Gulf Oil Spill Pales In Comparison To Nigeria's Oil Plight

The Observer:

"We see frantic efforts being made to stop the spill in the US," said Nnimo Bassey, Nigerian head of Friends of the Earth International. "But in Nigeria, oil companies largely ignore their spills, cover them up and destroy people's livelihood and environments. The Gulf spill can be seen as a metaphor for what is happening daily in the oilfields of Nigeria and other parts of Africa."

Read the whole story: The Observer

Comments

[DaMojo]

04:54 PM on 06/03/2010

Supply and demand. Who is willing to give up their car? Attention Auto Industry: Make an affordable, longer range electric car that will go fast enough on the freeway so I won't get squished.
Please. Or, we go back to the horse and buggy. Either works for me.

[PlayTOE]

07:19 AM on 06/03/2010

Is the oil industry a major polluter world wide? Yes.
Do they pollute more where they can get away with it easier? Yes.
Do people care? Usually only when the pollution is in their own backyard.

Is there a solution? Yes, we need to get off of fossil fuels and use a non-polluting energy source.
Is there a non-polluting energy source available? Yes, wind. *(no spills, no Chernobyl, and we won't run out of wind)

So ... why don't we all push for a higher wind power component to our energy?
(Do people care?)

[Anthony Stuart]

01:59 AM on 06/03/2010

'With 606 oilfields, the Niger delta supplies 40% of all the crude the United States imports...' We are consuming the planet. This has got to stop. We need a project on the scope of the Manhattan Project to find and exploit better sources of clean, renewable energy. Just as we were in a race with the Nazis to get the bomb, the race is now on to solve our energy problem. We need to be beyond the petroleum/fossil fuel age NOW.

[rollingrock]

12:10 AM on 06/03/2010

Proof again that western oil companies are pure evil.

[Layls]

03:15 AM on 06/03/2010

For the record, spills in Nigeria are widely a part of the Niger Delta militant action that Bassey failed to mention. Nigerians seek to get as much attention as they possibly can attempting to play on the Gulf spill to gain more recognition, when in fact, most of their problems arise from within as groups like MEND and its other spinoff counterparts continue to wreak havoc on the region (Niger Delta). The fault, there in, lies with the Nigerian government for not evenly dispersing the funds from the oil wealth – not the oil companies as they are not sabotaging their own rigs in order to create a spill.

It’s also commonplace for Greenies to get onboard this train discussing the problems that oil causes and many of those same respondents on this site still depend greatly on fossil fuels.

[persimmon8]

01:08 PM on 06/03/2010

I believe you are deluded...and you comment is very very unconscious.

[Frank Choi]

11:52 PM on 06/02/2010

These abuses against the environment and any of its peoples need to stop. Oil and oil companies have long been a cancer upon society and now is the time to remove them from our economy and society.

[IllinoisTexan43]

11:48 PM on 06/02/2010

BP's oil gusher also pales in comparision in what Chevron did in the pristine Amazon jungle. The indigenous tribes there are already spawning a generation of children with birth defects. Multinationals are a scourge upon this earth.

[Anthony Stuart]

01:43 AM on 06/03/2010

Couldn't have said it better! #446

[AmericanCitizenNow]

11:26 PM on 06/02/2010

It's their country and their responsibility to do something about it.

[rollingrock]

12:13 AM on 06/03/2010

Congrats you win the Moronic Post of the Year award.

[peowlemeow]

11:06 PM on 06/02/2010

British Texican ,Mark Thatcher wanted to take over Equatorial Guinea to be within helicopter strike range of Nigeria and the US refused to extradite him.America should be making better friends with West Africa and should definitely stop listening to or doing business with the English or any Eurotrash corporate interests regarding the US and Africa.

[Myoho]

11:03 PM on 06/02/2010

You all should see the documentary 'Crude'. Exxon/Chevron devastated Ecuador in the same fashion.

I think it is available on NetFlix and PlayStation Network right now.

www.crudethemovie.com

[13th Generation American]

10:20 PM on 06/02/2010

This need to go on the front page. It doesn't matter where this happens, we only have one planet.

[theothersideofsilence]

09:12 PM on 06/02/2010

The only triumph this past month was the last Hummer coming off the assembly line. A Hummer is seductive but the long term consequences of its pursuit can cost ya--ask a sea bird or Jesse James.

[rgc]

08:59 PM on 06/02/2010

This situation is absolutely awful...We have to be the Country that sets the example...It is my understanding that the Nigerian Government owns 58% of Shell Nigeria...and 53% of Texaco and has been slowly destroying the continent..Heaven Help us ALL!

The Nigerian Government has made a deal with SATAN himself...And the African people are paying the piper.....IS IT TOO LATE TO ASKED GOD TO HELP US!

[persimmon8]

01:11 PM on 06/03/2010

God wants humans to wake up and take responsibility for the world events.

[Newsradiohead]

08:49 PM on 06/02/2010

Oh God. I had no idea.

[luckyone77]

08:49 PM on 06/02/2010

Huff Post - why don't you run an expose on the horrific birth defects due to use of depleted uranium in Iraq?

[peowlemeow]

11:08 PM on 06/02/2010

HP won't run anything on DU damage because Hustler did before America went to Iraq.Sometimes Hustler has some very good reporting that other outfits won't touch.

[luckyone77]

08:48 PM on 06/02/2010

This has been going on in the third world for decades, but the media did not care, and the american public did not care. It takes a crisis to hit our own doorstep for people to care.

[Intelligentia]

11:35 PM on 06/02/2010

Just like the world did not care about African holocaust until it happened close to home in Europe. No, I'm not talking about that holocaust (enslavement), I mean the Belgian-Congo Holocaust- The Heart of Darkness type.