ROYAL DUTCH SHELL MUST USE ITS PROFITS TO CLEAN UP THE NIGER DELTA
Shell has been extracting oil in the Niger Delta area of Nigeria for over 50 years. They are the major operator there and have made billions and billions of dollars out of the country. And what have the people of the Niger Delta received in return? For the vast majority, they have been subjected to grinding poverty, little access to clean water, a polluted environment and ongoing violence and conflict.
Amnesty International believes leaks and spills from Shell’s pipelines have devastated the livelihoods of millions of people in the region. Amnesty research has revealed that the fish they catch, the water they drink and the air they breathe have all been ruined by oil pollution.
I support their campaign to end the needless suffering of the people of the Niger Delta:
Shell makes billions of pounds of profit each year. It is a profit that is being subsidised by the poverty and ill-health of the people of the Niger Delta.
For decades Shell has ignored repeated calls to clean-up the mess they have left behind: a mess that they are responsible for; a mess that has blighted the livelihoods and health of thousands upon thousands of people.
Shell needs to get around the table and put a proper cost next to the liabilities they are responsible for and fund new structures to ensure the life and health of the people of the Niger Delta are protected once and for all.
The Niger Delta is one of the most polluted areas on the face of the earth. Decades of oil pollution has seeped into the water, the soil and the burning of oil waste pollutes the air. Where once the people could fish and farm in order to support themselves, their families and their communities, now they are reduced to begging. Their government has abandoned them to the oil companies.
But they are fighting back. Communities in the Niger Delta have taken Shell to court in the US, UK and Netherlands. Shell is starting to be held to account for its devastation in Nigeria. You can add your voice too.
No more excuses, enough is enough, Shell needs to clean up its act.
Embed Amnesty International’s new film via this You Tube link: http://bit.ly/Idt0ZX
Take action online here: http://bit.ly/I4atVB
Sign Amnesty’s global petition to Shell’s Chief Executive Peter Vosser at www.amnesty.org.uk/ownup.
‘You get out what you put in’
– Apparently Shell need to read the manifesto and realise they need to get rid of what they’ve put their oil into!! (wildlife, food, water)
Sort it out Shell!
Sam
Comment by Sam Varnham on 26/04/2012 at 6:27 pm
SHELL,
CLEAN UP,PAY UP!
Comment by Alessandro on 27/04/2012 at 2:44 pm
Shell, please go and clean up the land and vegetation you have destroyed. Don’t be this Wicked!
Comment by Ume Emmanuel on 29/04/2012 at 1:47 pm
We are fighting the same war but are in different battles. keep up the fight and with a little bit of luck we all just might have a world we can enjoy.
Comment by J. Brian Waddington on 30/04/2012 at 9:37 am
Hi,
Thank you for bringing this to my/our attention, Vivienne.
I signed the online petition right away, it is just awful how people can destroy other’s lives to make money…turning a blind eye to the environment as well…ones persons life doesn’t mean more than the other because of the knowledge they have achieved, the power of their company, or the big house they live in…these people from the Niger Delta ARE people too, and Shell are treating them lower than that!
Kyle.
Comment by Kyle Nash-Baker on 30/04/2012 at 10:45 pm
Vivienne, you are an absolutely divine lady. Thank you for your beautiful and inspiring art, and commitment to the world. As someone nearing the end of adolescence, I get frustrated when my peers still don’t understand the need to be aware of global crises. They never second guess consumerism, or the importance of conservation. I am trying to shape the own ethics of my life – and your Manifesto is a great help! Looking forward to hear more from you soon.
Comment by Jenny on 01/05/2012 at 3:22 am
Dear Vivienne,
Thank you for bringing the plight of the community in nigeria to the attention of a wider audience. It is a great example of your manifesto to use art to make change. Your media presence and reputation in design and fashion will alert people to these issues. I hope that going forward the young will take control and react to the distruction of our habitat (our planet). Loss of species, habitats, people and the acceleration of climate change are symptoms of mans greed.
We must educate our children to want less and give more. We are so lucky in our country to have access to so much and have freedoms to choose.
We need to make culture and giving more fashionable than greed and this worship of celebrity.
Is it difficult to separate the two? To use fashion as a catalyst for change, surely means we must court celebrity and the lust for beauty and make a successful business? This success will allow and encourage views to be communicated through your consumers? Your Africa bag project is a prime example of what can be achieved. Thank you for continuing to inspire me to want more. MORE Knowledge and passion for culture. For this is the only thing which will save humanity.
Comment by Maurizio Romanazzi on 06/05/2012 at 6:57 am
This is a long time coming. Ken saro wiva’s death, and those of his ogoni commrades, cannot have been in vain. X
Comment by Hannah on 03/06/2012 at 3:58 pm
What you must remember, Vivienne, is, that every time you board a plane to fly to the other side of the world, the fuelis supplied by Shell!!!
Comment by Crowcatcher on 12/06/2013 at 5:54 pm