BY SEAN HEALY
Environmentalists around the globe are planning to make July 11 an "international day of action" against the oil giant ExxonMobil (known in Australia as Esso), which they dub "the worst of the Greenhouse Gangsters".
ExxonMobil has been chosen because it "continues to fund greenhouse sceptics, has spent millions on greenwash advertisements, was one of the top contributors to [US President George W.] Bush's election, has been active in lobbying the US government to reject the Kyoto Protocol, and invests virtually nothing in renewable energy", say organisers.
The groups participating in the international day of action say ExxonMobil should support the Kyoto Protocol, which would reduce carbon dioxide 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 its findings; and cease all new oil exploration and invest that money in renewable resources.
The day of action will take place in at least 15 countries and is being coordinated by Pressure Point, based in Seattle in the US, and Friends of the Earth (Australia). It will call for an international boycott of all US oil companies, and will seek to increase the heat on the oil giants in the lead-up to mid-July climate negotiations in Germany.
Organisers are encouraging activists and local communities to take actions of their own on July 11, to call for urgent measures to address climate change.
According to Multinational Monitor magazine, ExxonMobil is the eighth largest economy in the world.
Because of its sheer size, it has an inordinate say over climate change, human rights and the environment — and its record is an ugly one.
In the United States, ExxonMobil has been fined millions for Clean Air Act violations and a recent report on the Baytown refinery in Houston, Texas, has revealed persistent accidental releases and failure to report problems and emissions. Twelve years after the infamous Exxon Valdez oil spill on the Alaskan coast, contamination continues.
ExxonMobil chairperson Lee Raymond is on record advocating that Third World countries should lower environmental standards in order to promote economic growth. The company is underwriting the controversial Chad-Cameroon pipeline project, which has been heavily criticised for its human rights and environmental damage.
The company also wants Congress to allow drilling on the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge. Drilling would seriously impact the environment and is opposed by the indigenous Gwich'in people, who rely on the caribou herds that breed there.
ExxonMobil denies any responsibility for climate change, openly funds climate sceptics and other anti-environmental think tanks, has spent millions to discredit the Kyoto climate change protocol and has lobbied the US government to drop it.
The oil multinational helped draft Bush's "voluntary" emissions reporting system for Texas. It gave $1.2m to the 2000 Bush campaign and, as a result, the Bush energy policy reads as if written by ExxonMobil.
While some oil companies have taken tentative steps to invest in clean energy sources, ExxonMobil invests virtually nothing in renewable energy.
In the northern Indonesian province of Aceh, where the people are fighting for self-determination, human rights groups report that ExxonMobil has 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.
ExxonMobil openly advocates "free trade" policies, including the Free Trade Area of the Americas, which 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.
For more information about the international day of action, visit <http://www.foe.org.au> or <http://campaignexxonmobil.org/action/>.