Sept. 17, 1998

Mr. Oronto Douglas, environmental human rights lawyer and former attorney for Ken Saro Wiwa, the poet-activist executed by the military dictatorship in Nigeria in 1995, is touring the United States September 13-Oct. 11.

A foremost campaigner for environmental justice, Mr. Douglas has been harassed, detained, and tortured by the military dictatorship for his views and advocacy. He will speak about Shell Oil, Chevron, the regime in Nigeria, the environmental impact of fossil fuels on developing countries, the World Bank, and how it all relates to global warming.

He is giving talks in:

• Houston, TX
• Portland, OR
• Seattle, WA
• San Francisco, CA
• New York, NY
• Washington, DC

Mr. Oronto is also available for media interviews.

For more information, or to request an interview with Mr. Douglas, please call Daphne Wysham at: 202-234-9382, x208.
Or send an e-mail to: dwysham@seen.org

ITINERARY:

PORTLAND

Thursday, 9/17
6-7 p.m., Alan Graf, KBOO, "Balancing the Scales of Justice," live show,
call-ins

9/17, 7:30-9:00, Urban League
Talk, reception
10 N. Rusell St.
Portland
More information: Jerry Washington, 503-280-2600

Friday, 9/18
12 noon-1 p.m.
Lewis and Clark School of Law
10015 SW Terwilliger Ave.
Portland 97219
Speech in amphitheater
For more information, contact Lewis & Clark College Public Relations Office
(503) 768-7960 or http://www.lclark.edu/~public/CALENDAR/events/calendar.html

SEATTLE

9/22
7:00 - 9:00 p.m.
St. Mark's Cathedral
Bloedel Hall
1245 10th Ave E
Seattle
For more information call: Atmosphere Alliance 360-352-1763 or Earth Ministry, 206-632-2426

SAN FRANCISCO

9/23 12:30--Brownbag discussion sponsored by TRAC
Tides Center Conference Room
Thoreau Center for Sustainability
Bldg. 1014 (Lincoln and Torney Aves.)
The Presidio
San Francisco
More information, contact Tristi Tanaka, 415-561-6568.
For directions, call Tides directly, 415-561-6300.

9/23, 7:30pm
First Unitarian Universalist Church
1187 Franklin Street
San Francisco
More info, contact: 415-291-9233.

NEW YORK

9/29, 2-3 p.m.
Church Center for the UN
777 UN Plaza. (Beside the UNICEF building on 44th St.)
For more information, contact: 212-682-3633

LITTLE KNOWN FACTS:

• Some 90% of Nigeria's foreign revenue comes from oil exports. Americans are the largest consumers of Nigerian oil. Most of this oil comes from Shell.
• In 1991 alone, $12 billion in oil funds in Nigeria disappeared and have yet to be accounted for.
• Although Shell operates in 110 countries, 40% of its oil spills worldwide have occurred in the Niger Delta.
• After Ken Saro-Wiwa, an outspoken writer, environmentalist, and human rights activist, and 8 Ogoni leaders were hanged, two witnesses against them later admitted that Shell and the military bribed them to testify against Saro-Wiwa with promises of money and jobs at Shell.
• Environmental and human rights violations have increased in the Niger Delta since the death of Sani Abacha this year.
• Shell has imported weapons for the Nigerian military; Chevron hired Nigerian soldiers who killed two people in the Niger Delta.
• The U.S. government spends billions of dollars in taxpayer money each year on coal, oil, and gas projects in developing countries around the world, including Nigeria.
• Since the Climate Convention, designed to limit greenhouse emissions, was signed by a majority of the world's countries at the Rio Earth summit in 1992, the World Bank has funded oil, gas, and coal projects that will add carbon emissions to the Earth's atmosphere equivalent to more than one and a half times the total amount emitted by all the world's countries in 1995.
• 9 out of 10 World Bank fossil fuel projects benefit transnational corporations based in the wealthy G-8 countries, many of whom are members of a U.S. based lobbying group, the Global Climate Coalition, that actively opposes any action on climate change.

Tour Sponsored By:

Amnesty International
The Atmosphere Alliance
Coalition for a Livable Future
Earth Ministry
Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon--Interfaith Network for Earth Concerns
Friends of the Earth
Institute for Policy Studies
Oregon Environmental Council
Rainforest Action Network
Transnational Resource & Action Center
The Urban League of Portland
United Methodist Church, Office of Environmental Justice, Women's Division
Washington Association of Churches

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