Big oil RIP?

A note from the editor

Jess Worth

Stopping Big Oil in its tracks

Did you go on one of the climate marches in September? As a confirmed march-sceptic, I approached the London event with caution. I’ve long seen marches as one of the least impactful tools in the activist’s toolbox: they are so easily dismissed and ignored, by politicians, the media and non-marchers alike. But this one felt different.

I was in the midst of pulling together this issue, exploring how we bring about the end of the oil age. So it was thrilling to watch from across the pond as the record-breaking 400,000-strong New York march was led through the streets of Manhattan by people at the forefront of the struggle to keep the oil in the ground. First Nations from the tar sands ‘sacrifice zone’ in Canada marched with representatives of Native communities fighting pipelines and Indigenous Amazon villagers threatened by drilling. Young people of colour living next to health-destroying oil refineries marched with Gulf Coast residents devastated by Hurricane Katrina and the BP Deepwater Horizon spill.

The march gave us a glimpse of the movement that could – indeed, must – end the oil age. It’s diverse, enormous, multi-pronged, and led by those who, forced to live daily with the devastation caused by fossil fuels, are genuinely starting to stop Big Oil in its tracks.

Elsewhere in the magazine, the significance of the People’s Climate March is explored in more depth by Mark Engler, and Naomi Klein talks about her brilliant new book on how climate change gives us a shot at a more equal, democratic world.

In the face of multiple ecological crises, hope seems to be rising again. I encourage you to get involved.

Jess Worth for the New Internationalist co-operative.
www.newint.org

The big story

Leave the oil in the soil! Indigenous representatives from communities resisting oil extraction all over the world marched together at the front of the recent 400,000-strong New York climate march. Photo: Jenna Pope / Bold Nebraska

Leave the oil in the soil! Indigenous representatives from communities resisting oil extraction all over the world marched together at the front of the recent 400,000-strong New York climate march.

Photo: Jenna Pope / Bold Nebraska

Ending the oil age

Change is coming. Jess Worth examines whether growing pressure for divestment and disruption can knock Big Oil off its perch.

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Features

Photo: Cobbing / Greenpeace

Action to end the oil age

Fossil free divestment, end oil sponsorship, shut down the tar sands, protect the Arctic and Action Saro-Wiwa.

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Illustration: Steven Munday

A year of oil resistance

Around the world, local communities have been hitting the oil monster where it hurts.

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Throwing good money after bad: Flood Wall Street protesters bring a giant ‘carbon bubble’ to investors’ doorsteps to make their point.Photo: Alex Pines

Big Oil's looming bubble

Investors are starting to wonder whether oil’s such a good bet, reveals Jeremy Leggett.

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‘The discovery that every part of Ogoni territory – water, land and air – is contaminated is terrifying.’Photo: George Osodi / Panos

The spirit of Saro-Wiwa rises

Twenty years after the execution of their leader, the Ogoni people are rebelling once more. Patrick Naagbanton reports from the frontline.

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‘Thou noxious, treach’rous, belching oily rogue!’ I give BP a good telling off shortly after invading the Roundhouse Theatre’s stage. We later discovered the audience was full of BP employees on a staff outing.Photo: David Hoffman

My spy

Why did an oil company go to such lengths to monitor Jess Worth’s activism? Perhaps we are more powerful than we think.

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Naomi Klein.Photo: Suzanne DeChillo/The New York Times/Redux

Rocking the boat

Graeme Green talks to author and activist Naomi Klein about why global warming is a political issue.

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Unseen: the psychological impact of Israel’s attacks on Gaza will have a profound long-term effect on Palestinians.Photo: Belal Khaled/AA/TT/TT News Agency/Press Association Images

A deeper pain

The daily reality of life in Gaza creates unseen psychological scars, writes psychiatrist Samah Jabr.

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Opinion

Photo: Jon Cartwright

So much for free speech...

It's a complicated issue, admits Kate Smurthwaite.

