Source: GRITtv

“Oil is a messy business, even when it’s legal,” says filmmaker Joe Berlinger, and we’ve all seen the effects of that business splashed across front pages and television sets over the last month. But the BP disaster isn’t the only mess that Big Oil has caused in the last couple of months, to say nothing of the years and decades past.  The newest oil mess to be cleaned up is a Chevron spill in Utah that has flooded a Salt Lake City creek with thousands of gallons from a pipeline with what was described as a “quarter-sized hole” in it.

Antonia Juhasz is director of the Chevron Program at Global Exchange, and Joe Berlinger is director and producer of Crude: The Real Price of Oil, which looks at the effects of Chevron/Texaco on people in Ecuador’s Amazon rainforests and their struggle for restitution. They both join Laura for a discussion of Big Oil’s ongoing destruction around the world, and what can be done about it.

If you want to do something to help, New Yorkers can attend a benefit screening of Crude with Joe Berlinger, Morgan Spurlock and others, and everyone can contribute to the Crude legal defense fund to fight Big Oil’s lawyers.

Oil Soldier, by Nicolas Lampert (justseeds.org)

As U.S. and British oil companies sign contracts with the Iraqi government, is it time to declare Big Oil the “victor” in the bloody venture?

by Antonia Juhasz
November 14, 2009

Last week, ExxonMobil became the first U.S. oil company in 35 years to sign an oil-production contract with the government of Iraq.

As I write, several other contracts with the world’s largest oil companies are being finalized, and more are expected when a new negotiating round kicks off in Baghdad on Dec. 11.

Do these contracts represent a “victory” for Big Oil in Iraq? Yes, but not one as big as the companies had hoped for (at least, not yet). Read the full story

You want the Amazon to survive? Then pay us not to pump the oil, says Ecuador.

Oil boat in the Ecuadorian Rainforest 2005, by 00rini hartman (flickr)

by Huw Hennessy in Quito
October 31, 2009

The tropical rainforest in the eastern lowlands of Ecuador assaults the senses: the sunlight dazzles the eyes, the heat is so fierce that within seconds one’s clothes are soaked in sweat. Then there are the sounds: a hypnotic symphony of frogs, crickets and other insects and birds which continues unabated day and night. There are sudden glimpses of the jungle’s abundant wildlife: a spectacular flash of a blue morpho butterfly at the river’s edge, a flock of green parakeets screeching. Read the full story

Entrevista a Silvia Ribeiro, investigadora y responsable de programas del Grupo ETC

por Manoel Santos
28 de septiembre, 2009

Biopiratería, geoingeniería, nanotecnología, transgénicos, biología sintética, agrocombustibles… Una red de poderosas trasnacionales juegan a romper las reglas de la naturaleza. Silvia Ribeiro*, investigadora y responsable de programas del Grupo ETC** en México, está entre las mayores expertas mundiales en la lucha contra estas nocivas prácticas.

1.- Hola, Silvia. Tú trabajas en México, estas semanas en el centro de la atención mundial por causa de la llamada gripe porcina. Poco se habla en la prensa hegemónica de la relación entre ese A/H1N1 y la cría industrial de animales. Y menos aún de los efectos de estos métodos sobre la vida de los campesinos y campesinas. ¿Cual es tu reflexión al respecto? Read the full story

Oil giants Total and Chevron are propping up Myanmar's junta with billions of dollars hidden by the regime in Singapore, while trying to whitewash rights abuses, an environment group said Thursday. (AFP/Getty Images/File/Justin Sullivan)

September 10, 2009

BANGKOK – Energy giants Total and Chevron are propping up Myanmar’s junta with a gas project that has allowed the regime to stash nearly five billion dollars in Singaporean banks, a rights group said Thursday.

France’s Total and US-based Chevron have also tried to whitewash alleged rights abuses by Myanmar troops guarding the pipeline, including forced labour and killings, two reports by US-based EarthRights International said.

The group urged the international community to exert pressure on the two companies, which have long managed to avoid Western sanctions against the generals who rule the impoverished Southeast Asian nation. Read the full story

El poderoso consorcio trasnacional de origen estadunidense Wal-Mart aparece en tercer lugar de la lista de Fortune (Foto AP)

por Alfredo Jalife-Rahme
30 de agosto, 2009

La revista Fortune (20/7/09) publica anualmente la lista de las primeras 500 empresas globales según sus ingresos.

Existen otras publicaciones anglosajonas que realizan taxonomías fundadas en otros rubros: ganancias, ventas y capitalización de mercado (el valor total de las acciones que cotizan en bolsa) y donde variarían significativamente los rankings de las empresas estatales que no cotizan en la bolsa neoliberal global como Pemex. Read the full story

por Carlos Miguélez Monroy
17 de julio, 200

La subordinación de los Estados a los intereses de grandes corporaciones llama a la creación de mecanismos internacionales frente a los que éstas respondan por violaciones de derechos humanos. Read the full story

Dagogo Joel's arm was burned by the Oshie gas flare when he was a child. The flare--lit since early 70s and adjacent to Joel's home village of Akaraolu -- occasionally spews out flaming liquids on the countryside, and burned Joel's arm while he was fishing with his father. (Photo by Chris Hondros)

by Kia Mistilis
July 9, 2009

Behind fighter-planes and gunboats, Nigerian forces launched a full-scale offensive in the Niger Delta on May 13, displacing 30,000 people and sparking a humanitarian crisis. Thousands of civilians fleeing destroyed villages are now trapped between armed resistance groups and the Nigerian military. These civilians are hiding in the bush without food, water, or medical supplies, let alone Internet access to alert the world of their plight, as Iranians are doing via Twitter. Read the full story

File photo shows fighters of the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND) as they prepare for an operation in the Niger Delta. The militants have said they have destroyed a Chevron oil pipeline junction in the latest attack on Nigeria's key money earner since the government offered an amnesty. (AFP)

by Agence France Presse
July 6, 2009

LAGOS – Nigerian militants said Monday they destroyed a Chevron oil pipeline junction in the latest attack on Nigeria’s key money earner since the government offered an amnesty.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said it attacked the Okan manifold late Sunday. Read the full story

Two years before the invasion of Iraq, reports suggested invading to end Saddam Hussein's control of the oil. (Photo: Getty Images)

by Jason Leopold
July 3, 2009

Two years before the invasion of Iraq, oil executives and foreign policy advisers told the Bush administration that the United States would remain “a prisoner of its energy dilemma” as long as Saddam Hussein was in power. Read the full story