Archive for category: Environment

Apocalypse Now but Far Away

Apocalypse Now but Far Away

On November 30 last year, 21 Occupy activists were arrested for occupying a building where the director of Xstrata mining corporation was based. They made a banner drop from the top of the building in London’s Haymarket, stating ‘All power to the 99%’. No members of the public were hurt […]

Mapping Corporate Mayhem

Mapping Corporate Mayhem

Xstrata 01 / Australia Xstrata’s McArthur River mine is at extreme risk of a “tailings” dam bank failing as well as acid draining into one of the river’s tributaries. The open pit zinc mine nearby covers 83 hectares and the tailing pond sprawls over an additional 210 hectares, held by […]

Xstrata’s Killing Fields

Xstrata’s Killing Fields

Its PR is the slickest but the Swiss mining giant Xstrata has a grisly track record in Peru. On the charge sheet are poisoning, cheating and political skulduggery. Stephanie Boyd investigates, as the company prepares for a mega-merger with Glencore to increase its clout. A Deformed Sheep, Born Without a […]

Our World is our Biggest Canvas, and our Choices our Biggest Brushstrokes

Our World is our Biggest Canvas, and our Choices our Biggest Brushstrokes

Sitting about three miles apart, on opposite banks of the Thames, Tate Britain and Tate Modern sprang from humble beginnings as Millbank’s Panopticon Prison and Bankside Power Station respectively. Until 1890, Tate Britain’s location facilitated the movement of those destined for transportation to Australia, whilst Tate Modern’s imposing structure was […]

Genetically Modified Profits

Remember “Frankenstein foods”? From time to time the Daily Mail veers erratically onto the side of environmentalists and hippies to rail against Genetically Modified Organisms and their appearance on our dinner plates. Tony Blair tried to woo the bio-tech companies behind GMOs despite widespread distaste for eating tomatoes with fish […]

Battle Lines and Pipelines in Canada

Battle Lines and Pipelines in Canada

After the (so far) successful opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline, attention has shifted to the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline, which would carry over 500,000 barrels of tar sands crude per day across hundreds of British Columbia rivers to the pristine coast. Getting less attention is the already operational […]

Why I Told BP to Come Clean About Their Interplanetary Escape Pod

Why I Told BP to Come Clean About Their Interplanetary Escape Pod

I sat nervously near the end of an aisle, somewhere in the middle of the hall. It was BP’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) in London’s Excel Centre, on 12 April 2012. The room contained several hundred shareholders, and I was waiting for my turn to address the board of directors. […]

The Community Bill of Rights – Turning Occupation into Lasting Change

The Community Bill of Rights – Turning Occupation into Lasting Change

The legal system is part of the ‘system’ which Occupy London rightly identifies in its initial statement as both undemocratic and unjust. To remedy this, we must radically reorient our legal structures everywhere, so that they foster meaningful human relationships and the flourishing of life on this planet.  At the […]

For the Sake of Mother Earth: The Rio+20 Earth Summit

For the Sake of Mother Earth: The Rio+20 Earth Summit

We are living through a particularly ugly period in world history. As Naomi Klein explained in her book “Shock Doctrine”, in late stage capitalism deregulated corporations and financers don’t just seek to maximise profit at the expense of both people and the planet, they actively exploit disaster. We can see […]

Biofuels Power Stations: Greenwash at Our Expense

In an era of austerity it takes a far-sighted and responsible government to invest in green energy. Despite the rhetoric, however, the ‘greenest government ever’ is doing quite the opposite. Not only is it dragging its feet on climate action, it is also squandering taxpayers’ money to keep alive a […]