100 ans de catastrophes écologiques dues aux énergies fossiles
CounterSpill
http://counterspill.org
https://dl.dropbox.com/s/aak8jvoyzbuo73e/d%C3%A9sastres.jpg
#cartographie_interactive #archives #webdoc
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Kiobel vs Shell : un coup dur pour les droits de l’homme face aux multinationales | Slate
http://www.slate.fr/tribune/71331/kiobel-shell-droits-homme-multinationalesLa décision rendue le 17 avril par la Cour suprême américaine dans l’affaire Kiobel vs. Shell était très attendue par les organisations de défense de droits de l’homme et par de nombreuses multinationales. Elle vient finalement confirmer le jugement de la Cour d’appel, favorable à Shell, en écartant à priori la possibilité pour une entreprise non-américaine d’être jugée aux Etats-Unis (au civil) pour des violations des droits de l’Homme commises à l’étranger.
En 2004, des familles de victimes nigérianes avaient décidé de poursuivre Shell pour des abus aux droits de l’homme commis entre 1992 et 1995 dans le delta du Niger, au cœur de la région peuplée par la minorité Ogoni. Ils accusent la multinationale anglo-hollandaise pétrolière d’avoir assisté la dictature nigériane dans la détention arbitraire, la torture ou encore l’exécution de militants pacifistes qui dénonçaient la pollution causée par l’entreprise et ses conséquences pour le peuple Ogoni.
Réfugiés aux Etats-Unis, les plaignants formaient leur recours sur la base de l’Alien Tort Statute (ATS) qui autorise en théorie des ressortissants étrangers à engager des poursuites devant les tribunaux fédéraux américains pour des violations du droit international.
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From the Editors | Middle East Research and Information Project
http://merip.org/mer/mer266/editors[MERIP, printemps 2013]
"La guerre en Irak s’est faite essentiellement à cause du pétrole", a écrit Alan Greenspan dans ses mémoires The Age of Turbulence (2007). "Je suis attristé qu’il soit politiquement inopportun de reconnaître ce que chacun sait." Il peut en effet être évident que les Etats-Unis ont envahi l’Irak en 2003, comme l’a dit l’ancien président de la Réserve fédérale, à cause du pétrole. Mais que signifie cette proposition ? La réponse n’est pas si évidente.
(...)
Greenspan, cependant, semblait avoir quelque chose d’autre en tête quand il a affirmé que "il était essentiel" pour les Etats-Unis de "sortir" le régime de Saddam Hussein. Le golfe Persique, avait-t-il noté, est "un espace qui abrite une ressource indispensable pour le bon fonctionnement de l’économie mondiale."
Ici le banquier vétéran ressort un argument bien connu des planificateurs des politiques des États-Unis (et aux lecteurs de ce magazine) : Le pétrole est autant un produit stratégique que d’ordre commercial. (...) Tout pouvoir qui influence et façonne le flux de combustibles fossiles du Golfe aura une influence démesurée dans les affaires mondiales. (...)
La grande stratégie et l’accaparement des revenus pétroliers, buts qui obscurcissent la distinction entre les prérogatives géopolitiques et celles des entreprises, sont au cœur de l’« intérêt national » dans le Golfe. Il y a discorde au sein de l’establishment de politique étrangère sur la façon d’atteindre ces objectifs, mais pas sur les objectifs eux-mêmes.
(...)
Voici donc une question alternative et une réponse suggérée : Alan Greenspan a-t-il raison ? Était-il « indispensable » pour la préservation du statut de superpuissance américain d’envahir l’Irak en 2003 ?
Non.
Bien que les sanctions s’affaiblissaient, et que le consensus international en leur faveur s’écroulait, l’armée irakienne était vétuste et ne représentait aucune menace pour les champs de pétrole hors des frontières irakiennes. Le pétrole irakien aurait pu être ramené sur le marché par d’autres moyens. La cause immédiate de la guerre a été un méchant accident historique : Les attaques terroristes du 11 Septembre 2001 ont donné libre cours aux néo-conservateurs et leurs maîtres pour adopter leur vision distincte de perpétuation de l’hégémonie américaine, un projet pour lequel la chute de Saddam Hussein devait être un essai. Mais la guerre en Irak a été en effet "en grande partie pour le pétrole," en ce que le pétrole créait les conditions de possibilité de guerre.
