Film: Oil for Nothing
Feb 6, 2012
Oil for Nothing | ENG from Luca Tommasini on Vimeo. A new documentary by CRBM (Italy) examines the impact of multinational oil extraction in the Niger Delta today.
Video: Chevron rig blazes off the coast of Nigeria
Feb 6, 2012
This disturbing video from Al Jazeera shows what’s left of Chevron’s KS Endeavour gas rig, which exploded on 16 January 2012. Over 20 days later the site is still ablaze and the intense flames and plumes of smoke can be seen from the nearby fishing village. Local community activists released this footage:
Move Your Money – “bank on something better”
Feb 1, 2012
At Platform we’re very excited about the launch of Move Your Money following our campaigning to stop UK banks fossil fuel finance. This is a guest blog by Danni Paffard on this week’s launch of Move Your Money UK: The banking sector isn’t working for people, small business or wider society. Despite plunging the economy into...
What I’m reading about this week
Jan 31, 2012
Metro: ‘Sustainable’ funds investing millions in oil companies and banks. This article mentions Platform’s work on Shell Nigeria and uses it to question the ethics of investment in oil companies. Heat or Eat? Fuel Poverty Action occupy British Gas headquarters.
Legal Oil, Ethical Oil and Profiteering in the Niger Delta and the Canadian North
Jan 30, 2012
In this guest blog post, Professor Anna Zalik of York University Canada explores how governments and multinationals criminalise protest and gloss over the environmental injustices of oil extraction. Q: What does the Canadian Government’s fury at opponents of the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline have to do with the Nigerian ‘legaloil’ campaign? A: Both positions are...
In pictures: Chevron rig still burning in Nigeria
Jan 26, 2012
On 16 January, between 4.30am and 5am, Chevron’s KS Endeavour drilling rig exploded six miles off the coast of Nigeria after the company lost control of the gas well. Two workers were reported killed. Ten days on, the fire continues to burn. Photos courtesy of Morris Alagoa at ERA/FoE Nigeria.
Oil, art & human rights links
Jan 25, 2012
EU oil companies including Shell and Total will be banned from importing and purchasing Iranian oil by new sanctions, reported Reuters. As Iran threatens to retaliate by blocking the Strait of Hormuz, a major artery of global oil shipments, the UK foreign minister William Hague downplayed the likelihood of war.
Climate scientists support Request Initiative’s appeal for GWPF to reveal funders
Jan 23, 2012
Below is a blog cross-posted from Request Initiative, who support charities and non-profit organisations to use freedom of information laws. This Friday, the group will ask the Information Rights Tribunal to expose the seed funder to a climate sceptic think-tank (GWPF) with suspected links to BP, Shell and other energy companies. For the original blog post,...
Chevron oil rig explodes off coast of Nigeria; 2 killed
Jan 18, 2012
On Monday 16 January at 4.30 to 5am, Chevron's KS Endeavour drilling rig burst into flames, approximately 6 miles off the coast of Nigeria. Two workers are reported missing. The gas rig is still said to be burning for the second day running and is reported to have partially collapsed into the ocean. The cause is...
How John Browne, BP and the Old Boys Network keep the arts well-oiled
Jan 13, 2012
It’s 10.30am on a spectacularly sunny winter’s day and I’m in the Members’ Room at Tate Modern. The room overlooks the Square Mile – London’s financial district – and the view symbolises the growing pressures on artists and arts organisations to seek funding from the private sector, specifically from business. Looking once again at the panel...
Direct news question mega fail: is Ethical Oil funded by Enbridge Pipeline?
Jan 13, 2012
Yesterday on Canadian national news channel CBC a spokesperson for EthicalOil.org floundered as she unconvincingly avoided the interviewer’s repeated question “Does Ethical Oil take money from Enbridge Pipeline?” The repetition of the question makes the whole interview very watchable – especially around 4:40 into the video. If EthicalOil.org do take financial support from Enbridge, it...
Conviction of two of Stephen Lawrence’s murderers: a new chapter
Jan 7, 2012
To see what Platform’s youth, arts and activism project Shake! has to say at this significant moment, and also going back over the months to when we started the project at the Stephen Lawrence Centre in Deptford in August 2010, start here. Shake’s young people make change happen through poetry, music, comment, actions, discussion, and performances, supported...
