Aug
26

NGOs seek Sakhalin compensation from Shell, UK banks (Environmental Finance)

From: Environmental Finance

 

Three environmental groups have called on UK banks Barclays, RBS and Standard Chartered to compensate Sakhalin residents for pollution caused by a large oil and gas project that they helped finance.

 

Oil major Shell, as a part owner of the Sakhalin II project on the Russian Pacific island, is also named in the complaint. It was filed with the UK and Dutch governments on Tuesday and alleges that the companies are in breach of the voluntary OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises.

Aug
15

Whales, gas and climate: a grey tale (Deccan Herald)

From: Deccan Herald

Grey whales are confusing animals. Go back just three years, and the accepted wisdom was that there were two populations in existence.

The larger one lived on the eastern side of the Pacific Ocean with an annual migration route down the west coast of North America. A much smaller one dwelled in the western Pacific, off the eastern coast of Russia, migrating south as far as Korea and China.

While the eastern population has regrown after the commercial whaling era to a healthy 20,000+ individuals, the western grey whale is among the world’s most endangered cetacean populations, numbering about 150 animals.

Aug
07

‘Oil is here to stay’ (Jerusalem Post)

From: The Jerusalem Post

By SHARON UDASIN

Extracting oil shale can provide Israel energy security, if done in environmentally friendly manner, expert says.

While people must dramatically change their behaviors to reduce their negative impact on the environment, oil is a critical energy source that will be here to stay for the foreseeable future, according to a prominent Canadian environmentalist.

“Unless there is some major breakthrough that we can’t envision yet, we will be dependent on oil for most of our transportation for decades to come,” said Dr. Patrick Moore, chairman and chief scientist of the Vancouver- based Greenspirit Strategies Ltd.