Wednesday, March 16, 2005
The reality of oil production
One of the great services Truthout provides is its environmental page. Here are excerpts about what oil production does to local communities in Nigeria
S.A.:...Number one is the issue of spilling the oil through poor maintenance of pipelines, thereby resulting in over 100 oil spillages a year, which is abnormal. So you cannot say it just happened. It is intentional, the way we now see it. Two is the destruction of farmlands through the laying of pipelines in the best places, and three, this destroys the livelihood of the people. Fourth is the gas flares burning the people, making it uncomfortable to live nearby. They affect the respiratory system and even the crops
and
K.W.: You said in your talk that it is as if the oil companies just want the people to disappear. I wonder if you would even use the term genocide?
S.A.: Yes it is like genocide. Slowly, gradually, they want to ensure that those people don't even exist. Because obviously, you take away their land to lay pipelines; you pollute the remaining part of the land that they use for farming and you don't clean up or restore it; you pollute the streams and rivers where they fish - and these people depend on farming and fishing for subsistence. The people are sick. There are no functional hospitals in those communities. What you expect for those people is for them to die, gradually.
Nigeria is the fifth largest supplier of oil to the United States.
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