Archive for May 24th, 2015

United Kingdom: Climate activists attack Edinburgh University stance fossil fuels

Guardian: A group of academics and climate activists from around the world has condemned the University of Edinburgh’s refusal to divest from fossil fuel companies, saying that its arguments for not doing so are cynical and wrong. More than three-dozen people representing both international groups and those from places including the UK, Australia and Guyanahave signed a letter attacking the university’s stance and which was written in response to a comment piece by Prof Charlie Jeffery, Edinburgh’s senior...

Why the University of Edinburgh must divest from all fossil fuels now

Guardian: It was wrong for American Energy Alliance and ExxonMobil to claim that the oil and coal industries are helping people living in poverty in the global south, and it is wrong for Professor Charlie Jeffery to do so too (Why the University of Edinburgh will not divest from all fossil fuels, theguardian.com, 12 May). The world’s poorest people are already facing hardship from climate-related effects on food supply and water. Pitting fossil fuel divestment against the world’s poor is a cynical move...

California oil spill despoils coastline in tar-blackened reprise of 1960s disaster

Guardian: Mark Massara was eight years old in 1969, when a blowout at a Union Oil well off the California coast spilled more than three million gallons of crude along the beaches of Santa Barbara and devastated one of the northern hemisphere’s most prized ecosystems. He remembers going to the beach with his family and throwing hay on the oil as it washed ashore – a frustratingly inadequate gesture that stayed with him as he later built a career as one of California’s top environmental lawyers. Last week,...