Where are oil and gas extraction connected to human rights abuses?
Where isn’t it? Oil extraction is a very capital-intensive undertaking, dominated by large corporations and centralized governments, and usually requiring cooperation between the two. Often, the rights, health, and even lives of the local population are ignored, abused or assaulted. Environmental degradation is usually one of the major problems with drilling and pipeline projects. Contamination of land and water supplies is an immediate threat to human survival.
When the local populace objects strongly enough, the investing corporation might get nervous about the security of their equipment and pipelines, prompting the cooperating government to crack down on the local population in order to maintain the presence of the corporation.In other cases, the desire to control oil reserves is just another motivating factor for a repressive government…General Information on Oil and Militarism:
- Anti-War Links — (see Militarism and the Environment section)
- Project Underground — supporting the human rights of communities resisting mining and oil exploitation
- Oilwatch — Oilwatch is a resistance network that opposes the activities of oil companies in tropical countries.
Regional Conflicts:
Asia:
- Aceh (Indonesia): ExxonMobil, Aceh and the Tsunami
- Afghanistan: Central Asian oil, Enron and the Afghanistan pipelines
- Burma: Unocal/Total Natural Gas pipeline, Unocal against the Burmese citizenry, Free Burma Coalition
- Chechnya: What does Russia see in Chechnya?, Human Rights Watch
- East Timor: Timor Today, East Timor Action Network
- India: Enron In India: the Dabhol Disaster
- Iraq: It was oil all along, Iraq Anti-War Links
- Tibet: BP and China heading into Tibet, Free Tibet Campaign, BP assisting PetroChina in Tibet drilling
- Yugoslavia: Yugoslavia and access to Caspian Sea Oil
Africa:
- Chad and Cameroon: Exxon pipeline
- Liberia: Why Bush Wants Troops in Liberia, Liberia: Corpses at our doorstep, Why Africa Has Become a Bush Priority
- Nigeria: Shell against the Ogoni, Chevron in Ijawland
- Sudan: BP involvement in Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company
Central/South America:
- Colombia: Occidental Oil against the U’wa
- Ecuador: Chevron devasted Ecuador
- Mexico: Is Zapatista Rebellion Rooted in Oil?, Devastated Communities Sue Pemex in Mexico
- Venezuela: “We Know What a Coup Looks Like”, Another Bush Coup? America’s Dirty Hands in Venezuela, Coup-making in Venezuela: the Bush and oil factors
North America:
- Western Canada: Oil Sands Truth
- Great Lakes: Plan to sink gas pipes stirs debate over impact, Calls for Great Lakes Drilling Ban, Great Lakes United
- Louisiana: Louisiana Environmental Action Network
- Gulf of Mexico: Additional Gulf Drilling, Gulf Coast Environmental Defense, Offshore drilling foes rail against Chevron plan
- Rocky Mountains: Coal Bed Methane, Oil & Gas Drilling in Wyoming
- Alaska: Northern Alaska Environmental Center
