Yesterday afternoon I was at Twigworth 'Nature in Art' just north of Gloucester for a meeting - more of that in another blog - but arriving early I was able to view the first day of theWildlife Photographer of the Year - I love this exhibition and try to catch it every year - there are some incredibly stunning images.Photo: this years exhibition at Twigworth
The competition also has a valuable role to play in promoting wildlife protection to the public. It is therefore very sad indeed that this role has been undermined by the Natural History Museum's choice of sponsor - one of the UK's most environmentally destructive companies - Shell.
Last year I publicised this issue on the Green party website and Friends of the Earth had a campaign running to highlight the issue. They do again this year. They write:
"Sadly, it's cheaper and easier for Shell to buy itself a green image through sponsorship of prestigious events, than it is for it to properly address its devastating impacts around the world."Friends of the Earth have written to all the Directors of the Natural History Museum outlining Shell's impact on wildlife and asking the Museum not to continue with Shell's sponsorship. Dr Michael Dixon, Director of the Natural History Museum refused even to meet Friends of the Earth. Astonishing! I would urge all to email the Musuem - can be done easily from FoE website here.
A by no means complete list of Shell's 'Corporate Crimes' can be found here.
4 comments:
Shell has a longer history of caring for the countryside than you have, you fascist.
More than 400 million people from the world's poorest communities could lose their lives as a result of climate change - yet Shell has been investing most of its cash into making things worse by producing more oil.
Craig Bennett, head of Friends of the Earth's corporate accountability campaign, said: "You will see a lot of advertising from these companies highlighting their green credentials but this is all about trying to boost the morale of their staff and ultimately it's all superficial."
Meanwhile WWF, the conservation group, is equally angry about what it sees as disingenuous methods used by Shell to counter concerns about potential disruption of whale breeding near the Sakhalin project. "It certainly infuriates us when Shell sets up a panel of experts and then ignores the panel's recommendations. A lot of this [corporate social responsibility] is just box-ticking. It's business as usual really,"
Record annual profits to be announced by Shell this week should be used towards paying off a bill estimated at more than $20bn for the damage caused by its oil activities to local communities and the wider environment, according to an alliance of human rights and green groups including Friends of the Earth (FoE). See Guardian report:
http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2002276,00.html
Have just been sent this: I happened to come across this photo on flickr, which is quite appropriate http://flickr.com/photos/nygus/380822511/
Alot of the other photos are also great.
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