Embedded into the story of the struggle against Big Oil in Ecuador is the American lawyer: Steven Donziger. His story adds another layer of torrid injustice in the fight to hold Big Oil accountable. His story needs to be told.
Just days after the ending of the landmark climate talks in Glasgow, where Joe Biden promised to lead the world on climate action, the President’s administration offered the largest ever auction of Gulf of Mexico offshore drilling rights.
Hurricane Ida may have slipped from the news, but its deadly legacy continues, with the extent of lasting damage only now becoming apparent in many communities.
“This is a major victory for Indigenous resistance and the climate. Trudeau needs to stop supporting this risky project immediately, and end all fossil fuel subsidies,” said Kyle Gracey of OCI.
So can a company often vilified for being complicit in human rights abuses in Nigeria, accused of rampant pollution and ignoring the risks of climate change for decades, be central to the climate fight?
“We urge you and all federal leadership to stand firm against the Line 3 pipeline and act now to halt its construction. The pipeline’s construction is an urgent threat to the waters of Minnesota and Lake Superior, as well as to our global climate,” said the groups to Biden.
The UK Supreme Court has ruled that two Nigerian communities – of more than 50,000 people – can bring their legal claims for clean-up and compensation against Royal Dutch Shell and its Nigerian subsidiary in the English courts.
Last Friday, in an historic judgement, Shell’s day finally came. A Dutch court ordered that Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary pay compensation for oil spills in the Niger Delta that stretch back decades.  Do not underestimate this moment.
“Of course, when the clock strikes midnight to turn to January 1, 2021, the world won’t instantly be cured of either COVID or our fossil fuel addiction. But, nevertheless, as we look towards 2021, there is hope on the horizon.”
On November 10, 1995, Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni activists — Saturday Dobee, Nordu Eawo, Daniel Gbooko, Paul Levera, Felix Nuate, Baribor Bera, Barinem Kiobel, and John Kpuine — were hanged by the Nigerian dictatorship in Port Harcourt. Their only crime? Exposing the devastating impact that Shell Petroleum Development Company’s extraction of fossil fuels from the Niger Delta had on the Ogoni land, lives, and livelihoods.Â
