The September 17, 2007 Current Events, Issue 2, Volume 107 contained a message hidden in-between the lines. The main article was about the Ice Wars and who would win the battle for the Arctic. It talked about the Russians claiming the seabed under the North Pole and all of the valuable materials located there. They also showed a slight mention of global warming. It stated how the cold Arctic was suddenly becoming increasingly warm because of global warming. The ice there is melting. In fact, in the last week of August an area almost twice as large as Great Britain disappeared forever. In one week a whole habitat for so many creatures was no longer existent. Specialists say that at the rate the ice is melting now, it will be gone by 2030. That means no wonderfully beautiful and exotic polar bears for our children or grandchildren.
Another horrible part of this story is that this article actually said that the more the ice melts, the more ships and explorers can conquer those areas, and the nation that controlled the Artic would get rich. The small booklet might as well have said “The government declares that global warming is horrible and needs to be stopped but first we have to let the Arctic and all of its inhabitants disappear completely so we can get money.” Money, what purpose is wealth if the most magnificent living things that once roamed the earth are forever gone into a dark world of oblivion? The fight for this area may also end up in conflicts. Who wants to go to war over riches when the living things that make up our society like the polar bears, seals, beluga whales, walruses, narwhal whales, and several types of fish, and those are only the animals that inhabit the water! There are caribou, lemmings, musk oxen, polar bears, arctic foxes and wolves. All of these beautiful creatures will be gone because of simple human ignorance, unless we stop it.
Global Warming is also inducing other calamities around the world. On another page of the Current Events it talked about Managua, Nicaragua. The global warming had caused a horrible hurricane named Felix to crash into the small village. It destroyed thousands of homes, and killed at least three people. Those people will never see their families again, never again experience life because the rest of us want a couple more minutes in the shower, like to have all of the lights on, or are just too lazy to ride a bike or walk, or even to just arrange a carpool. Our generation is truly sad. Hurricane experts expect six more hurricanes to hit poor Central America, three of them just as, or maybe more, powerful as Hurricane Felix.
There are so many places and creatures in danger because of global warming. There’s the pikas, whose mountain habitat is shrinking. Then the sea turtle, raising sea levels destroy their nesting beaches. Pied flycatchers, that are hatching too late to find food. The poor Galapagos penguin, whose lack of cool seas kills it off. There are elephants and frogs, coral and even us. We’re at risk too. By reducing our carbon footprint we can save plants, animals, and ourselves. Habitat destruction, pollution, and global warming all affect the survival of animals which affects us too. So everything that we do to help them also helps us.

Why? It's happened countless times before. It's the nature of the world. It's not only vain but stupid to think that this earth will stay constant forever.

It's hard to believe its all happening.

There is a symbiotic relationship between the military dictatorship and the multinational companies who grease the palms of those who rule....
They are assassins in foreign lands. They drill and they kill in Nigeria.
— Assassins in Foreign Lands <http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Africa/Oronto_Douglas_Nigeria.html>, A CorpWatch Radio Interview with Human Rights Activist Oronto Douglas
The Niger Delta in Nigeria has been the attention of environmentalists, human rights activists and fair trade advocates around the world. The trial and hanging of environmentalist Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other members of the Ogoni ethnic minority made world-wide attention. So too did the non-violent protests of the Ogoni people. The activities of large oil corporations such as Mobil, Chevron, Shell, Elf, Agip etc have raised many concerns and criticisms. Oil, which could potentially have allowed Nigeria to be one of the wealthiest countries in Africa has instead led it to become one of the poorest.
A series of repressive and corrupt governments in Nigeria have been supported and maintained by western governments and oil corporations, keen on benefitting from the fossil fuels that can be exploited. As people and transnational oil corporations have been fighting over this “dark nectar” in the delta region, immense poverty and environmental destruction have resulted.

