River Supplying Water To Alberta Oil Sands Operations At Risk From Drought

A new study casts doubt on the long-term ability of the Athabasca River to supply the water Alberta’s oil sands industry relies on. Water is allocated to oil sands operations based on river flow data collected since the 1950s, but that doesn’t necessarily represent an accurate assessment of the Athabasca River’s flow variability over the […]

Solar Cuts 'Catastrophic' Warns Former Tory Energy Minister Greg Barker

The government’s cuts to solar power subsidies are “catastrophic”, former Conservative energy and climate minister Gregory Barker warns Amber Rudd, the new energy and climate secretary. In a letter to the editor published in the Times today, Barker writes: “Solar needs a bold plan, not just pruning shears.” “There needs to be a clear vision and sense […]

DECC Usurped by Treasury and New Infrastructure Commission

Chancellor George Osborne has taken the entire energy policy brief out of the Department for Energy and Climate Change and handed it to the new National Infrastructure Commission. It could mean a swift end to the Hinkley C nuclear plant and a new wave of renewables, writes Oliver Tickell, editor of The Ecologist, but don’t […]

Food Industry Warns Of Devastating Food Shortages Amid Climate Inaction

Leaders from the food industry issued a warning to Congress recently, telling elected politicians to take action on climate change or face a global food shortage.  Leaders from companies such as Kellogg’s, General Mills, Nestle, Mars, and many others co-signed a letter published in The Washington Post, where they warned about the threats that climate […]

Are Tempers Rising Inside UK Energy and Climate Department?

Tempers are likely running high inside the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) as it continues to defend its controversial energy policy decisions against mounting criticism. Yesterday, energy minister Andrea Leadsom sent a series of tweets suggesting tensions are rising, reports Damian Carrington at the Guardian. In these tweets Leadsom accuses critics of lies, distortion […]

Morgan Stanley Targeted Over Coal Financing

Earlier this year, Bank of America and Credit Agricole both announced they were moving away from financing coal, citing a number of factors, among them the threat of future regulation due to coal’s impact on the planet and human health and pressure from environmental activists. Now the Rainforest Action Network is targeting Morgan Stanley with […]

Factcheck: Aerosols Research Misinterpreted to 'Alarming Extent’, Says Study Author

This article has been cross-posted from Carbon Brief In its online edition last week, the Express claimed that the discovery of a new “natural coolant” by scientists has thrown “previous estimates of rising temperatures into doubt”. The story followed in the footsteps of similar articles on the Register and Breitbart, two websites which have a history of […]

Congress-backed Interstate Oil Commission Call Cops When Reporter Arrives To Ask About Climate

On October 1, I arrived at the Oklahoma City headquarters of the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission (IOGCC) — a congressionally-chartered collective of oil and gas producing states — hoping for an interview. There to ask IOGCC if it believed human activity (and specifically oil and gas drilling) causes climate change and greenhouse gas emissions, my plans that day […]

Why Sale of National Geographic To Fox Signals Perilous Times For Photojournalism

When the news broke that National Geographic was sold to Rupert Murdoch, fans of the magazine gasped.  A magazine known for its photo essays paired with reports often based on scientific research being under the control of an outspoken climate change denier worried them. As a photojournalist, it is to difficult for me to imagine that the […]

EU Countries Failing to Implement European Commission’s ‘Weak’ Fracking Guidelines, Finds Report

The European Commission’s (EC) guidelines on fracking are being criticised as weak and vague, and have been found to be widely ignored by EU member states, according to a report published today. The report, entitled ‘Fracking Business (as usual)’, is written by Friends of the Earth and Food & Water Europe, and states that the “weak […]