Shell undermine protection for endangered whale
In a 48-hours where the ideas of geo-engineering gain prominence, it was a story in this weekend’s Observer Business and Media section that caught my eye for good environmental journalism. Oil giant Shell is accused of influencing–editing–an environmental report on the impact of the Sakhalin II oil project, which threatens the habitat of the western grey whale.
What’s good about the journalism in this story is that, while offering a balanced report and quoting perspectives from both sides, the journalist, Nick Mathiason, makes the editorial decisions to provide fundamental facts of the story that place the project in a larger context. For example, he informs the reader that the Sakhalin project will “also release 1.6m tonnes of carbon dioxide, three times the UK’s annual carbon footprint.” Identifying the wider impacts of Shell’s activities in this way is an important contribution to revealing the externalised/hidden costs (generally environmental ones) in the production of consumable resources. More »
