Posts Tagged ‘Shell’

Mapping hell stations

After the success of our webchat with Shell, and the revealing answers we were given, it is time for the next stage of our campaign to Make Shell Come Clean

Join us as we target Shell on Google Maps, turning Shell stations into ‘hell stations’ to publicly highlight the damage Shell is doing in the Niger Delta (see Amnesty’s report for further details)

We can’t do this without you, so please get involved by taking photos that obscure the S of the Shell sign from view, and sending them to us. Click on one of the logos below to get the idea.

Wherever you are in the world, we want your hell stations!


View Hell stations in a larger map

Task 1: Start snapping those Hell Stations!

Instructions

  • Find a Shell station in your area, by searching ‘Shell’ or ‘Shell UK Ltd’ on Google Maps. Alternatively you could use Shell’s own station finder (UK only)
  • Use a prop to block the view of the ‘S’ of Shell, as others have done on the map above. Get creative! You could use a friend’s hand, or better still an object that represents your outrage at Shell’s disregard for human rights in the Niger Delta.
  • Snap away!

Send them to us

  • Simply send an MMS to +44 7733 134670 or amnesty.amnesty@gmail.com with the location of the station, and we’ll do the rest

Task 2: Give Shell stations bad reviews

  • Find any Shell station on Google Maps, and give it a one star review, ensuring that your main message is in the first line of the review. It will then show up in searches like this:

@amnestyuk vs @shelldotcom




A simple Twitter message, repeated by just a few hundred users, and the world’s biggest company was scrambling to set up an online dialogue.

The request was for an opportunity to discuss Amnesty’s recent report ‘Petroleum, Pollution and Poverty’, which highlighted human rights abuses in the Niger Delta, where despite vast profits for oil companies, 31 million people are living in poverty.

The details were soon finalised. It was to happen on the Shell Dialogues site, with a parallel and open chat right here on Protect the Human.

On one side was Shell, with a panel of five senior staff, a slick introductory video and a well-oiled PR machine. On the other, the 445 individuals who had registered to take part, including experts from Amnesty, the Remember Saro-wiwa campaign, Friends of the Earth and local organisations based in Nigeria.

The stage was set.

What followed was an endless stream of questions about Shell’s human rights record, including why they continue with gas flaring despite a government ban, why they haven’t published their environmental assessments, and why they have failed to adequately clean up oil spills.

It didn’t take long before cracks began to appear in their positive PR machine, with country chair Basil Omiyi admitted that ‘Yes’, Shell does believe that pollution and environmental damage associated with the oil industry has contributed to poverty and conflict in the Niger Delta. Their assertion that ‘the oil industry’s footprint is impacting on small parts of the delta’ was an understatement of epic proportions, and their claim that ‘Shell is giving all spills immediate attention’ was completely dismissed by those working in the Niger Delta.

We should give Shell some credit for at least being willing to discuss these issues, though their rose tinted view fooled no one.

The next step is to watch this space, for a promised transcript of the dialogue, along with answers to the questions they didn’t have time to answer. In the meantime we are analysing their answers and plotting our next move.

If you’ve not yet sent an email to Shell’s new CEO, please take a moment to do this. If you have, why not send a message to @shelldotcom on Twitter, asking them to respond to the 3500+ emails that have been sent.

The Shell web chat

Thanks to everyone who took part in the Shell webchat. We’ll be analysing Shell’s responses over the next few days, so watch this space!

If you were involved, please add your thoughts as a comment below.

The background

Thanks to you, and the hundreds of messages you sent to Shell via Twitter, we got them listening.

Shell agreed to host a webchat on their site Shell Dialogues about the Niger Delta. We took this opportunity to ask tough questions about Shell’s human rights and environmental practices in the Niger Delta.

We pulled together a bunch of information, from key facts all the way through to our full report to help you ask some hard questions, like “Will Shell commit to cleaning up all oil spills in the Delta?

Full Report (PDF) |  Summary (DOC)

NEW: 20 questions Shell won’t answer (DOC)

Find out more about our campaign

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