oil

It's long been known that energy giant ExxonMobil has been pumping money into organisations and think tanks which have spread confusion and doubt about climate change. Our own ExxonSecrets project has been exposing the links between the company and these outspoken bodies for several years.

Some bad news from our Nordic office: around 4000 tonnes of raw oil has leaked into the North Sea, in the second largest oil spill in Norwegian history.

25,000 barrels-worth of oil leaked into a key herring and mackerel ground and is now drifting northwards. The waves are too high for any oil lenses to work, and a lot of the oil's being washed underwater.

The accident happened when a pipe broke during the loading of oil from the Statfjod A platform in bad weather.

There's more on Reuters.

After twenty years out of fashion, the term 'cold war' has become the hot favourite in Fleet Street once more. Not just because diplomatic relations between Russia and the UK distinctly frosty at the moment, but Russia's current Arctic adventures are lowering the temperature even further.

Exxon's PR campaign (which seems to run along the lines of "we may fund climate change deniers and oppose Kyoto but we're quite nice really") suffered a slight setback yesterday, when 300 people from the oil industry apparently believed that Exxon's newest fossil fuel was made out of human flesh - belonging to the victims of climate change.

Well, despite Exxon's protestations of squeaky-cleanness earlier this year, it looks like climate change skeptics can rest easy in their beds; climate change denial is going to be a lucrative industry for a while yet.