tar sands

Today BP’s got a new boss, Mr Bob Dudley.  Like anyone who starts a new job, he could do with a bit of advice.

Taking over from the gaffe-prone Tony Hayward - who headed the company during the Deepwater Horizon disaster - Bob’s hoping to draw a line under the world’s biggest oil spill and start again.

And we want to help him. We want to like BP. We believe it could be the kind of company that pioneers clean energy technology and doesn’t invest in dirty fossil fuels.  It could be a company that deserves a green sunflower as its logo.

If you're on London's South Bank over the next few weeks, watch out for a new open air exhibition featuring the work of regular Greenpeace photographer Jiri Rezac. He's been to the tar sands works in Canada and the images he's brought back clearly show the extent of the devastation caused by this insane venture to both the environment and local populations.

The slideshow above is just a taste of Jiri's work featured in the exhibition which you can see near City Hall by Tower Bridge until 14 October. It will then be touring around the UK - details are still to be confirmed but check the Tarnished Earth website for updates. 

The BP stations we closed down last week have all long since opened again but the effects our thirst for oil is having on the planet continue. The oil spill in the Gulf is now officially the largest accidental spill ever, and the environmental havoc being wrought in China, Nigeria and elsewhere doesn't get the same news coverage but is just as disastrous.

Meanwhile, lobbyists working for BP and other oil pushers are busy trying to hobble laws and legislation which could set us on the road to reducing our oil dependency and making the transition to a cleaner energy future. One such piece of legislation is the Fuel Quality Directive and if its full potential is realised, it could prevent fuels from dirty sources like tar sands being sold in Europe.

A couple of months back, we asked you to Rebrand BP by designing a logo that better suits their dirty business (‘Beyond Petroleum’? Or up to their necks in tar sands and deepwater drilling?)

To be honest, your response took us by surprise - not just in quantity (we’ve had well over 2000 entries), but in quality too. Orginally we were planning to ask a panel of designers to judge the entries, but because the response was so amazing we would also like you to pick a winner.

Vote for the new face of BP now »