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Poisoning the Amazon
Cancer, birth defects and skin diseases affect 30 000 rainforest residents in Ecuador, Joseph Mutti investigates – This article was first published in Platform’s Carbon Web Newsletter, Issue 6. It’s the smell that hits you first as you approach a pit the size of a football field filled with a choking sludge of oil and dead…
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Remember Saro-Wiwa, in ‘Land, Art – A Cultural Ecology Handbook’
In Land, Art, A Cultural Ecology Handbook, Ed. Max Andrews, RSA, Arts Council England, 2006 The Nigerian writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa was executed together with eight Ogoni colleagues by the Nigerian military on 10th November 1995 for his effective campaigning against the consistent despoilation of the oil-rich lands of the Niger Delta by oil…
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Will Iraq repeat Russia’s oil mistakes?
By Greg Muttitt, PLATFORM Published in al-Sabah al-Jadeed, October 2006 Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein Shahristani announced last week that he aimed to sign oil production contracts with foreign companies by the end of next year. Notably, the announcement was made in Australia – like most of the significant statements of Iraqi oil policy, it was…
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George’s oil Dubya-speak
As decision-time approaches, the USA pulls levers on Iraqi oil policy – This report was first published in Platform’s carbon web newsletter, issue 5. “The oil belongs to the Iraqi people. It’s their asset,” declared George W. Bush in a press conference on the White House lawn in June. He had just returned from his…
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Energy Security – for whom?
Some commentators saw this summer’s G8 meeting in St. Petersburg as a clash of empires, with Vladimir Putin using the theme of “energy security” to reassert Russia’s global power. What has received less attention is how the concept is intended to bring ever-increasing supplies of energy to all of the G8 countries, potentially at the…
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George’s Oil Dubya-speak
As decision-time approaches, the USA pulls levers on Iraqi oil policy. “The oil belongs to the Iraqi people. It’s their asset,” declared George W. Bush in a press conference on the White House lawn in June. He had just returned from his surprise visit to Baghdad, in which oil had been one of the main…
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The Fight for Oil in Africa’s Last Colony
Natalie Sharples of War on Want explores oil and independence in Western Sahara – This article was first published in Platform’s Carbon Web Newsletter Issue 5. Over the past decade, Western Sahara’s struggle for independence from Morocco has played out through resource politics. With potential offshore oil and gas reserves, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR)…
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Oil privatisation through the back door
Originally published in niqash.org In a survey in July 2003, Baghdad residents were asked what they thought was the main reason for America and Britain to go to war in Iraq. The most popular answer, with 47% of responses, was “to secure oil supplies”. At first glance, it would seem that America and Britain have…
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For whom, the wells drilled?
Originally published in niqash.org The debate over national vs. regional control of Iraq’s oil sector intensified last week, as the new Natural Resources Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) stated his opposition to amending the oil-related articles of the Constitution. In his first public statement since his appointment, Dr Ashti Hawrami argued that, “the…
