By Andrew Nikiforuk, The Tyee
Real conservatives know that energy corridors don’t make jobs or support freedom. When China built a pipeline to access natural gas in western Burma, there were reports of forced labour, relocated villages and corruption. Those kinds of things are inherent in energy corridors, which enrich the powerful at the expense of the weak.
By Basav Sen, Foreign Policy In Focus
From Brazil to India to the United States, extractive industries have aligned themselves with authoritarian governments waging war on minority populations.
By Geoffrey Supran, EurActiv.com
Although ExxonMobil now claim to support climate action, they continue to misrepresent scientific work in order to protect profits and protect themselves from liability or responsibility.
By Ben Jervey, DeSmog Blog
The fossil fuel industry regularly deploys manipulative and dishonest tactics when engaging with communities of color, often working to co-opt the respect and authority of minority-led groups to serve corporate goals.
By Emily Hammermeister, Planet Forward
These communities—South Deering, Pilsen, and Little Village—all keep fighting back. The support of groups like the Sierra Club and Pilsen Alliance, standing in solidarity with them, makes them even stronger. As Cheryl Johnson said to me, it is important to “follow what you believe is wrong to try and make it right.” And that’s just what these communities are doing.
By Chloe Farand, DeSmog Blog
Should fossil fuel companies that knew their products contributed to climate change for nearly 40 years and did nothing about it now be allowed to have their say inside the UN climate talks?
By David Sirota, The Guardian blog
For those who actually care about the survival of the human race, the key questions now should be obvious: is there any reason to hope that we will retreat from “drill baby drill” and enact a sane set of climate policies? Or is our country – and, by extension, our species – just going to give up?
By Andrew Simms, Peter Newell, The Guardian blog
A moratorium could take the form of a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty. The threat of nuclear catastrophe provides a precedent for how, quickly, to stop a bad situation getting worse.
By Natasha Geiling, Think Progress
But beyond illuminating the often dismal conditions under which teachers in this country are often forced to work, the walkouts in Oklahoma and West Virginia illuminate something else — what happens when states prioritize tax breaks for fossil fuel companies over education.
By Paul Gilding, The Cockatoo Chronicles
How can a Trump Presidency be positive? Surely this is a major setback – to action on climate change, to addressing inequality, to human rights and global security.
By Gail Tverberg, Our Finite World
Some people would argue that 2016 was the year that the world economy started to come apart, with the passage of Brexit and the election of Donald Trump. Whether or not the “coming apart” process started in 2016, in my opinion we are going to see many more steps in this direction in 2017. Let me explain a few of the things I see.
By Nafeez Ahmed, Alternet
It’s not looking good for the global fossil fuel industry. Although the world remains heavily dependent on oil, coal and natural gas—which today supply around 80 percent of our primary energy needs—the industry is rapidly crumbling.