With Arctic drilling imminent, significant expansion into the tar sands and over 50 years of damage in Nigeria, the case for targeting the oil giant Shell has rarely been greater. A new campaign launched this month by Friends of the Earth Netherlands is challenging Shell to clean up its oil spills in Nigeria’s oil rich Niger Delta region. Watch two great videos from the campaign below.
1. Live With It! Shell’s new iPhone app:
Despite vehemently protesting our calculations of £2.5 billion in Canadian tar sands finance 2008-2010, the Royal Bank of Scotland is today reported by Reuters to be closely involved in the pro-Canadian tar sands lobby in Europe.
We’re very pleased to host this guest blog by Caridad Svich, playwright of The Way of Water, which you can witness at a reading 3pm this Sunday 13th May for FREE at Rosemary Branch Theatre, London.
Over the month of April, over 1000 audiences from Occupy Ashland in Oregon to the National Theatre Institute in Waterford, CT, from the University of Pretoria in South Africa and the University of Tasmania in Australia, from Main Street Theatre in Houston, Texas to Cia de Matilde in Sao Paolo, Brasil and Aberystwyth University in Wales, have witnessed, in college classrooms, acting conservatories, small theatres, outdoor and site-responsive interventions, live-streamed broadcasts, and filmed excerpts script-in-hand and/or staged readings of my play The Way of Water, which is set in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon BP oil spill disaster as part of an international NoPassport theatre alliance reading scheme dedicated to raising awareness for the ongoing health and environmental issues in the US Gulf region caused by the disaster two years later. Continue reading
18th May 2012, Toynbee Hall, 7.30pm
Toynbee Hall, 28 Commercial Street, Greater London E1 6LS
You are warmly invited to a public meeting in advance of Shell’s AGM, that will bring together a diverse coalition of individuals and organisations calling Shell to account for the social and environmental impacts of its activities around the world.
Millions are being affected by Shell’s past, present and future operations. The world’s largest oil company has been violating indigenous rights for 55 years in the Alberta tar sands, committing grave human rights abuses in Nigeria, pumping dangerous levels of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, destroying communities in Ireland, lobbying against effective climate action in Europe and is now set to exploit the Arctic – which could devastate the world’s most fragile ecosystem.
Come and hear stories from community members on the frontline in Alberta, Alaska, Ireland and Nigeria, share ideas and information, and meet activists, academics, lawyers and investors united in their resolve to curb the oil giant’s destructive activities.
Free drinks will be provided. Donations towards the cost of the event welcome! We look forward to seeing you there.
I wrote a guest blog for Greenpeace UK today about Shell’s recent statement regarding its financial relationships with militant groups. I’d really like to hear your thoughts on the issue.
A recent video published online shows a Shell executive admitting that the oil giant could easily be funding what he describes as “warlords” and militants in Nigeria. You can watch the video here, (see 57mins – 1hr). The admission comes soon after the announcement that 11,000 Nigerians are due to take Shell to court in London over two major oil spills in the town of Bodo in 2008 to 2009. Shell has refused to pay adequate compensation for the destruction caused to the environment and livelihoods of local residents.
The new video shows the Managing Director of Shell Nigeria, Mutiu Sunmonu, speaking in central London on 9 February 2012. During the question and answer session, Tom Burgis of the Financial Times asks Mr. Sunmonu about the company’s financial relationships with armed militant groups in the Delta. Mr. Sunmonu responds:
May 1st1992 marked the first day of Platform’s project ‘Still Waters’: a month of street-based actions, walks, talks and art-interventions across the Fleet, Walbrook, Effra and Wandle, four river valleys in central London.
from London Under London, Trench & Hillman
Still Waters reframed London as a watershed. It aimed to reclaim London’s rivers from their invisible, mostly sewerised state, and begin action to resurrect them. It saw the fate of London’s rivers in the context of the upsurge of a right-wing, free-market agenda in Britain at that time: Poison me, Bury me, Forget me*.
Go here for a summary of what we did on each river.
The project took place along the river Fleet (Hampstead & Highgate to Blackfriars), Walbrook (Moorgate to Cannon Street), Effra (Norwood to Vauxhall), and Lower Wandle (Beddington to Wandsworth Town). The major practical impacts were that it led on to our art-ecology- energy projects “Merton Island” and “Delta” which produced locally sourced renewable power from the river Wandle. These in turn led to the founding of a new charity Renewable Energy in the Urban Environment (later joining with Carbon Descent).
Guest post by Emilie Surrusco, Alaska Wilderness League
Cindy Shogan, Executive Director, Alaska Wilderness League, speaks at a recent rally against Arctic drilling in front of the Department of the Interior in Washington, D.C. (Photo Credit - Alaska Wilderness League)
Right now, Shell’s drill ships are on their way to the pristine Arctic Ocean off the coast of Alaska. And despite all the glossy advertising, promotional videos, and slick promises from Shell, the oil giant is proceeding with its plans to drill 10 exploratory wells – with no proven way to clean up an oil spill in the Arctic’s extreme conditions. Amazingly enough, the US government, with President Barack Obama at the helm, is allowing this to happen, despite warnings from governmental and nongovernmental entities alike. Which is why we are mounting an aggressive campaign to stop this disaster before it starts. President Obama still has to issue Shell its final drilling permits, so there is still time to turn those ships around. Continue reading
Yesterday the 19th annual church service called by Stephen Lawrence’s family to honour and remember his life and legacy took place at Hinde Street Methodist Church, London W1. It was a moment to reflect, grieve, and mark all that has happened – the unspeakable and the extraordinary – since his murder in 1993. The occasion made me think more about the ways people balm the wear and tear of activism*.
'Hey Stevie' by Shake! poet Rotimi Skyers
Platform has been working with the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust on our youth project “Shake! Young Voices in Arts, Media, Race & Power” since 2010. We’ve been bringing together artists and campaigners with young people to explore connections between what happened to Stephen with global issues of social and environmental justice in ex-British colonised contexts, such as the situation in the Niger Delta and elsewhere.
Stephen was murdered on 22nd April 1993, aged 18, in a racially motivated attack Continue reading
West LB have decided not to finance oil & gas development projects in the arctic and F & C have dropped Arctic oil explorers Cairn from their ethical portfolio.
The German corporate finance & investment bank, West LB, launched a new environmental policy in February and its guidelines are important in relation to the push by oil companies into the Arctic. Speaking about the policy, Dustin Neuneyer, sustainability manager, group development said: “There are projects that are evidently unsustainable in an encompassing sense. For WestLB, the risks and costs are simply too high.” “The further you get into the icy regions, the more expensive everything gets and there are risks that are hard to manage,” For example, he said, remediation of any spills “would cost a fortune”, and natural processes by which spilt oil would be broken down are slower or non-existent at freezing temperatures.
Platform is collaborating with Live Art Development Agency (LADA) and others to participate in DIY 9 – professional development by artists for artists.
DIY is an opportunity for artists working in Live Art to conceive and run unusual training and professional development projects for other artists.
Deadline for proposals to run DIY 9 projects: Noon Monday 14th May 2012
These guidelines are available in large print on request
Download a PDF version of this Call for Proposals.
Download a version of the Monitoring Form. Continue reading