Also by bex

Following years of intense pressure from the agribusiness sector, Brazil's parliament yesterday afternoon approved sweeping reforms to the country's forest protection law that spell destruction for the Amazon rainforest.

For almost a year now, you’ve been asking VW to turn away from the dark side and reduce its fleet’s CO2 emissions. Today we took that message to the company’s AGM in Hamburg with a giant banner reading "Take responsibility seriously! Honest climate protection now" (in German, obviously).

Ten days after the leak began, Total is still struggling to contain the gas pouring from its North Sea Elgin platform, citing bad weather as the cause of the delays. Yet, in just 100 days’ time, Shell wants to start drilling for oil in the remote and extreme Arctic environment – claiming it has the technology and the tools to deal with any spill.

Here are six reasons why an oil spill in the Arctic would be so much harder to deal with than a gas leak in the North Sea, and so much more catastrophic:

Today, we’re in for a treat – another glimpse into the fantastical world of the Arctic oil spill response plan writer. 

Shell and Cairn Energy – who have both tried to use brute legal force to obstruct public scrutiny of their Arctic drilling plans and to silence Greenpeace and our supporters (more on that below) – are going to be subjected to a bit of parliamentary scrutiny. This afternoon, both companies will be giving evidence to a UK parliamentary inquiry on protecting the Arctic.