July 22, 2008 Edition 1


Tony Carnie


PLANS are afoot for a massive expansion of the petrol and chemical storage facilities in Durban Harbour, close to the Bluff residential areas of Fynnlands and Marlborough Park.

By Robert Weissman
July 11, 2008


Last month witnessed the extraordinary contrast of two perspectives on crime, punishment and ExxonMobil.


Just two days after leading climate change scientist James Hansen told the U.S. Congress that he believed ExxonMobil and other fossil fuel company CEOs "should be tried for high crimes against humanity and nature" for their role in delaying a serious global response to climate change, the U.S. Supreme Court decreed that a $2.5 billion punitive judgment against Exxon for the Valdez oil spill disaster denied the company the "sense of fairness" to which it is entitled.

Thailand’s state-owned oil company PTTEP will build another inland gas pipeline in Burma soon which will transfer gas from newly discovered offshore gas block M 9 in Moattama to Thailand, Rangoon based media, the Myanmar Times reported.

NEW YORK - A big challenge facing electric utilities seeking to burn coal cleanly is providing enough power to capture and bury the carbon dioxide produced, experts said Friday. 

These recent newspaper headlines tell the story. The world's dominant approach to dealing with the climate crisis ­- carbon trading, the centrepiece of the Kyoto Protocol and the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme ­- isn't working.

 

INTRODUCTION

The United Nations has recently recognized climate change as a fundamental issue regarding human rights. This decision shows once again the importance that the issue has gained at an international level. There is, however, a long way from words to deeds: official speeches are one thing and the proposed solutions to environmental catastrophes are another.

Workers are battling to dissolve an oil spill heading towards the coast of Argentina after two ships collided off the coast of neighbouring Uruguay.

JAKARTA, May 28, 2008 (AFP) - Two years after it oozed into   life, Indonesia's "mud volcano" is still spewing toxic sludge across the Javanese countryside at the rate of 60 Olympic swimming pools a day.

Bonn, Germany-A large number of activists today stopped and cut Genetically Engineered frankentrees that attempted to invade a tree planting ceremony outside of the meeting of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).?