UNEP report omits Shell’s massive oil spills, says expert
Aug 11, 2011
A pattern of omissions has emerged since the UNEP report was published last week. An oil spill expert, journalists and a coalition of environmental groups have taken issue with what the report left out. (Shell commissioned UNEP’s 2 year study and was the sole funder of the $9 million investigation into the ecological impact of oil spills...
Shell sponsors oil clean up competition
Aug 10, 2011
I challenge anyone to find a more cynical example of corporate sponsorship than this one. (Thanks to @Adammaanit in Brighton and @MsVanessaMurray in Australia for bringing it to our attention). In the same week that Shell was condemned by the UN for its devastating oil spills in Ogoni, and admitted liability for 2 massive spills in Bodo village in the...
The long struggle for justice in Ogoni
Aug 10, 2011
US-based EarthRights International (ERI) use the law to defend human rights and the environment. They recently posted up their perspective on Shell’s admission of liability for oil spills in Bodo, Ogoni. ERI’s super-hot legal team worked with other leading human rights advocates to hold Shell accountable for its active involvement in crimes against humanity in Ogoniland in the 1990s....
“Nowhere and no-one has escaped” – message from Bodo, Nigeria
Aug 10, 2011
This video, made by Amnesty International, shows the horrifying extent of the pollution in Bodo village, where two oil spills from a burst Shell pipeline devastated the land and water which 70,000 local villagers depend on for their survival.
Is Syrian propaganda tool and oil company Gulfsands dodging EU sanctions?
Aug 9, 2011
Propaganda tool? London-based Gulfsands Petroleum is operating as a propaganda tool for the Assad regime. In an interview from last Wednesday, the company’s communications director Ken Judge made statements that claimed Islamic extremists had infiltrated protests against President Bashar al-Assad’s 11-year rule. Yet the Syrian uprising is evidently supported by a broad swathe of the...
The Other Gulf
Aug 8, 2011
Here is an apt quote from Nnimmo Bassey in The Observer. Last year, as the Macoondo Well gushed thousands of barrels of oil into the belly of the Gulf of Mexico, Nnimmo drew our attention to the Niger Delta’s daily woes: We see frantic efforts being made to stop the spill in the US. But in Nigeria companies largely ignore...
When will Shell stop these daily oil spills?
Aug 6, 2011
Bodo resident, journalist and human rights monitor, Patrick Naagbanton, signed off his Comment piece in The Guardian by saying: We won’t be holding our breath. In an environment which suffers from daily oil spills, locals have learned that the multinationals, in particular Shell, and government authorities, will get away with almost anything. Earlier today I spoke on...
The struggle for justice in Ogoni
Aug 4, 2011
Here is a heartfelt comment piece in The Guardian on the local reaction in Ogoni to Shell’s oil spill payout. Shell has admitted liability but has a long way to go to make amends Oil spills destroyed my village in Nigeria and decades of environmental and social injustice are still to be addressed. By Patrick...
Shell covered up pollution in Ogoni, UNEP report finds
Aug 4, 2011
The Guardian reported today on a leaked copy of the now officially released UNEP study into oil spills in Ogoniland. The report confirms the horrendous extent of environmental devastation caused by decades of Shell oil spills in the region. Key findings include: Most of the oil spill sites that the companies claim to have cleaned...
Breaking: NGO Coalition React to Bodo spills and UNEP report
Aug 4, 2011
A global coalition of environmental and human rights groups responds to the UNEP report on the ecological impact of oil spills in Ogoniland. The groups stressed that a new mechanism of providing remedies to the victims of spills is urgently needed to hold oil companies like Shell accountable. The coalition called on the Nigerian government...
Breaking: Delta Activists Respond to UNEP Report
Aug 4, 2011
Below is a press release from ERA/FoE Nigeria, in response to UNEP’s publication – in the last half hour – of its report on the ecological impact of oil spills in Ogoni. Local activists argue that UNEP’s recommendation for a $1 billion fund for restoration in Ogoni is a token. 4 August 2011 UNEP Report:...
The Biggest Oil Spill in the World
Aug 4, 2011
PLATFORM featured on Channel 4 News this evening, providing analysis on two current news stories – the revelations of the full extent of environmental devastation in Ogoni land contained in the UN’s new report, and Shell’s admission of liability for two recent oil spills in Bodo, Ogoniland. Campaigner Ben Amunwa helped provide background research as the story...
