of the 17,000...
Giant says rehabilitation of uranium mine site of a radioactive spill last year is a matter for its Australian subsidiary Its a long way from central London to Kakadu national park in Australia's Northern Territory. When Rio Tinto's chief executive, Sam Walsh, addressed shareholders at the companys annual general meeting last week, there was a strong sense of the distance. Walsh refused to offer any...
44th anniversary of Earth Day celebrated with animated illustrations of puffer fish, dung beetle and moon jellyfish The most inventive Google Doodles - in pictures Japanese macaques chill out in hot springs in pictures Earth Day, marked annually by Google with one of its famous doodles, has been given a beatific and celebratory treatment by the internet giant today. In the place of last year's depiction...
From UN reports to community protests, opposition to fossil fuels is plentiful. But we won't stop until the government changes tack It could be a village fete. There are rugs spread out, bunting, and several green gazebos. People are sitting on folding camp stools, and knowledgeable locals are keeping an eye on the Sussex skies for the first sign of rain. Only the placards and banners strike the wrong...
As the first barrels head for Europe, we cannot afford and do not need new sources of harder to reach fossil fuels After months of delays, Russian state-owned oil and gas company Gazprom has announced that the first ever shipment of oil from offshore Arctic waters has begun the journey to Europe. Continue reading... ...
Being the village at the centre of a national debate on energy production has made us think about our own responsibility Last summer the village of Balcombe inadvertently became the byword for something none of us would have chosen: public hostility to fracking. A recent parliamentary briefing on public attitudes towards shale gas talks about "before Balcombe" and "after Balcombe",...
Conviction of activist Debbie Vincent sheds light on undercover tactics Tomorrow, an animal rights activist is due to sentenced for her part in a conspiracy to blackmail the commercial testing firm, Huntingdon Life Sciences. The case has attracted some controversy as the activist, Debbie Vincent, has claimed that she is a "scapegoat" targeted because detectives could not catch the "real...
Our annual mass bike ride is aiming to make Scotland a cycle-friendly country whatever the outcome In 2012, we organised the first Pedal on Parliament (PoP), a mass bike ride where 4,000 people called on the Scottish parliament for a cycle-friendly Scotland. What we thought would be a one-off event is now scheduled again for 26 April 2014. Much has changed and much has stayed the same but this year...
It has never been more important to protect the environment but it has never been more deadly This week the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) confirmed what 99.9% of those who work on environmental issues already knew: we need to change something pretty drastic if we want to avoid a rise in temperature of less than 2C. The message is finally becoming clear: protecting the environment...
Producers hope 'emotion' of celebrities like Harrison Ford and Arnold Schwarzenegger will connect with ordinary Americans A star-studded cast of Hollywood actors will for the first time "put a human face on climate change" in an ambitious new US television series, the show's executive producer says. Continue reading... ...
Oriental & Pacific's owner LDH tells campaigners it will sell only sustainably sourced tuna from April 2015 Greenpeace and the television chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall are claiming victory for sea creatures after a producer of cut-price tuna linked to a controversial fishing method that can kill sharks, rays and turtles agreed to change its ways. LDH, owner of Oriental & Pacific, a brand...
Artist puts up glass of Provence air for auction in artistic protest against air quality in China Beijing artist Liang Kegang returned from a business trip in southern France with well-rested lungs and a small item of protest against his home city's choking pollution: a glass jar of clean, Provence air. He put it up for auction before a group of about 100 Chinese artists and collectors late last month,...
From chocolate and coastlines to bee and butterfly habitats, we need to protect the cherished things that climate change endangers I dont usually expect to be picking my way through seaweed, pebbles and assorted debris from the sea when I stroll along the promenade in Brighton, but after the recent storms this is what I found as beach and pavement merged into one . Walking along the seafront is one...
For her film Aim High in Creation!, Australian director Anna Broinowski mined the late dictators cinematic secrets to make her own propaganda about fracking in Sydney Angered at the prospect of Sydney Parks green hills being punctured by coal seam gas wells, filmmaker Anna Broinowski sets out to rouse the people to action. Her opponent, the energy giant Santos, runs slick ads . Their farmers farming...
'Capitalism is torpedoing our prosperity, killing our economies, threatening our children. It must be re-engineered, root and branch.' In The Energy of Nations: Risk Blindness and the Road to Renaissance , Dr Jeremy Leggett a former oil geologist and government adviser on renewable energy warns of the risk of an imminent global oil crash as early as next year, and no later than 2020. In my first post...
Managers of university's $33bn endowment adopt UN-backed responsible investment rules Harvard has become the first American university to sign on to a United Nations-backed code of responsible investment in a move to assuage a carbon divestment campaign. Six months after explicitly rejecting calls to divest from fossil fuels, managers of Harvard's $33bn endowment will now be guided by a set of investment...
NSW supreme court upholds a lower court's decision to revoke expansion licence granted by the state government Rio Tinto lost a court battle on Monday to expand its Warkworth open-cut coalmine in New South Wales, leaving the mine's future in doubt as the company tries to push through a revised application. The supreme court upheld a lower court's decision to revoke an expansion licence initially granted...
Jane Goodall, inspiration to millions, is 80 today. In December, she gave me two hours of her time, during which I asked her about her childhood, her work with the Gombe chimps and her life as an activist. In February 1935, the year of King George Vs silver jubilee, a chimpanzee at London Zoo called Boo-Boo gave birth to a baby daughter . A couple of months later, a little blonde-haired girl was given...
As scientists laid bare the impacts of climate change, the oil and gas giant said climate policies are highly unlikely to stop it digging up fossil fuels. So what are we going to do about it? Monday saw the release of the latest climate report from the planets scientists. Predictions of famine, flood, and so on mostly what we already knew, in even more striking language. But Monday also saw the release...