Maps courtesy of ITA <http://www.theodora.com/ita.html>'s Quick Maps <http://www.theodora.com/maps/abc_world_maps.html>.
The Ogoni, Ijaw and other people in the Niger Delta, those who have been worse affected for decades have been trying to stand up for themselves, their environment and their basic human and economic rights. The Nigerian government and the oil companies have responded by harshly cracking down on protestors. Shell, for example, has even been criticized for trying to divide communities by paying off some members to disrupt non-violent protests.
According to Human Rights Watch, “multinational oil companies are complicit in abuses <http://www.hrw.org/hrw/press/1999/feb/nig0223.htm> committed by the Nigerian military and police.”
Am investigation and report by Essential Action and Global Exchange found that:
Oil corporations in the Niger Delta seriously threaten the livelihood of neighboring local communities. Due to the many forms of oil-generated environmental pollution evident throughout the region, farming and fishing have become impossible or extremely difficult in oil-affected areas, and even drinking water has become scarce. Malnourishment and disease appear common.
The presence of multinational oil companies has had additional adverse effects on the local economy and society, including loss of property, price inflation, prostitution, and irresponsible fathering by expatriate oil workers.
Organized protest and activism by affected communities regularly meet with military repression, sometimes ending in the loss of life. In some cases military forces have been summoned and assisted by oil companies.
Reporting on the situation is extremely difficult, due to the existence of physical and legal constraints to free passage and free circulation of information. Similar constraints discourage grassroots activism.
...
While the story told to consumers of Nigerian crude in the United States and the European Union -- via ad campaigns and other public relations efforts -- is that oil companies are a positive force in Nigeria, providing much needed economic development resources, the reality that confronted our delegation was quite the opposite. Our delegates observed almost every large multinational oil company operating in the Niger Delta employing inadequate environmental standards, public health standards, human rights standards, and relations with affected communities. These corporations' acts of charity and development are slaps in the face of those they claim to be helping. Far from being a positive force, these oil companies act as a destabilizing force, pitting one community against another, and acting as a catalyst -- together with the military with whom they work closely -- to some of the violence racking the region today.
— Oil For Nothing: Multinational Corporations, Environmental Destruction, Death and Impunity in the Niger Delta <http://www.essentialaction.org/shell/report/>, Essential Action and Global Exchange, January 25, 2000
There have been many clear examples of corporate influence in the Nigerian military repressing the protestors. The military have been accused of thousands of killings, house/village burnings, intimidating people, torture and so on. From Shell's involvement in the killing of Ken Saro-Wiwa to Chevron-marked helicopters carrying Nigerian military that opened fire upon protestors, the corporations are facing harsh criticisms for the way they have been handling (or encouraging) the situation.
Criticisms abound about the way the oil companies have neglected the surrounding environment and health of the local communities. The Niger Delta is the richest area of biodiversity in Nigeria, but regular oil spills that are not cleaned up, blatant dumping of industrial waste and promises of development projects which are not followed through <http://www.essentialaction.org/shell/report/section3.html>, have all added to the increasing environmental and health problems.
The latest government has tried to be more democratic and open <http://www.transnational.org/forum/power/2000/07Nigeria.html>, which provides hope. However, there are still a number of problems to be solved, including corruption and religious tensions between Muslims and Christians. There were riots and killings, for example, at Muslim calls for imposition of Sharia, Islamic criminal law.
Most of the above was written in 2000. Well, into 2004, things have generally not improved. For example, the International Herald Tribune reports on a study titled “Peace and Security in the Niger Delta” where amongst other things, the following was noted:
Shell companies have worsened fighting in the Niger Delta <http://www.iht.com/articles/524461.html> through payments for land use, environmental damage, corruption of company employees and reliance on Nigerian security forces.
The action of Shell companies and their staff creates, feeds into, or exacerbates conflict.
Voilence in the Niger Delta kills some 1000 people each year, on par with conflicts in Chechnya and Colombia
With over 50 years of presence in Nigeria, it is reasonable to say that the Shell companies in Nigeria have become an integral part of the Niger Delta conflict.
In response to this, Shell had said that they remained “committed to corporate social responsibility”, whereas the report was saying that they had not acted that way! Furthermore Shell made a weak concession and recognized that their development activities in the past “may have been less than perfect.” Compare this to the accusation from the report of being part of the conflict for so long and even making things worse, this admission can be regarded as very weak. To the credit of Shell, this December 2003 report was actually commissioned by them. Usually if people are found to be complicit in acts of crime etc, then some sort of criminal justice is expected. One doesn't expect Shell to have a criminal case of any sort brought against them. The Tribune article didn't even raise this as an issue.
For more information, the following are good places to start:
Democracy Now!'s section called Voices from the Nigerian Resistance <http://www.pacifica.org/programs/nigeria/>
The award-winning documentary, Drilling and Killing <http://www.pacifica.org/programs/nigeria/drilling.html> by Amy Goodman, Jeremy Scahill and Dred Scott Keyes
Assassins in Foreign Lands: <http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Africa/Oronto_Douglas_Nigeria.html> A CorpWatch Radio Interview with Human Rights Activist Oronto Douglas.
Human Rights Watch reports:
The Price of Oil <http://www.hrw.org/hrw/reports/1999/nigeria/index.htm>; Corporate Responsibility and Human Rights Violations in Nigeria's Oil Producing Communities
Crackdown in the Niger Delta <http://www.hrw.org/hrw/reports/1999/nigeria2/>
Amnesty International's Nigeria Campaign for Human Rights Reform <http://www.amnesty.org/ailib/intcam/nigeria/index.html>
Institute for Economic Democracy <http://www.ied.info> has a lot of information on how economic rights have been exploited by the powerful, throughout history. While this site does not have a particular section on Nigeria, it is very broad and deep at the same time and can help put something like the struggle for oil, freedom and basic rights in Nigeria into perspective with similar struggles throughout history.
"Oil For Nothing: <http://www.essentialaction.org/shell/report/> Multinational Corporations, Environmental Destruction, Death and Impunity in the Niger Delta" is a powerful report from Essential Action and Global Exchange.
Invisible Engagement <http://www.africa2000.com/RNDX/election99.html> a look at U.S. involvement in Nigerian politics, from Africa2000.com.