"It wasn't an oil spill that made Nnimmo Bassey an environmentalist.
It was a massacre — the 1990 assault by Nigeria's armed forces on the
village of Umuechem, where residents of the oil-rich Niger Delta had
accused the Shell Petroleum Development Company of environmental
degradation and economic neglect."
TIME magazine feature about Friends of the Earth International
Chair Nnimmo Bassey, who was nominated a 'Hero of the Environment 2009.'
"As chief executive of the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers
Association (BELA) for the past six years, Syeda Rizwana Hasan has
struggled to bring better environmental and labor regulation to
Bangladesh's 36 shipbreaking yards, where, she says, "nobody is
present" to ensure labor laws are followed or international guidelines
against toxic waste-dumping are met."
TIME magazine feature about Friends of the Earth Bangladesh/BELA Chief Executive Syeda Rizwana Hasan who was nominated a 'Hero of
the Environment 2009.'
"Other countries are using the US's [climate change
negotiations] position as an opportunity to try and avoid stringent
legally binding emissions cuts which they should implement at home."
BBC news, 9 October 2009, quoting Meena Raman, Honorary Secretary, Friends of the Earth Malaysia.
"It is a crisis of democracy when campaigning charities like Friends of the Earth are prevented from speaking up on behalf of communities around the globe within the [UN Climate Change] talks themselves. This draconian measure is completely unjustified - the Copenhagen conference is fast becoming an international shambles."
The Telegraph, 17 December 2009, quoting Andy Atkins, Executive Director of Friends of the Earth, England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
"The World Bank should be greening its energy portfolio. It's difficult to understand why the World Bank or Norway would be pouring money into an unproven [carbon capture and storage] technology ... rather than pour money into renewable technologies."
The New York Times, 14 October 2009, quoting Karen Orenstein, Friends of the Earth US International Policy Campaigner.
"Isaac Rojas, co-ordinator of the forest and biodiversity programme at Friends of the Earth International, said: "All over the world, plantations destroy the lands and livelihoods of local communities and indigenous peoples, as well as biodiversity and water resources. They also store less carbon than natural forests. Friends of the Earth International and the Global Forest Coalition want the UN's Committee on Forestry to stop promoting plantations and to urge governments immediately to halt the conversion of forests into biofuel plantations."
The Independent, 25 October 2009.
"We cannot allow carbon traders to damage the world. There is no such thing as clean coal or clean crude. Leave the oil in the soil, leave the coal in the hole. To those who want to pollute at home and plant a tree somewhere we say no."
Agence France Presse, December 12, 2009, quoting Nnimmo Bassey, Friends of the Earth International Chair.
"For non-governmental organisations like Madre Tierra [Friends of the Earth Honduras], the 2009 coup in Honduras represents the consolidation of historical exploitation - led by the country’s long-standing oligarchy that controls approximately 80 per cent of Honduran wealth - and a worsening of the situation for the poorest and most vulnerable people in Honduras."
Red Pepper magazine, 24 September 2009, published a story by Juan Almendares, director of Movimiento Madre Tierra/Friends of the Earth Honduras.
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