Comprendre la relation entre le pétrole et la guerre est crucial pour tous ceux qui cherchent à éviter une répétition de l’invasion de 2003, qui, bien plus qu’une erreur, a été et reste un énorme et odieux crime.
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Les multinationales veulent-elles se débarrasser de leurs actionnaires trop curieux ? - Responsabilité des entreprises ? - Basta !
Un fonds d’investissement rebelle ? Le fonds d’investissement a ainsi demandé qu’un expert environnemental siège au Conseil d’administration de Chevron. Une résolution qui a suscité l’adhésion d’un quart des actionnaires de l’entreprise. Chez Coca-Cola, Trillium a exigé un rapport sur les alternatives au Bisphénol-A (25% de votes favorables en Assemblée générale). Il a demandé à IBM une transparence des contributions politiques de l’entreprise (31% d’actionnaires favorables). De la direction d’ExxonMobil, il exige des rapports sur l’impact environnemental de la fracturation hydraulique – employée dans l’extraction de gaz de schiste – ou des sables bitumineux (26 % d’actionnaires favorables).
Via Bridget Kyoto
►http://www.bastamag.net/article2838.html -
Les multinationales veulent-elles se débarrasser de leurs actionnaires trop curieux ? (Basta !)
►http://www.bastamag.net/article2838.htmlEt si les actionnaires des entreprises du CAC 40 se rebellaient ? S’ils déposaient des résolutions en Assemblée générale, pour demander que les firmes deviennent vraiment responsables, arrêtent de maltraiter leurs salariés et l’environnement, ou redistribuent davantage de plus-value aux travailleurs ? Scenario utopique ? Peut-être. Mais aux États-Unis, certains actionnaires commencent à faire entendre leur voix. Au point d’énerver les grands groupes, qui n’aiment pas qu’on vienne contrecarrer leurs plans et mettre la pagaille dans leurs consensuelles assemblées d’actionnaires. Résultat : le géant pétrolier Chevron vient d’assigner en justice un de ses actionnaires les plus remuants, un peu trop épris de justice sociale à son goût. Une décision pour le moins surprenante...
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Les #multinationales veulent-elles se débarrasser de leurs actionnaires trop curieux ? - Responsabilité des entreprises ? - Basta !
►http://www.bastamag.net/article2838.htmlUn géant du pétrole qui porte plainte contre un fonds d’investissement « éthique ». L’affaire est peu banale et se déroule aux États-Unis. Le pétrolier Chevron y attaque en justice le fonds d’investissement Trillium, accusé de collusion avec des organisations non gouvernementales. Celui-ci dénonce l’opacité des comptes. En France, Total avait empêché des actionnaires proches de Greenpeace de déposer une résolution en assemblée générale.
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Argentine Judge Freezes Chevron Assets To Pay $19 Billion Ecuador Fine
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15797Adrian Elcuj Miranda, a judge in Buenos Aires, has ordered the seizure of Chevron’s assets in Argentina, to force the company to pay a $19 billion penalty for polluting the Amazon in Ecuador. The plaintiffs are seeking similar legal action in Brazil, Canada, Colombia and other countries.
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Chevron Subpoenas Google and Others for Private Email Info | Mother Jones
http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2012/11/chevron-subpoenas-google-and-others-private-email-infoIn its latest effort, Chevron has effectively sucked a whole cast of environmental activists, attorneys, and journalists into the vortex of the litigation with a series of wide-reaching subpoenas for private email data. Most of the dozens of targets of Chevron’s massive “fishing expedition” are not directly tied to the original lawsuit against the company or its current legal claims; they include the plantiff attorney’s summer intern who only worked on the case briefly in 2007, a writer who worked for a non-profit on behalf of the affected Amazon communities, and an environmental activist in Ecuador who fears that Chevron could use information about his whereabouts to intimidate or harass him or pass it along to third parties “that could do the same or worse.”
Revealing data for more than a hundred private email accounts over the span of nine years will fall into Chevron’s hands if federal courts in New York and California fail to dismiss what legal experts call “sweeping” and “invasive” subpoenas the oil giant has issued to service providers Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft.
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Info-activism Camp 2013
http://www.tacticaltech.org/camp2013Le collectif Tactical Tech organise un camp tous les 4 ans, le prochain se déroulera dans quelques mois.
