Amnesty International: A Message To Shell

I've not bought (Royal Dutch) Shell fuels for something like 15 years; since Ken Saro-Wiwa was executed by his home nation with the tacit support of the stinking oil company (is there any other kind?).


The work that Saro-Wiwa carried out in organising non-violent direct action against the exploitation and despoilment of the lands around the Niger Delta by Shell and its Nigerian governmental cohorts was, sadly, not successful. This is well outlined in the Amnesty advertisement that Mrs The Millbrooker has just brought to my attention.

Please don't buy Shell products. No oil company is "clean", but Royal Dutch Shell is pure unadulterated filth which has stopped little short of assassination in search of its ill-gotten and obscenely huge profits.

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This brings me to a line of thought and as everyone is entitled to my opinion, I'll just ramble on a bit.


"So who can we buy fuel from?" will be the cry. "If they're all as bad as each other, what difference does it make?"


BP is certainly under a cloud at the moment; their deep-sea drilling operations are patently (and now demonstrably) unsafe. Esso (Exxon Mobil in the US) has long been the target of a boycott by campaigners) due to its governmental lobbying to limit research into climate change and to ensure that politicians do not act in any way that might affect its profits. Chevron-Texaco has made a huge environmental mess in Nigeria and in Ecuador and has been implicated in human rights abuses - this has also been ongoing for years.


Leaves us with a bit of a dilemma doesn't it? I don't have a complete answer - we are an oil dependent society, as is the US and just about all of the developed world; China is a huge consumer; the developing world is fast catching up in oil gluttony.


The only way to reign in the abuses by the oil companies and the governments that are supported and even maintained by them is stop using as much oil. And here we can all do our bit.


You already know what to do; why don't we give it a shot? Walk instead of driving if the journey's only a mile or two. Take the bus if you're going to Cremyll or Torpoint or Plymouth (I know that Millbrook isn't well served, but there are services and the more we use them the better the chance of getting an improvement). Use the trains for longer trips.


Turn the heating down a notch this autumn and winter; only heat the room you're actually using.


To quote a certain meerkat "simples".