Thirty Years of Creative Resistance - Friends of the Earth Australia

Australia has been largely oblivious to the
external effects of our highly consumptive
lifestyles and carbon intensive economic
system that has earned us the place as
being amongst the highest per capita
greenhouse gas emitters in the world.
The external effects of climate change
are often far removed from us, with a
general perception that climate change is a
phenomena that we have yet to experience
– however there are threats to health, home,
and culture that rising seas and fossil fuel
consumption pose.
THE CHALLENGE OF ENERGY
In countries like Tuvalu the geography
is challenging: in many places you can
stand at the lagoon side of the island and
see what is happening in the sea on the
opposite side of the islands. In this context
and similarly for many small island states,
resources to adapt to climate change are
limited and in particular the energy poverty
that means communication is scarce and
often unreliable, and health and education
services are difficult to maintain. This is
a double bind as energy (electricity) is an
important means of addressing poverty
and infrastructure strength, yet electricity
from the combustion of fossil fuels (such
as diesel generators which dominate on
island states) is the major local source of
greenhouse gas emissions.
Let there be no doubt, it is the unabated
greed of the enriched industrial nations of
the world that now threatens the sovereignty
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When sometimes when you ask them [about oil spills] as they
want to claim responsible corporate citizens, they will tell you
that they clean the spills.
And how do they do it They use the highest technology
available using bucket, spades and shovels. When they are
tired of scooping and shoveling, they set the very crude on
fire.
That way you have the forest set on fire, we got even rivers
set on fire. So when you come to the Niger Delta and you see
a fire – do not run into the river!
Nnimmo Bassey (Nigeria)
of the people of Tuvalu, not the excessive
use of air-conditioners and cars in Pacific
Island nations.
In Nigeria, almost the opposite side of
the world to Tuvalu, the oil that goes into
products and fuels much of the world’s
energy needs is extracted from one
of the most energy impoverished and
conflict stricken continents on earth. Yet
Nigeria was not always like this. Nnimmo
Bassey explained clearly that corruption,
environmental degradation, exploitation,
violence and murder is a result of oil
extraction at the hands of multinational
corporations including Shell, Chevron
Texaco and Exxon Mobil. Social, economic
and environmental impoverishment has
befallen the people of Nigeria since the first
well was sunk in 1956. Since then the soil of
the Niger Delta has been literally soaked with
spilt oil and the blood of the Nigerian people.
Gas flares are a common occurrence in the
Niger Delta as the oil corporations burn
the associated gas that is extracted during
the drilling process. Estimates are that
gas flares from oil extraction create more
greenhouse gas emissions than all other
sources combined from Sub Saharan Africa.
The air has been ripped by the noise of
gas flaring wasted by the oil transnational
corporations, lighting up the night skies
for over 40 years. The promise of riches
brought by the transnational corporations
has turned to ashes in the mouths and lungs
of the Nigerian people. Literally thousands
of lives have been lost.
FoE 30 Years 94