Satellite Image of Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill

These satellite images are from NASA’s Terra satellite. More are available here.


The environmental disaster unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico is predicted to become worse than the Exxon Valdez spill of 1989. But according to Amnesty International, the same amount of oil is spilt every year in the Niger Delta – which is "one of the ten most important wetland and coastal marine ecosystems in the world".

This has a direct impact on people's homes, their water supply and food sources and the clean up is completely inadequate. The oil company with the most responsible also promotes its strong ethical business principles – Royal Dutch Shell.

From the Shell website:

Contributing to sustainable development is integral to the way we do business and influences our choice of products and portfolio. As we work to help meet the world’s growing energy needs, we aim to bring benefits to local communities and reduce the impact of our operations.

Amnesty is targeting Shell's AGM next Tuesday - for more information, visit their website.

UPDATE- 18 May

The Press Gazette reports that the Financial Times has refused to run Amnesty's advert, although it has appeared in London's freesheets, the Metro and the Evening Standard. A representative for the FT is quoted as saying:

"Editorially the FT was more than willing to run the advertisement for Amnesty. Unfortunately, whilst Amnesty gave us written assurances that they would take full responsibility for the comments and opinions stated in the advertisement, it became apparent that Amnesty's lawyers had not had a proper opportunity to advise Amnesty on those opinions. As a result, from a legal perspective we were unable to rely on Amnesty's assurances."

No, I have no idea what that means either. But I'm sure that concerns about the sensibilities of the FT's corporate customers had nothing to do with the decision.