For a man whose first claim to fame was directing a movie about a robot Armageddon, James Cameron can still appreciate a good machine. Since the success of his film Avatar, Cameron has become an outspoken environmentalist, but he's also an engineer at heart, and as we sit in a helicopter hovering above northern Alberta's limitless boreal forest — taking an airborne tour of the mines and pipes and rigs that are rewriting the rules of the great oil game — he can't help but marvel at the sight below. This is Canada's oil-sands country, home to the world's second biggest petroleum reserves after Saudi Arabia, and Cameron has come here at the invitation of the local First Nations indigenous community, which fears what the mining and waste are doing to its land. "I hadn't realized just how extensive it is," he says. "But my question is whether it should be done faster or slower?"
For immediate release: 22.5.2012
Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation present grievances to Shell Chairman, board and shareholders
May 22, 2012/The Hague, Netherlands – Today, Eriel Deranger, spokesperson and member of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN) addressed Shell executives and shareholders at Shell’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) in the Hague, Netherlands highlighting the communities grievances with Shell’s current and proposed tar sands projects in their traditional territory in northern Alberta.
Shell’s Chairman was provided with a copy of the report “Risking Ruin: Shell’s dangerous developments in the Tar Sands, Arctic and Nigeria” launched last week by ACFN in partnership with the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN). The report profiles Indigenous communities impacted by Shell’s operations in Canada’s Alberta Tar Sands, Alaska’s Arctic Ocean, Ontario’s Aamjiwnaang First Nation and Africa’s Niger Delta arguing that the impacts of Shell’s destructive activities outweigh the benefits and exposes the company to both reputational damage and political risk, including litigation. ACFN traveled with an Indigenous delegation from Canada and Alaska, coordinated by the UK Tar Sands Network and IEN, to attend Shell’s AGM. Indigenous representative presented to Shell’s Chairman and Board about the human and ecological rights violations the company’s operations have brought to their respective communities. Click here to read more.
For immediate release: 17.5.2012
Shell under fire from Indigenous Peoples over human rights abuses and environmental destruction in Canada, Alaska and Nigeria
Report to be launched in London on Friday at a public meeting before the delegation travels to The Hague for next week's Annual General Meeting of Royal Dutch Shell.
Learn more about Shell’s involvement in the Canadian Tar Sands, the Nigerian Oil fields and in Arctic drilling off the shore of Alaska by downloading our Risking Ruin : Shell’s dangerous developments in the Tar Sands, Arctic, and Nigeria report - Click to READ or Download the Report Here (pdf).
London, UK – This Friday, May 18th, the Indigenous Environmental Network in partnership with Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation are launching an Indigenous-led campaign against Shell and its harmful projects. A delegation of four Indigenous peoples [1] from North America will participate in the public launch of a report profiling the British-Dutch company’s increasing involvement in the world’s dirtiest and riskiest energy projects.
The launch event, ‘Get the Shell Out’ [2], is taking place at 7.30pm at Toynbee Hall, East London, with opportunities from 6.30pm for media interviews. It is co-hosted by a coalition of organizations which also includes UK Tar Sands Network, Women of Africa, Platform, Rising Tide UK, FairPensions, Greenpeace, Shell to Sea, Climate Rush, Art Not Oil and the Rossport Solidarity Camp.
The new report, entitled “Risking Ruin: Shell’s dangerous developments in the Tar Sands, Arctic and Nigeria” [3] profiles Indigenous communities impacted by Shell’s operations in Canada’s Alberta Tar Sands, Aamjiwnaang First Nation’s territory in Ontario, Alaska’s Arctic Ocean and Africa’s Niger Delta. It argues that the impacts of Shell’s destructive activities outweigh the benefits and expose the company to both reputation damage and political risk, including litigation. Click here to READ MORE
RIGHTS OF MOTHER EARTH: RESTORING INDIGENOUS LIFE WAYS OF RESPONSIBILITY AND RESPECT International Indigenous Conference APRIL 4 - 6, 2012 at Haskell Indian Nations University, Lawrence Kansas Click here to learn more.
IEN and EarthCycles has archived the video presentations of the conference - the topics/talks/panels that were streamed can be found here.
Read the Mother Earth Accord or Download/Print PDF
US Tribal Leaders Present President Obama with Mother Earth Accord Opposing Keystone XL
US and Canadian Indigenous Peoples United To Stop Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline - Monday, December 5, 2001 - READ NOW.
Statement of the Indigenous Environmental Network
November 10, 2011
Mother Earth Achieves a Victory Today with Obama Administration Decision to Delay the Keystone XL Pipeline Decision
Landowners Criticize Nebraska’s Governor & Senators for Drinking TransCanada’s Tar Sands Kool-Aid*
Citizens Call for Keystone XL to Be Blocked
LEARN MORE NOW!
Native American and Canadian First Nations Took Part In Largest Act of Civil Disobedience to Stop Keystone XL Pipeline
Keystone Pipeline Faces Indigenous Trans-Border Opposition
Geoff Dembicki, Special to CorpWatch - October 4th, 2011In mid-September this year, as sharp winds howled across the Great Plains, indigenous leaders from either side of the U.S. –Canada border held an "emergency meeting" in the basement of a South Dakota casino. They came from all over - one flew in from Canada's frigid Great Bear Lake near the Arctic Circle, a husband and wife drove east on Highway 18 from their reservation, and several more drove west, on Interstate Highway 90.
