A lawyer started small with a creative tactic. It grew into an effort that could force fossil fuel companies to pay hundreds of billions in damages.
Missy Sims carefully picked her way through a field of ruined tombs in central Puerto Rico, in a cemetery where walls of water from Hurricane Maria had smashed open some coffins and sent others careering into a nearby stream.
Six years later, the burial place in Lares, where more than 1,700 graves were damaged, is still shattered.
For decades, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) has represented Big Oil’s interests, wielding a multimillion-dollar budget to set up astroturf campaigns to defend fossil fuels, deploy scores of lobbyists to shape government policy and attack critics. But in recent years, the oilsands majors appear to have become apprehensive about the industry lobby group and are going their own way.
Quebec became the first jurisdiction in the world Tuesday to explicitly ban oil and gas development in its territory after decades of campaigning by environmental organizations and citizen groups.
"Citizens rallied, citizens regrouped and actually won this fight because it was in their backyards … it would have had major impacts on their way of living on the territory," Émile Boisseau-Bouvier, Équiterre’s climate policy analyst, told Canada’s National Observer.
Decades of research suggests that hydropower has a far greater climate impact than once thought. Now a growing chorus of scientists want to change the conversation about it.
Mark Easter couldn’t help but feel disappointed when he learned about a new study from Stanford University, which drew connections between the ongoing drought in the American West and an increase in U.S. carbon emissions.
Proponents claim a new process will cut waste. Critics say it’s a scam.
Bob Powell had spent more than a decade in the energy industry when he turned his attention to the problem of plastic waste. “I’m very passionate about the environment,” he says. To him, the accumulating scourge of irresponsibly discarded plastic ranks high on the list of environmental issues, “right behind global warming and drought.”
We may soon remember this week’s record-shattering heat as an historic low temperature mark. But that hasn't slowed down the oil and gas spin machine.
What if this week’s series of record-shattering high temperatures turned out to be tomorrow’s record low, the benchmark against which future years and decades of global warming will be measured?
With each mile of country that burns in wildfire, this unwavering support for the oil industry is looking more and more deranged. As wildfires spread across Canada, Justin Trudeau sought to showcase his commitment to responsible environmental stewardship. He told reporters that:
Through the Pathways Alliance, an organization of some of Canada’s largest oil producers, high-level bureaucrats were asked for long lead times and a ‘flexible, non-regulatory approach’ to usher in a limit on the sector’s air pollution
The Pathways Alliance plastered Toronto streetcars and Vancouver billboards with optimistic messages about its plan to slash pollution and help Canada meet its climate goals. Behind the scenes, the coalition of fossil fuel producers struck a different tone.
