Nigeria : Shell Oil and Ecological Genocide/ Nigeria

Ankhur

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Oct 4, 2009
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Most remember how much BP lied about the extent of the Gulf Disaster, so imagine what kind of crap Shell oil is
pulling now after this major oil spill off the coast of Nigeria?


Massive Shell Oil Spill Approaches Nigerian Coast



Communities along Nigeria’s Niger Delta have been put on alert following a major oil spill from the oil giant Shell. Satellite images indicate the spill has spread over 356 square miles, appearing to be the worst in the area in over a decade. A massive oil slick is making its way to the Nigerian coast, threatening local wildlife and massive pollution along the shore. Shell says less than 40,000 barrels have leaked so far, but Nigeria’s National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency says the spill could be three times as large. The spill comes just four months after the United Nations said it would take 30 years and around $1 billion for a small section of the delta to recover from environmental damage caused by Shell and other companies.
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/12/23/headlines#7

 
Published on Monday, January 9, 2012 by The Guardian/UK

Nigeria's Oil Disasters Met by Silence

The global media have had little to say on Nigeria's latest oil spill and the hundreds of others that have destroyed so many lives

by Michael Keating
In 2010 the world watched in horror as the Gulf of Mexico filled with 5m barrels of oil from an undersea leak caused by the careless handling of equipment on the part of BP and its partner Halliburton. Shocking images of uncontrolled spillage erupting from the ocean floor travelled around the world for weeks, sparking a media frenzy, a range of stern governmental responses and a huge amount of public outrage. BP has spent millions on the clean-up and millions more on a public relations campaign, all in an effort to repair the damage it caused to the Gulf but also to its image and, perhaps more importantly for BP, to its share price.
a-man-covers-his-hands-in-008-325x195.jpg
A man covers his hands in crude oil during a Nigerian protest against Shell after last month's spill. (Photograph: George Esiri/EPA)
Last month, on the other side of the Atlantic, the oil giant Royal Dutch Shell's operation caused from 1m to 2m gallons of oil to spill into the ocean off the coast of Nigeria, also as the result of an industrial accident. It was the worst spill in Nigeria in 13 years in a part of that country where the oil and gas industry has been despoiling the environment for more than 50 years, on a scale that dwarfs the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico by a wide margin. Shell claims it has completely cleaned up the mess, but villages counterclaim the oil has been washing up on their coastline. The world's media seem to be uninterested in checking the facts.
You may wonder where the outrage against Shell is? To say that it is nonexistent except for a few responses from the environmental community would be an understatement. The simple fact is that Shell and its "sisters" in the West African oil patches are rarely scrutinised except in the most egregious cases – which this one surely is – and the world seems to simply expect that the people of Nigeria should live with these sorts of occurrences because they unfortunately lack the political and media clout to do otherwise.
In any other region of the world the behaviour of the companies involved would result in major sanctions and criminal prosecutions. Hundreds of square miles of sensitive coastal wetlands have been poisoned, perhaps forever. Fishing areas have been turned into toxic waste zones. Village life has been grotesquely refashioned as a result of flaring gas fumes and pipelines that sometimes run through people's homes. Disease, birth-defects and chronic illnesses are all part and parcel of an unregulated industry that operates outside the range of global media but with the full complicity of the Nigerian government that wants nothing whatsoever to upset its unctuous cash-cow.
A recent report on the Ogoniland region conducted over a period of 14 months by a team from the United Nations environmental programme suggests that it would take upwards of 30 years to clean up the Niger Delta, with an initial price tag of more than $1bn. However, it is unclear whether Shell or the Nigerian government will put one dollar towards this effort without continuous international pressure.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/01/09-5
 

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