In April, US President Bush crushed worldwide hopes for reducing global warming by rejecting the Kyoto climate change treaty. Coming from the country that produces 25% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions but only houses 4% of the population, the US position has outraged the international community. Enter the International Day of Action against ExxonMobil, Bush’s biggest supporter and the worst of the “Greenhouse Gangsters”
WHERE: At your local ExxonMobil (ESSO) petrol station, refinery, or corporate office.
WHY: In April, US President Bush crushed worldwide hopes for reducing global warming by rejecting the Kyoto climate change treaty. Coming
from the country that produces 25% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions but only houses 4% of the population, the US position has outraged the international community.
Time is running out. So much to be done. Enter the International Day of Action against ExxonMobil. Pressure Point, a Seattle USA ngo, is
coordinating a Call to Action against Bush’s biggest supporter and the worst of the “Greenhouse Gangsters” –ExxonMobil (Esso). The actions / protests are scheduled for the 11th of July.
The protests are in support of the call for an international boycott of all US oil companies, and will take place in the lead up to the mid-July climate negotiations in Germany. Targeting ExxonMobil (Esso), the biggest US corporation and its highest profile oil company, will spearhead the boycott campaign and send a message to
Bush and all oil companies that the US has to take climate justice seriously NOW.
ExxonMobil (Esso) continues to fund greenhouse skeptics, has spent millions on greenwash advertisements, was one of the top contributors
to Bush’s election, has been active in lobbying the US government to reject the Kyoto Protocol, and invests virtually nothing in renewable energy.
It is also one of the major proponents behind drilling in the Arctic Refuge in Alaska. It also has a terrible human rights and environmental record and is an unabashed supporter of free trade.
Organizers in at least 15 countries are mobilizing around targeting ExxonMobil (Esso), and actions are scheduled for most major US cities. The International Day of Action (IDA) is part of a major
global campaign on climate and fossil fuels, and is a campaign that will send a message to Bush, the oil industry’s number one supporter.
Get involved in our direct action campaign against ExxonMobil (Esso). International groups like Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth support
the IDA. This is big. We need your help. Contact us [info@pressurepoint.org] and we’ll help coordinate an action in your city, school, at an ExxonMobil (Esso) gas station, refinery, corporate office, wherever.
You can download an organizing kit from our website.
Join the global effort to let ExxonMobil and George W Bush know it’s not up to them to determine our planet’s future, and that they have
to make the shift from exploration to renewable energy NOW. Join the campaign, and fight to reclaim our future!
Mailinglist Exxon Mobil campaign
Sign the Exxon Mobil Boycott call online
Our demands for ExxonMobil:
- Support the Kyoto Protocol, which would reduce CO2 emission levels;
- Stop pushing for drilling in the Arctic Refuge and on other public lands;
- Agree to an investigation by an international human rights tribunal and abide by it’s findings;
- Cease all new exploration and invest that money in renewable resources
ExxonMobil is the 8th largest economy in the world[Multinational Monitor, June 1999] . Because of its sheer size, it has an inordinate say over
climate change, human rights and the environment. It is using its economic power to try to insure that the new world order is ruled by corporations.
EXXONMOBIL’S CORPORATE RECORD
ENVIRONMENT: ExxonMobil Chairman Lee Raymond is on record advocating that
developing countries should lower environmental standards in order to promote economic growth. A recent report on the Baytown refinery in
Houston has revealed persistent accidental releases and failure to report problems and emissions. Twelve years after the infamous Exxon Valdez disaster, contamination continues. ExxonMobil has been fined millions for Clean Air Act violations and the company openly funds anti-environment think tanks.
ARCTIC REFUGE: ExxonMobil wants Congress to okay drilling on the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge. Drilling would seriously impact the environment and is opposed by the Gwich’in people, who rely on the Caribou herds that breed
there. If SUV fuel efficiency standards were raised by only 3 miles per gallon, it would more than equal all the oil in this area.
CLIMATE CHANGE: ExxonMobil denies any responsibility for climate change, openly funds climate skeptics, has spent millions to discredit the Kyoto climate change Protocol and has lobbied the US government to drop it. While some oil companies have taken tentative steps to invest in clean energy sources, ExxonMobil invests virtually nothing in renewable energy.
HUMAN RIGHTS: In Aceh province, Indonesia, human rights groups report that Exxon-
Mobil provided earth-moving equipment to dig mass graves, equipped soldiers involved in atrocities and allowed company facilities to be used for interrogation and torture. It has also been heavily criticized for abuses in Nigeria, Ecuador and Columbia, and for building refineries in
communities of color.
GOVERNMENT: ExxonMobil helped draft Bush’s “voluntary” emissions reporting system for Texas. It gave $1.2m to the 2000 Bush campaign and actively lobbies to block government action on climate change. The Bush
energy policy reads as if written by ExxonMobil: it pulled out of the Kyoto climate change treaty, plans to build a new power plant every week for the next 20 years and intends to drill next in the Arctic Refuge and on other public lands.
GLOBALIZATION: ExxonMobil openly advocates “free trade, ” including the Free Trade Area of the Americas. Free trade agreements have meant a growing gap between rich and poor, fewer
environmental and human rights controls and a global mechanism for pushing fossil fuels onto the developing world. This company is underwriting the Chad Cameroon pipeline project, which has been heavily criticized for its human rights and environmental damage.
Author:
News Service: PressurePoint
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