Lawsuits against Shell and Chevron
1. Juni 2009 | Von atsil2 | Kategorie:English news2The facts are horrible, the damage is immense. Multinational oil companies like Shell Petroleum, ChevronTexaco and ExxonMobile earn countless billions of dollars to the detriment of people all over the world.
Local inhabitants, namely in Burma, Ecuador, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, the Philippines and to a minor degree even in Canada and the United States – are severely affected by the drillings, the exploitations, the refinery and the transportation of crude oil and its derivates. And last but not least they are sustainably damaged by the dumping of toxic oil waste.
They suffer from the loss of their social, cultural and economic habitats, from environmental distruction as well as from multiple diseases caused by the pollution. Furthermore they are attacked by military terror groups and tortured, maimed and even killed by state authorities.
When the oil companies are gone, they leave behind a population which is unable to survive without external aid. But the people are imperiled by unemployment, famine, epidemics, congenital defects and abject misery even if the companies are still in the field. They are threatened by the loss of their cultur and their religious sites. When being forced to leave their traditional habitats, these people sustain the dissolution of social structures and traditions. And in the end they lose their identity and by this, their future.
At present two of the biggest oil companies face lawsuit claimes for compensation in the amount of thousands of million dollars:
Chevron-Texaco in Ecuador on behalf of the destruction of indigenous rainforest-habitats. And Shell in Nigeria because of its alleged involvement in the execution of the Ogoni Nine – a group of nine activists from the Ogoni region of Nigeria, including outspoken author, playwright and winner of the “Nobel Prize of the Environmental Movement 1994″: Ken Saro-Wiwa.
Another Lawsuit against Shell over Oil Spills in Nigeria is filed in the Netherlands since May 2008.
Without acting in concert with the Chevron advocates we have to be aware of the fact, that oil giants like Shell and Chevron are team players. Without the support and the cooperation of national authorities in every mentioned country they were not be able to carry out their extensive exploitation programmes. Lawsuits against oil giants should come along with or be subsequently followed by indictments against ferocious dictators, power-obsessed militaries, corrupt officials, irresponsible national companies and mercenary individuals. But who dares to throw the first stone?!
We need to do anything we can to make sure those big companies are forced to take responsibility for their actions and clean up their messes and we should start with Chevron. In Ecuador drinking water is contaminated, people are dying of cancer and skin diseases, their lives are destroyed and Chevron is doing everything to avoid helping the Ecuadorians suffering from their contamination.
To find out more, go to this blog: http://www.thechevronpit.blogspot.com