INDEPENDENT NEWS

Week Of Protest Against Exxon

Published: Tue 14 May 2002 07:14 AM
AMSTERDAM MAY 13TH 2002: - As a week of protest against giant oil corporation Exxon gets underway, Greenpeace in the USA today will launch a report detailing the company's history of deliberate efforts to sabotage international action on climate change.
Exxon is the world's biggest oil corporation and is marketed as Mobil, Exxon-Mobil and Esso in different parts of the world. At the beginning of May, Greenpeace called for an international week of action against Exxon to protest against its continued interference in both international and US climate policy. Activists from around the globe have indicated their intention to send Exxon a message this week that the company is not going to get away with its outrageous behaviour.
"This week, Exxon can expect a variety of protests from at least three continents, including its homebase, North America," said Greenpeace climate campaigner Stephanie Tunmore.
"We are expecting a coalition of different social, environmental and human rights groups, as well as concerned individuals to join Greenpeace in this week of protest. While we aren't going to spoil the surprise for Exxon by saying what form these protests might take, the company won't miss the message - stop interfering in climate politics."
"Exxon's stance on global warming can be summed up in three words: deny, deceive and delay," said Tunmore. "Its propaganda machine has been hard at work for more than a decade spewing out junk science, fabricating doubts, and buying support of politicians from the local level all the way to the White House."
The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a group made up of thousands of the world's leading scientists and scientific bodies, has found that global warming is man-made, it will have severe environmental and health impacts if left unchecked, and it is getting worse. Over the next century, a warming of just a few degrees will lead to sea level rise, chaotic weather patterns, agricultural loss and the spread of diseases.
By rejecting the Kyoto Protocol a year ago and proffering an alternative plan on global warming that echoes the views of Exxon, the White House is recycling a version of the failed voluntary plan offered by the first President Bush more than a decade ago. The Greenpeace report to be launched in the USA today details the close connections between President Bush and Exxon that date back to the President's days in Texas.
"ExxonMobil's finger prints are all over the Bush Administration's stance on global warming," said Tunmore. "Bush global warming policy smells a lot like Exxon."
ENDS
Greenpeace
Greenpeace exists because this fragile earth deserves a voice.
Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning organisation that acts to change attitudes and behaviour, to protect and conserve the environment and to promote peace.

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