Shell 2006 Profits: US$2.9 Million Dollars PER HOUR! – Offers Barbados Farmers Less Than One Hour’s Profits For A Decade Of Pollution And A Deadly Future

Shell Made US$25.36 BILLION Dollars Profit In 2006

Royal Dutch Shell declared a profit of US$25.36 Billion Dollars for 2006 – and that, my friends, works out to a profit of about 2.9 million US Dollars PER HOUR – every hour – throughout 2006. Of course, 2005 wasn’t a bad year for Shell profits either – at about 2.8 million US Dollars per hour. (Source: The Independent link here)

A good portion of Shell’s 2006 US$25.36 Billion dollars profit was made possible by the fact that Shell has been polluting Barbados and other countries for decades, but does not clean up the mess or compensate its victims. It prefers to ignore or buy off governments – which it finds is much cheaper than preventing pollution or cleaning it up.

And when the opposition gets really vocal, Shell has friendly governments like Nigeria who will murder and hang innocent people to keep those Shell profits high. (Ken Saro Wiwa hanging – link here, here and here)

Shell Thumbs Nose At Barbados For A Decade Of Soil & Water Pollution

Since the mid 90’s, Shell’s aviation fuel pipeline along the south coast has broken many times in many places. How much aviation fuel was pumped into the water table? Today, the Barbados Advocate is saying 300,000 gallons, but as we pointed out in our piece Barbados Environment Ministry Has No Shell Oil Pipeline Leakage Records! …

Barbados Free Press has received information that the Barbados Ministry of the Environment does not have in it’s possession the Shell Oil daily pipeline records to show how much jet-fuel has been lost from the pipeline since leaks were first reported in 1995.

We are also informed that there is no Barbados environmental law that requires Shell Oil to keep daily pipeline leakage records, or to surrender these records for government audit.

But whatever the real amount of pollution is, Shell has been dodging, delaying, refusing, litigating, hiding and otherwise avoiding responsibility for dumping hundreds of thousands of gallons of toxic chemicals into our precious soil and water.

Shell Offers Barbados Families Less Than One Hour’s Profit – Crumbs To Desperate Mothers

Even five minutes on the internet is enough to show anyone that this “pollute, profit and move on” behaviour is standard operating procedure for Shell.

Where Shell can’t buy people or governments, or destroy local opponents, it litigates them to death…. Never paying, never cleaning up… or maybe paying a little and cleaning a little. (Just sign this release, folks! Shell will look after everthing!)

Shell’s disgusting behaviour is made all that much easier in countries that lack even basic environmental laws – laws that at least give citizens and their governments a chance to hold companies accountable. These laws don’t work all the time, but they can work – and the fear of such laws causes even criminally irresponsible companies like Shell to behave differently in say, California, than in our own Barbados.

In the past, why didn’t Shell care about pollution in Barbados?

Why doesn’t it care about cleaning it up now?

Why is Shell offering 2 million dollars total compensation to Barbados families and no cleanup?

Elementary, My Dear Watson…

Barbados Has No Laws To Make Shell Clean Up Or Pay For The Mess

Barbados has no environmental laws that regulate any company’s actions or liabilities and duties in the handling or mishandling of toxic chemicals – including the aviation fuel negligently pumped into the ground by Shell. (What else would you call the loss of 300,000 gallons but negligent?)

Because we have no laws, our citizens are still begging Shell to fund a $500,000 “independent” environmental study to document the extent of the contamination.

Because our Barbados government has not enacted suitable environmental laws in twelve years of power, Shell is still thumbing its nose at Barbados.

The aviation fuel that Shell spilled contains all manner of nastiness – associated with miscarriages, birth defects, low sperm counts, damaged sperm, infertility, tumors, leukemia and neurological damage. Don’t believe us – do a little Google research on your own. Start with something simple like “jp-8 jet fuel miscarriage” or “jet fuel drinking water fertility” or “aviation fuel” + “cancer clusters” or “groundwater contamination by jet fuel” + “health problems” and see what comes up.

Jet Fuel Birth Defects, Miscarriages & Leukemia – Shell Says “Thanks!” To Barbados Environment Minister and The Government For Not Mentioning Existing Studies, and For Doing No New Studies

We wonder what the autopsy results were for the dying twins delivered by poor Sophia Kinch in December – and if there were any autopsies performed at all by the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. (BFP story about Sophia Kinch link here)

In over a decade since it was discovered what Shell had done and not done, the Government of Barbados performed no comprehensive studies to look at the health of those nearest the spills. No studies to look at incidence of disease or fetal abnormalities. No fertility studies.

Neither the Government of Barbados nor Shell even did a basic study to define the areas of contamination and the downslope water quality.

Lies Of Omission: Barbados Advocate Covers Up For Corrupt, Incompetent Barbados Government

In an article posted on the web today, February 5, 2007, the Barbados Advocate continues to politely not mention the role that the Government of Barbados has played in the Shell pollution debacle. Today’s fluff piece Powerful Ally Signs On To Help Farmers In Shell Fight focuses upon a group that is taking out newspaper advertisements exposing Shell’s pollution.

That’s it – with a little background about the spills and the farmers’ quest for compensation.

Not one word about how it is that we have no environmental laws.

Not one word about what government’s failure to regulate Shell’s handling of toxic jet fuel. Not one word about the government’s “Let Shell Do Anything It Wants” policy. No investigative reporting, no mention of the studies into the long-term health effects of jet fuel in the soil and water supply.

And not one word about how the Advocate recently ran an advertising campaign for Shell gasoline. (See BFP’s Shell News Is Big News At Barbados Advocate Newspaper)

Barbados Advocate Purges The Public Record Of The Shell JetFuel Spill Story

Not so long ago – June14, 2006 – the Barbados Advocate published an article that quoted a Shell Oil mouthpiece …

Saying his organisation was committed to the protection of the environment, he dismissed reports that the remaining oil was a threat to the coastlines. He continued, “We have carried out investigations in the Gibbons area, and contrary to the recent report carried in the Press, results have indicated that the remaining oil is not an imminent threat to the coastal zone.”

On June 14, 2006, the Barbados Free Press published Burst Shell Oil Pipeline – Oil Heading For Barbados Coast and referred to that Barbados Advocate article at this online link.

The Barbados Advocate article is gone now. It was removed from the public record by a newspaper that long ago traded its duty to Barbados for filthy money.

Here are a couple of links about Shell’s behaviour that might interest our readers…

About Shell Petroleum (formerly Royal Dutch Shell)

The Inside Story Of Shell’s Sakhalin II Debacle