This just in

Updated I missed this, just heard about it - but as long as the issue is up, I'll include it. From the Guardian for June 17.

The head of one of the world's biggest oil companies has admitted that the threat of climate change makes him "really very worried for the planet".

In an interview in today's Guardian Life section, Ron Oxburgh, chairman of Shell, says we urgently need to capture emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, which scientists think contribute to global warming, and store them underground - a technique called carbon sequestration.

The upside of this is that it's an indication that Shell does take the issue seriously. The downside is the advocacy of sequestration as the answer, without which "I see very little hope for the world," Oxburgh said.

But sequestration is expensive and difficult, as Oxburgh himself admitted. What's more,

Bryony Worthington, a climate campaigner with Friends of the Earth, said: "It isn't a responsible attitude to say we're going to pledge to do sequestration but if the plans don't work out then the world's messed up. He's done quite a clever job by making it clear he's concerned but at the same time not pledging to do anything about it."

Now, the criticism isn't entirely fair because Shell has undertaken some steps to reduce its own emissions, but the argument that sequestration is often used as a smokescreen to downplay the need for alternatives (such as conservation, alternative energies, and tightened emission and fuel economy standards) and justify continued reliance on fossil fuels - despite their demonstrable connection to greenhouse gases - is on target.

Even so, his comments will not go over well in the oil industry, most of which continues to deny global climate change even exists and even if it does exist it's all natural so nothing can be done about it and even if it's not all natural it has nothing to do with us, all while financing groups that deny scientific and ecological reality.

So consider this a widening crack in the facade.

This just in to this just in: The Guardian for June 23 tells us that

Friends of the Earth, the environmental group, today accused oil giant Shell of failing to live up to its promise of environmental and social responsibility. ...

"In Texas, Durban, Manila and the Niger delta, communities have been offered endless dialogue, projects and pilot projects instead of the concrete action needed to stop the harm the refineries, depots, gas flares and pipelines are causing," said Tony Juniper, the executive director of FoE, in the foreword of Behind the Shine.

The text of the report in .pdf format can be found here.

Updated to include the above addendum.