shell, use your profits to clean up your mess!

In February 2007, Shell announced that its profits were sky-high for 2006, following on from record-breaking 2005 profits. With such wealth, one would expect Shell to adhere to its much touted commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility. Yet around the world, people living on the “fenceline” of Shell’s operations are paying dearly for its profits through severe environmental pollution and degradation.

shell use your profits To expose Shell’s dereliction of duty, Friends of the Earth International took out two-page advertisements in the Volkskrant (Netherlands) and a one-page ad in the Guardian (UK) newspaper. The ads included signatures from 8,000 people worldwide who urged Shell to “Use your profits to clean up your mess”. A stylised map featured Shell logos dripping with oil to pinpoint hot spots of environmental damage caused by the fossil fuel giant.

At the same time, the Shell Accountability Coalition, of which FoEI is a member, released a major report highlighting major damage caused by Shell’s operations. From gas flares and oil spills in Nigeria, leaking pipelines and accidents in South Africa, air pollution and threatened marine life in the USA, to burst pipelines and ruined farms in Barbados, the report highlights major environmental damage and threats wrought by Shell.

See the ad and report here.

photo credit: israel aloja

with thanks to our funders: the dutch ministry of foreign affairs and the isvara foundation

shell, use your profits to clean up your mess!

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