The art of using data and design for evidence-based activism
Evidence can be our most powerful asset. When used well it transforms the way we perceive issues. Join us in 2013 at the Info-Activism camp to share and learn about the art of using data and design for evidence-based activism.Le précédent camp a eu lieu en Inde en 2009
http://infoactivismcamp.tacticaltech.orgPrésentation de l’initiative info-activism :
http://infoactivismcamp.tacticaltech.org/whatisinfoactivismInfo-Activism is not just about the inevitable surge in the use of information technology within campaigns. We are not trying to include every activist with a blog or radio show in this definition, rather to recognise the creative and artful application of technologies in low-resource situations to meet advocacy goals.
Info-Activism is the ability to swiftly deploy technologies, to master technical convergence and to react to campaign challenges with an appropriate range of tools and tactics.
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Revue des enjeux de l’exploitation du gaz naturel en Méditerranée orientale
#Israel, #Cyprus deal on gas, #Lebanon snubs talks
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Business/Lebanon/2012/Apr-20/170783-israel-cyprus-deal-on-gas-lebanon-snubs-talks.ashx#axzz1sxQFTdxIsrael’s biggest gas discovery, potentially turning the fuel importer into an exporter, is prompting a race by nations from Lebanon to #Turkey to tap similar deposits in disputed waters of the East Mediterranean.
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Sweatshop Labor Is Back With a Vengeance (MotherJones.com)
►http://motherjones.com/politics/2012/04/sweatshop-labor-prisoners-penal-laborSweatshop labor is back with a vengeance. It can be found across broad stretches of the American economy and around the world. Penitentiaries have become a niche market for such work. The privatization of prisons in recent years has meant the creation of a small army of workers too coerced and right-less to complain. (...) Source: MotherJones.com
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Sweatshop Labor Is Back With a Vengeance | Mother Jones
►http://motherjones.com/politics/2012/04/sweatshop-labor-prisoners-penal-labor
Sweatshop Labor Is Back With a Vengeance
The new face of sweatshop labor: prisoners.By Steve Fraser and Joshua B. Freeman
Sweatshop labor is back with a vengeance. It can be found across broad stretches of the American economy and around the world. Penitentiaries have become a niche market for such work. The privatization of prisons in recent years has meant the creation of a small army of workers too coerced and right-less to complain.
Prisoners, whose ranks increasingly consist of those for whom the legitimate economy has found no use, now make up a virtual brigade within the reserve army of the unemployed whose ranks have ballooned along with the U.S. incarceration rate. The Corrections Corporation of America and G4S (formerly Wackenhut), two prison privatizers, sell inmate labor at subminimum wages to Fortune 500 corporations like Chevron, Bank of America, AT&T, and IBM.
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Chevron staff charged over Brazil oil spill - Americas - Al Jazeera English
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2012/03/20123225656977253.htmlFederal prosecutors in Brazil have filed criminal charges against 17 Chevron and Transocean company executives over an oil leak in the Atlantic Ocean in November 2011.
Prosecutors on Wednesday accused the executives of environmental crimes, of misleading Brazil’s oil regulator about their safety plans and not providing accurate information in the wake of the spill.
At least 416,000 litres of oil seeped through cracks on the ocean floor near a Chevron appraisal well off the Rio de Janeiro coast.
The federal prosecutors’ office in Rio de Janeiro said in an emailed statement that the two companies and 17 of its executives had been charged with “crimes against the environment.”
If found guilty, the executives could face up to 31 years in prison.
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Chevron accused of racism as it fights Ecuador pollution ruling | Business | guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jan/04/chevron-accused-racism-ecuador-pollutionThe allegation comes as Chevron vows to fight off a ruling that said the oil giant must pay $18bn for causing pollution in the Amazon rainforest more than 20 years ago.
An Ecuadorian appeals court upheld the case against Chevron on Tuesday, following an eight-year legal battle. The ruling was the latest leg in a decades-long legal dispute.
Chevron, which has accused the plaintiffs of submitting fraudulent evidence, has publicly vowed to continue the fight. “Chevron does not believe that the Ecuador ruling is enforceable in any court that observes the rule of law. The company will continue to seek to hold accountable the perpetrators of this fraud,” the company said in a statement.
#pétrole #pollution #Équateur #justice
Pablo Fajardo, the lead Ecuadorian lawyer, said Chevron was guilty of “a racist attitude” and said that it was clear the judgment could now be enforced.
