From the Guardian
Gulf oil spill: A hole in the world

The Deepwater Horizon disaster is not just an industrial accident – it is a violent wound inflicted on the Earth itself. In this special report from the Gulf coast, a leading author and activist shows how it lays bare the hubris at the heart of capitalism.

Fault Lines - In Deep Water: A Way of Life in Peril

In the two months since the Deepwater Horizon explosion, millions of litres of oil have gushed out of BP’s well into the water each day, slowly encroaching on the coastline. Fault Lines’ Avi Lewis travels to the drill zone, and learns about the erosion in the wetlands from industry canals and pipelines, the health problems blamed on contaminated air and water from petrochemical refineries.

In the vast, pristine forests of Western Canada, the ‘war for water’ has already begun…

Thanks to Alberta’s Athabasca oil sands, Canada is now the biggest oil supplier to the United States. A controversial billion-dollar industry is heavily invested in extracting crude from the tarry sands through a process so toxic it has become an international cause for concern. Four barrels of glacier-fed spring water are used to process each barrel of oil, then are dumped, laden with carcinogens, into leaky tailings ponds so huge they can be seen from space. Downstream, the people of Fort Chipewyan are already paying the price for what will be one of the largest industrial projects in history. When a local doctor raises the alarm about clusters of rare cancers, evidence mounts for industry and government cover-ups. In a time when wars are fought over oil and a crisis looms over access to clean fresh water, which resource is more precious? And what price are we willing to pay? — Gisèle Gordon.
http://h2oildoc.com/home/

Three years in the making, this cinéma-vérité feature from acclaimed filmmaker Joe Berlinger is the epic story of one of the largest and most controversial legal cases on the planet. An inside look at the infamous $27 billion Amazon Chernobyl case, CRUDE is a real-life high stakes legal drama set against a backdrop of the environmental movement, global politics, celebrity activism, human rights advocacy, the media, multinational corporate power, and rapidly-disappearing indigenous cultures. Presenting a complex situation from multiple viewpoints, the film subverts the conventions of advocacy filmmaking as it examines a complicated situation from all angles while bringing an important story of environmental peril and human suffering into focus.

WARNING: NAUGHTY LANGUAGE

Mrs. Betty Bowers, America’s Best Christian, spoofs the misleading television propaganda ads by Big Oil, which attempt to make America feel comfy and cozy about being financially raped. Shill, baby, shill!
MUSIC: (c) Joni Mitchell from the CD “Shine”

Visit Betty at:

www.bettybowers.com

“Hear rare footage of Ken Saro-Wiwa’s last televised interview, juxtaposed with contemporary footage from Channel 4’s Unreported World from the Niger Delta and the creation of a memorial to Saro-Wiwa in London.
Also featuring a photomontage of the remember saro-wiwa project and music by Nigerian-European artist and spectacular singer, Nneka.
Learn more & get active at http://www.remembersarowiwa.com.“

For the past 13 days the Nigerian military has been mounting an offensive in the swampy creeks of the Niger Delta, pursuing oil militants who kidnapped 15 sailors, 18 soldiers and hijacked a petrol tanker belonging to the national oil company.

They say the continuing military action is an attempt to rescue their men or confirm if they are dead.

The militants started it, they say, and the military is just reacting, according to commander Gen Sarkin Yakin Bello, whose name means “lord of fighting” in the northern Hausa language.

More from BBC News

By Gilbert da Costa
Abuja

Some of Niger Delta’s prominent groups and ethnic leaders have called for urgent talks with the government to end the military’s ongoing operations in the region. Rights groups say the army’s indiscriminate bombing of villages in the oil-producing Niger Delta has created a humanitarian crisis.

The Nigerian military says troops will continue their search of the creeks of the Niger Delta to flush out militants whose criminal activities have hurt the country’s oil production.

An army spokesman in the delta, Colonel Rabe Abubakar, says the military will continue securing the region and dismissed any talk of a so-called cease-fire.

“I am not aware of any cease-fire,” he said. “We are a military people. We are not at war. It is only when you are at war that you begin to ask for cease-fire. You are just conducting an operation which will assist you in recovery or rescuing some of the foreign nationals who were taken hostage by the militants. The operation is only targeting the militants, not any other person - the militants and their hideouts.”
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A Nigerian navy patrol has intercepted an attempted attack on an offshore oil facility in the Niger Delta. It is the latest in an ongoing battle which is said to have nearly halved the country’s vital oil production. On Monday, rebel fighters successfully put a major oil storage facility out of action. But in addition to the economic cost, Amnesty International says hundreds of civilians are being killed in the violence. Al Jazeera’s Tarek Bazley reports.

The Anglo-Dutch petrochemicals giant will be accused of asking Nigeria’s military dictatorship to silence Mr Saro-Wiwa and other activists campaigning against ecological damage allegedly brought about by oil extraction.

Mr Saro-Wiwa and eight other campaigners were executed by hanging in November 1995 after being found guilty of what were widely seen as trumped up murder charges.

If found liable, Shell would be forced to pay damages that amount to hundreds of millions of dollars.

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