Social Impacts

Africa Faces Another Rising Expense: Fuel
By LYDIA POLGREEN
July 12, 2008

DAKAR, Senegal — In the United States, where the median household
income is about $48,000, $4-a-gallon gas is painful.

In Nigeria, most of whose 140 million citizens live on less than $2 a
day despite their country's status as the world's eighth largest oil
exporter, $5.50-a-gallon diesel is excruciating.

Daniel Idoko runs a small business center in Abuja, Nigeria's capital,
and because the country's electricity supply is so balky, he relies on

Forging a Politics Worthy of the Landscape
The Origins of the Western Greens

By JEFFREY ST. CLAIR
July 12 / 13, 2008

This essay is excerpted from Red State Rebels: Tales of Grassroots Resistance From the Heartland edited by Joshua Frank and Jeffrey St. Clair (AK Press, 2008).

For thirty-five years the Democratic Party has enjoyed a nearly unquestioned hegemony over environmental politics, even though the greatest gains for the Earth were made during the Nixon administration.

Bush lifts presidential ban on offshore drilling
By Richard Simon, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
12:57 PM PDT, July 14, 2008

WASHINGTON -- President Bush today lifted a long-standing presidential
ban on new oil and gas drilling off the nation's coastlines and urged
Congress to remove its own restrictions on offshore energy
exploration, stoking the battle over how Washington should respond to
high gasoline prices.

But the wall of opposition on Capitol Hill to relaxing the drilling
ban, though softening, appeared to be holding. A congressional

Oilpatch stares at boots amid record prices
Deborah Yedlin, Calgary Herald
Published: Saturday, July 12, 2008

With oil and natural gas trading at more than double where they were during Stampede Week last year, you'd think there would be a feeling of ebullience around town for this year's festivities.

Wrong.

For some reason, there's an unmistakably muted feeling. Sure, there are always the Stampede curmudgeons who opt to leave town or refuse to don their jeans and cowboy boots, but this year it's different.

Carrier Sekani question review of gas pipeline
Written by GORDON HOEKSTRA
Citizen staff
Tuesday, 01 July 2008

The Carrier Sekani Tribal Council says a provincial review that gave a $1.1 billion natural gas pipeline project between Summit Lake and Kitimat the green light is inadequate, although it was expected.

The project -- a joint venture between Pacific Northern Gas and Kitimat LNG -- received an environmental assessment certificate last Friday after a review by the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office.

Kinder Morgan ramping up pipeline plans
Dormant northern leg being revived
Jon Harding, Canwest News Service
Published: Wednesday, July 02, 2008

CALGARY -- A second large shipper of oil from Canada to the United States has confirmed interest is heating up between Canadian producers and refining customers in Asia and along the United States' West Coast.

CLIMATE CHANGE WILL HAVE MAJOR IMPACT ON FISHING INDUSTRY, SAYS UN AGENCY
New York, Jul 10 2008 11:00AM

Climate change is already impacting the world's oceans and will have serious consequences for the hundreds of millions of people who depend on fishing for their livelihoods, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Oil sands: Canada's dirty secret

As oil prices continue to reach record highs, the search for new sources of energy has led the world to Alberta, Canada, and its vast oil sands. Now, John Vidal finds, the country famed for its wilderness and clean living finds itself caught between fuelling the world's oil-hungry economy and the ecological devastation and soaring greenhouse gas emissions that exploiting the tar sands produces

* John Vidal, environment editor, in Fort McMurray
* guardian.co.uk,
* Friday July 11, 2008

Oil hits record near $147 as supply fears intensify
Santosh Menon, Reuters
Published: Friday, July 11, 2008

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil leapt $5 to a new record high near $147 a barrel on Friday, spurred by growing worries of threats to supplies from Iran and Nigeria and the possibility of a strike by Brazilian oil workers next week.

U.S. crude was $4.85 at $146.50 a barrel by 9:15 a.m. EDT, off highs of $146.90, taking gains in just two sessions to over $10. It rose $5.60 or 4 percent a barrel on Thursday in a late burst of buying activity.

Shell backs out of oil sands project
July 10, 2008 // Post-Tribune staff writers
By Gitte Laasby and Christin Nance Lazerus

An oil giant that planned to refine the same Canadian tar sands as BP
Whiting has canceled plans for an expansion in Ontario.

Shell Canada is scrapping a proposed refinery project in Sarnia, which would
have turned tar-like crude from oil sands in Alberta, Canada, into
refinery-ready light oil, the company announced Tuesday.

But BP Whiting's modernization will continue to move forward, BP spokeswoman