I've discovered that public concern for this whole Gulf oil spill is just another example of narrow minded American arrogance, with total disregard for the environment and people's lives...
"Shell admitted to spilling 14,000 tonnes of oil in 2009"
"more oil is spilled .. every year than has been lost in the Gulf of Mexico catastrophe."
"there were more than 7000 spills between 1970 and 2000, and there are 2000 official major spillage sites, many going back for decades, with thousands of smaller ones still waiting to be cleared up."
"More than 1000 oil spill cases have been filed against Shell."
"On May 1 this year a ruptured ExxonMobil pipeline ... spilled more than a million gallons ... over seven days before the leak was stopped."
"Life expectancy in its rural communities, half of which have no access to clean water, has fallen to little more than 40 years over the past two generations."
All of these quotes refer to a single small country - Nigeria.
Here's what local leaders have said:
"This is where we fished and farmed. We have lost out forest. We told Shell of the spill within days, but they did nothing for six months."
"We see frantic efforts being made to stop the spill in the US, but in Nigeria oil companies largely ignore their spills, cover them up and destroy people's livelihood and environments."
"Oil companies do not value our life; they want us to all die."
Think about that next time you consider going to Shell or Mobil to fill up your car in protest against BP.
Or better yet, don't fill up your car -
"the Niger delta supplies 40% of all the crude the United States imports"
