Mora County tells Shell to Frack Off
Feb 6, 2010
Local opposition is slowing Shell’s plans to drill for “tight gas” in Mora County in North-Western Arizona. Until recently, extracting “tight” or “shale gas” wasn’t economically viable, due to the smaller quantities dispersed across a wider rock deposit. However, new techniques known as “hydraulic fracturing” or “fracking” allow oil & gas corporations to access these...
Alaskan professor stripped of funding for criticising oil companies
Feb 4, 2010
Internationally recognised marine scientist Rick Steiner was forced to resign his position as professor and conservation specialist at the University of Alaska Marine Advisory Program in Anchorage. Prof Steiner has played an important role in recent years in raising concerns over oil company, particularly Shell, operations in Sakhalin, Alaska and Nigeria. Pressure from the oil...
Legal challenge against Shell’s Arctic Chukchi plans
Jan 21, 2010
First Nation and environmental groups in Alaska are legally challenging Shell’s permit to drill in the Arctic Chukchi Sea this summer. The Chukchi lies north of the Bering Strait between Alaska and Russia and is habitat for endangered species including bowhead whales, walrus and polar bears, which play a crucial role in the way of...
Oil companies provide equipment to military in Congo
Jan 5, 2010
Another investigation by Taimour Lay shows the risks of Tullow & Heritage’s oil finds on Lake Albert fueling new fighting between armed forces (armies and militias) in the region. “Heritage Oil, owned by former mercenary fighter Tony Buckingham, had donated speed boats to the FARDC (Congolese national army) in March 2007 and had also been...
Breaking: Shell to stand trial in the Hague for Nigeria oil spills
Dec 30, 2009
Positive news this morning as a Dutch court ruling announced that four Nigerian farmers and Friends of the Earth Netherlands can hold Royal Dutch Shell and Shell Nigeria accountable, a short distance from Shell’s global headquarters in The Hague. For more details please see the press release from Friends of the Earth Netherlands. If found...
Tar Sands & corruption in Colorado
Dec 18, 2009
As the California Zephyr climbs slowly into the Rockies, my fellow train passengers in the observation carriage stare in silence through the enormous windows, as we pass hundreds of miles of narrow gorges, red rock cliffs and frozen waterfalls. Coyotes run through the snow as the train approaches, while studious bald eagles perched above streams ignore us,...
Tar Sands in Chicago!
Dec 15, 2009
Waking up in Indiana on Monday morning as my train trundles along the flat shores of Lake Michigan, BP’s mega-refinery at Whiting welcomes me to the outskirts of Chicago. Belching out pollutants over the local communities and into the lake since 1889, the refinery turns 410,000 barrels of crude into petrol, jet fuel and petroleum coke every...
Sailing the Hudson by train
Dec 15, 2009
I wake up from a light doze and search out the window for a mighty 19th century sloop looming out of the dark. But the wide Hudson River appears empty of sailing craft, with the wooded hills on the far banks disappearing into mist on this winter afternoon. Days of rain have welled the river’s...
A Sense of Denial – C Words commisioned poem by Dorothea Smartt
Dec 9, 2009
Dorothea Smartt (African Writers Abroad) joined the C Words closing Party and Benefit for the Canadian Indigenous Tar Sands Campaigners live via Skype. She performed her specially commisioned poem, A Sense of Denial, together with several other poems written specifically to the C Words season and inspired by the issues raised. A Sense of Denial Denial looks black, panelled,...
Full Circle – C Words commisioned poem by Simon Murray
Dec 9, 2009
Two poets from African Writers Abroad were commssioned to respond to the C Words season. To craft the poem below, Simon Murray (Sai MuRai) borrows the title of Dorothea Smartt’s poetry workshop “Full Circle” and draws upon some of the many words, phrases and themes that arose throughout the C Words season. The poem was performed live...
Visit Nigeria! a video tour
Dec 4, 2009
A selection of sights and sounds from the Niger Delta, courtesy of Friends of the Earth, whose court case against Shell’s oil spills began on 3rd December in The Hague. Find out more details about the case here, and read an article by Niger Delta activist and lawyer Chima Williams here.