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YES: Nayna Patel is the medical director at Akanksha IVF Clinic, Anand, Gujarat, India. More than 825 surrogate babies have been born at her clinic. Her work has been featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show and on the BBC. She runs the Anand Surrogate Trust for the benefit of the surrogates and their families.

Is surrogacy a legitimate way out of poverty?

Doctors Nayna Patel and Mohan Rao go head to head.

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Photo: Tommy Japan under a CC Licence

Citizen activism marches on

Mark Engler draws lessons from marches past and present.

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Agenda

A member of the social club hides her face for the camera – security and privacy remain a concern for Chechen youngsters.No credit (for security reasons)

A place to feel free

A group of young Chechens is battling to save their social club, reports Alice Lagnado.

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Chile's agitating students

Chile's agitating students

Eilis O'Neill on the struggle for free, quality, universal education.

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Women on board in India

A new initiative is providing safe transport for women in India, reports Hema Vijay.

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Norwegian fjords at risk

Norwegian fjords at risk

Government plans could turn the fjords into a dumping ground for mining waste, reveals Tina Andersen.

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Frank BainimaramaPhoto by Richard Drew/AP Photo

Introducing Frank Bainimarama

Fuji's president is sitting pretty - but is his election victory good for the country? wonders Richard Swift.

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A skull is measured and marked by anthropologist Selket Callejas.Photo: James Rodriguez

Where are the disappeared?

DNA breakthrough gives hope to Guatemalans still searching for the graves of their loved ones.

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Poverty breeds disease

Poverty breeds disease

There are 17 official neglected tropical diseases, so why aren't we doing more to help? asks Cristiana Moisescu.

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Prying plumbers

Prying plumbers

Ylenia Gostoli on the British government's latest ploy to spot those 'at risk of radicalization'.

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Killing without counting

Killing without counting

Accountability for casualty numbers could be a thing of the past thanks to 'remote control' military tactics.

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Regulars

Letters

Letters

Praise, blame and all points in between? Your feedback published in the November 2014 magazine.

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Illustration: Sarah John

Letter from Bangui: The truth, and nothing but

It’s hard to trust official sources of information in CAR, discovers Ruby Diamonde.

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Clockwise from top left. A boy releases his racing pigeons from the high walls above the Kurdish city of Diyarbakir; a young shepherd tending his flock near the Iraqi border; a shop on the outskirts of Istanbul selling clothes bearing the logo of ISIS/Islamic State; a passionate moment during the filming of a popular TV drama, with the Bosphorus Bridge illuminated in the background; a demonstrator poses in front of a burning barricade built to stop police reaching Taksim Square during the anti-government demonstrations in Istanbul in 2013.Photos by Guy Martin / Panos Pictures

Country profile: Turkey

Samantha North assesses a country with a volatile mix of cultural, religious and political influences.

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Open Window: Migration

Open Window: Migration

Trayko Popov from Bulgaria with ‘Migration’.

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Photo: Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP Photo

The lowdown on Viktor Orban

The Hungarian Prime Minister is put under the spotlight.

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Photo: Wolter Peeters

Making waves: Barat Ali Batoor

The Afghan photo-journalist is using his own experience of asylum to help others. He speaks to Michelle Slater.

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Photo: Olu Akintorin

And finally... Dayo Olopade

'Africa isn't all refugee camps and windswept savannahs,' says the Nigerian-American journalist and author.

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Film, Book & Music Reviews

Music reviews

Music reviews

Animism by Tanya Tagaq; Spirit of Malombo by Julian Bahula.

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Film reviews

Film reviews

The Overnighters, directed by Jesse Moss; The Imitation Game, directed by Morten Tyldum.

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Book reviews

Book reviews

By Night the Mountain Burns, by Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel; Inequality and the 1% by Danny Dorling; Assata by Assata Shakur; and This Changes everything: Capitalism vs the Climate by Naomi Klein.

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Also out there...

Also out there...

Other notable music, film & books.

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