Look What Shell Doesn’t Want You To Know

For some reason, only God knows why, money is starting to change and model the media industry. Recently we wrote about how Fox refused to air an veterans ad saying “a clean energy climate plan would cut dependence on foreign oil in half and cut oil profits for hostile nations”, and now, two weeks later, we have a similar situation.

Amnesty International had paid for an advertisement to run in the latest issue of Financial Times that was supposed to be released the day of Shell’s annual general meeting, but Amnesty learned at the last minute it was not going to run.

When shareholders met for Shell’s AGM on 18 May, you can bet there was a lot of talk about their $9.8 billion profits. Less word was about the human cost of their activities in the Niger Delta – such as the millions of people drinking polluted water, growing crops in polluted soil and raising children in polluted homes.

Numerous oil spills, which have not been adequately cleaned up, have left local communities with little option but to drink polluted water, eat contaminated fish, farm on spoiled land, and breathe in air that stinks of oil and gas.

In addition to blatant human rights abuses and the company’s responsibility for the death of a Nigerian activist, Shell has implemented poor practices in the Niger Delta that have allowed oil spills to pollute water sources local communities rely on for drinking, and compromised the quality of agricultural land that they use for farming.

Filed Under: Environment