“Chevron does not want to ever recognise that indigenous or poor people have the right to access justice,” he said.
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Brazil suspends Chevron’s drilling activities - Americas - Al Jazeera English
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2011/11/201111240404468280.htmlThe Brazilian government has suspended Chevron’s drilling rights in the country until it clarifies the causes of an offshore oil spill, those responsible for the disaster are identified and safety conditions are restored in the area.
http://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/Images/2011/11/24/2011112405132119734_20.jpg -
BP gets go-ahead for £4.5bn North Sea oil field | Business | guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/oct/13/bp-north-sea-oil-field-shetland-islandsThe second phase of the giant Clair field, west of the Shetland Islands, forms part of £10bn being spent on four projects by BP and its partners from Shell, ConocoPhillips and Chevron over the next five years.
At £4bn, BP’s involvement represents the highest level of annual investment the company has made in the UK North Sea.
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Court Ruling Backs Ecuadorian Effort to Hold Chevron Accountable for Amazon Pollution (Relevé sur le net)
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/9/20/court_ruling_backs_ecuadorian_effort_toA U.S. appeals court has ruled oil giant Chevron cannot escape an $18 billion fine for massive pollution of the Amazon rain forest. Amazonian residents won the damages in an Ecuadorian court earlier this year, and Chevron says it will appeal the decision. It is the latest development in a complex, 18-year legal battle that has gone before judges not just in Ecuador and the United States, but also The Hague. We speak with Atossa Soltani, executive director of Amazon Watch, which has worked closely with the Amazon residents suing Chevron. Atossa Soltani is in New York City this week to draw attention to environmental causes in the Amazon in conjunction with two major gatherings, the Clinton Global Initiative and the United Nations General Assembly. (...) Source: Democracy Now!
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Amazon pollution victims to ask judge to award $8bn Chevron money | Environment | guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/sep/16/amazon-pollution-chevron-moneyVictims of what they say is one the world’s worst environmental disasters will on Friday ask a New York court to free up billions of dollars in compensation awarded to them in a record ruling earlier this year – and oust the judge who blocked their claim.
The $8bn fine was imposed by an Ecuadorian court in February on oil giant Chevron, on behalf of 30,000 residents of the Amazon basin whose health and environment were allegedly damaged by chemical-laden waste water dumped by Texaco’s operations from 1972 to 1990. Chevron bought Texaco in 2001.
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18 mois avant la catastrophe du Golfe du Mexique, #BP a déjà eu un accident similaire au large de l’#Azerbaïdjan.
WikiLeaks cables : BP suffered blowout on Azerbaijan gas platform | The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/15/wikileaks-bp-azerbaijan-gulf-spillStriking resemblances between BP’s Gulf of Mexico disaster and a little-reported giant gas leak in Azerbaijan experienced by the UK firm 18 months beforehand have emerged from leaked US embassy cables.
The cables reveal that some of BP’s partners in the gas field were upset that the company was so secretive about the incident that it even allegedly withheld information from them. They also say that BP was lucky that it was able to evacuate its 212 workers safely after the incident, which resulted in two fields being shut and output being cut by at least 500,000 barrels a day with production disrupted for months.
Les américains s’inquiètent alors plus de la mauvaise image qu’est en train de se forger BP en Azerbaïdjan, plutôt que de savoir si ces méthodes opérationnelles n’entraîneraient pas des risques ailleurs :
The cable continues: “At least some of BP’s ACG partners are similarly upset with BP’s performance in this episode, as they claim BP has sought to limit information flow about this event even to its ACG partners. Although it is too early to ascertain the cause, if in fact this production shutdown was due to BP technical error, and if it continues for months (as seems possible), BP’s reputation in Azerbaijan will take a serious hit.”
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Un commentaire intéressant dans le forum de l’article:
“Interesting that when the Gulf spill was in full swing and BP was blundering away in its approaches to fix it not one US official mentioned anything along the lines of ‘again’ or ‘happened before’... does the US govt. not read it’s own cables?” -
“Months before the BP disaster, some Congressional officials were pressing federal regulators behind the scenes about numerous safety concerns related to offshore drilling [in the Gulf], potential oil spills and BP itself, but they complained that they were rebuffed, previously undisclosed documents show.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/17/us/politics/17drill.html
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