May, 13 2009, 02:10pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
U.S.: Elizabeth Bast, Friends of the Earth U.S., +1-202-641-7203, ebast@foe.org
U.S.: Steve Kretzmann, Oil Change International, +1-202-497-1033, steve@priceofoil.org
U.K.: Ben Amunwa, PLATFORM/Remember Saro-Wiwa, +44-207-357-0055, +44-7891-454-714, ben@remembersarowiwa.com
ShellGuilty TV Ads Launched to Hold Shell Accountable for Gas Flaring in Advance of Wiwa v Shell Trial
Ads demand Shell finally end gas flaring that Ken Saro-Wiwa died trying to stop; they will begin running in New York City this week
NEW YORK
The ShellGuilty campaign announced today it will begin running TV
ads in New York City this week to hold Shell accountable for its
continued toxic gas flaring in Nigeria - one of the abuses that Ken
Saro-Wiwa and eight other nonviolent Nigerian activists died trying to
stop.
Shell will be put on trial in federal court in New York beginning
May 26, in a case in which it is charged with complicity in the
executions of Saro-Wiwa and the other activists, as well as other human
rights abuses.
The ads that will begin airing this week demand an end to gas
flaring, which harms Nigerians and exacerbates the climate crisis. The
ads can be viewed at https://www.shellguilty.com/psa/.
The campaign's network has sent over 9,000 letters to Shell CEO, Jeroen
van der Veer demanding an end to Shell's practice of gas flaring in
Nigeria.
For more information about the ShellGuilty campaign visit www.ShellGuilty.com. The April 27 news release announcing the formation of the ShellGuilty campaign can be found here.
Notes:
* Ken Saro-Wiwa was a writer and leading activist demanding
rights for Nigeria's Ogoni people, including an end to Shell's gas
flaring in Ogoni regions. As a result of his activism, Saro-Wiwa was
detained, imprisoned and tortured throughout the early 1990s. On
November 10, 1995, Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni activists were
executed by the Nigerian government for their campaigning. Substantial
evidence indicates Shell collaborated with the Nigerian government in a
campaign of brutal crackdowns that culminated in the execution of
Saro-Wiwa and his colleagues. Shell will be forced to face this
evidence in U.S. federal district court in New York City in a trial
that begins May 26. On April 23, Judge Kimba Wood rejected Shell's
last-ditch attempt to avoid trial, rejecting the company's claim that
the court did not have jurisdiction to consider the case.
* Gas flares are open-air fires that burn the natural gas
that is released when oil is extracted from the ground. Industry
sources and World Bank research estimates vary, but most indicate that
gas flaring in the Niger Delta sends 53 to 60 million tons of carbon
dioxide (a global warming pollutant) into the atmosphere each year.
This is equivalent to the annual emissions of nine to ten million cars
in the U.S. Gas flares are toxic and harmful to human health, which is
why they are strictly regulated in countries such as the U.S. or U.K.
But because such flaring is cheap when environmental and human costs
are not taken into consideration, Shell and other oil companies have
burned gas flares continuously for decades in countries like Nigeria.
For more information about the campaign, Ken Saro-Wiwa, and gas flaring, visit www.ShellGuilty.com.
Friends of the Earth fights for a more healthy and just world. Together we speak truth to power and expose those who endanger the health of people and the planet for corporate profit. We organize to build long-term political power and campaign to change the rules of our economic and political systems that create injustice and destroy nature.
(202) 783-7400LATEST NEWS
Alan Greenspan, Longtime Fed Chair and Ayn Rand Disciple, Meets Ultimate ‘Invisible Hand’
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Jun 22, 2026
Alan Greenspan, whose policies during nearly 20 years as US Federal Reserve chair fueled soaring economic inequality and helped create the conditions for multiple economic crashes, died Monday at age 100 after a long battle with Parkinson's disease.
While many corporate media outlets published hagiographic obituaries lionizing the "Maestro" who presided over nearly two decades of low inflation, rising stock prices, and American economic confidence, critics focused on Greenspan's role in promoting dangerous deregulation and "easy money" policies that inflated financial bubbles, with sometimes disastrous results.
Robert Reich—who served as US labor secretary under President Bill Clinton during all of Greenspan's tenure—called him "in many ways the most powerful person in America" during that era.
"If any single person was responsible for the financial crisis of 2008, it was Greenspan."
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"I don’t want to speak ill of anyone who has passed. Greenspan was an extremely charming, intelligent, and thoughtful man," Reich added. "But the truth must be told: If any single person was responsible for the financial crisis of 2008, it was Greenspan. That crisis—the worst collapse since 1929, which led to the worst recession in decades, in which millions of Americans lost their jobs, savings, and even their homes—resulted from the deregulation of Wall Street that Greenspan advocated."
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Musk, who earlier this month became the world's first trillionaire, wrote in response to Khanna's interview that it was "time to sue this liar."
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.@elonmusk let's debate. You game?
I am for free speech, not lawfare. pic.twitter.com/gThLggxiOW
— Ro Khanna (@RoKhanna) June 22, 2026
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[image or embed]
— Brian Finucane (@bcfinucane.bsky.social) June 21, 2026 at 11:28 PM
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