THE STORY OF STUFF
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98. “Tantalum,” Encyclopaedia Britannica (britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/582754/tantalum). The entry states: “Tantalum was discovered (1802) by the Swedish chemist Anders Gustaf Ekeberg and named after the mythological character Tantalus because of the tantalizing problem of dissolving the oxide in acids.”
99. “Congo’s Tragedy: The war the world forgot,” The Independent [UK], May 5, 2006 (independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/congos-tragedy-the-war-the-world-forgot-476929.html).
100. Ibid.
101. Ibid.
102. Ibid.
103. Faced with a Gun, What Can you Do? War and the Militarisation of Mining in Eastern Congo, Global Witness, July 2009. Tables with statistics on the mineral exports from 2007 and the first half of 2008 can be found on p. 90 (globalwitness.org/media_library_detail.php/786
/en/global_witness_report_
faced_with_a_gun_what_can_yo).
104. “Congo’s Tragedy: The war the world forgot.”
105. Jack Ewing, “Blood on Your Phone? Unlikely It’s ‘Conflict Coltan,’” Der Speigel Online International, November 18, 2008 (spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,591097,00.html).
106. Larry Greenemeier, “Trashed Tech: Where Do Old Cell Phones, TVs and PCs Go to Die?” Scientific American, November 29, 2007 (scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=trash-tech-pc-tv-waste).
107. American Chemical Society, Chemistry in the Community, 5th ed. (New York: W. H. Freeman, 2006), p. 176.
108. Ibid.
109. “The Next 10 Years are Critical—The World Energy Outlook Makes the Case for Stepping up Co-operation with China and India to Address Global Energy Challenges,” press release from the International Energy Agency, November 7, 2007 (iea.org/press/pressdetail.asp?PRESS_REL_ID=239).
110. Steve Connor, “Warning: Oil supplies are running out fast,” The Independent [UK], August 3, 2009 (independent.co.uk/news/science/warning-oil-supplies-are-running-out-fast%C2%AD1766585.html).
111. Ibid.
112. Ibid.
113. Lou Dematteis and Kayna Szymczak, Crude Reflections: Oil, Ruin, and Resistance in the Amazon Rainforest (San Francisco: City Lights Publishers, 2008), pp. 6–18.
114. “Carbon plan in Ecuador would leave jungle oil reserves untapped,” Yale Environment 360, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies (e360.yale.edu/content/digest.msp?id=1897).
115. Haroon Siddique, “Pay-to-protect plan for Ecuador’s rainforest on the brink,” The Guardian [UK], October 9, 2008 (guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/oct/09/
endangeredhabitats.endangeredspecies).
116. Ibid.
117. Jess Smee, “Oil or Trees? Germany Takes Lead in Saving Ecuador’s Rainforest,” Sustainable Development Media Think Tank, June 24, 2009 (sustainabilitank.info/2009/06/24/will-germany-go-for-the-oil-of-ecuador-or-for-the-trees-as-credits-for-its-own-pollution-who-are-the-future-good-samaritans/).
118. “The Ogoni Bill of Rights,” Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, October 1990 (mosop.org/ogoni_bill_of_rights.html).
119. Andrew Walker, “Fresh start for Nigerian oil activists?” BBC News, August 11, 2008 (news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7509220.stm).
120. “Shell in Nigeria: What Are the Issues?” Essential Action (essentialaction.org/shell/issues.html).
121. Andy Rowell, “Secret papers ‘show how Shell targeted Nigeria oil protests,’” The Independent [UK], June 14, 2009 (independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/secret-papers-show-how-shell-targeted-nigeria-oil-protests-1704812.html).
122. “Ken Saro-Wiwa’s closing statement to the Nigerian military-appointed special tribunal,” Southern Africa Report, vol. 11, no. 2, January 1996 (africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=3906). The following is the full text of Ken’s final statement:
We all stand before history. I am a man of peace, of ideas. Appalled by the denigrating poverty of my people who live on a richly endowed land, distressed by their political marginalization and economic strangulation, angered by the devastation of their land, their ultimate heritage, anxious to preserve their right to life and to a decent living, and determined to usher to this country as a whole a fair and just democratic system which protects everyone and every ethnic group and gives us all a valid claim to human civilization, I have devoted my intellectual and material resources, my very life, to a cause in which I have total belief and from which I cannot be blackmailed or intimidated. I have no doubt at all about the ultimate success of my cause, no matter the trials and tribulations which I and those who believe with me may encounter on our journey. Nor imprisonment nor death can stop our ultimate victory.
I repeat that we all stand before history. I and my colleagues are not the only ones on trial.
Shell is here on trial and it is as well that it is represented by counsel said to be holding a watching brief. The Company has, indeed, ducked this particular trial, but its day will surely come and the lessons learnt here may prove useful to it for there is no doubt in my mind that the ecological war that the Company has waged in the Delta will be called to question sooner than later and the crimes of that war be duly punished. The crime of the Company’s dirty wars against the Ogoni people will also be punished.
On trial also is the Nigerian nation, its present rulers and those who assist them. Any nation which can do to the weak and disadvantaged what the Nigerian nation has done to the Ogoni, loses a claim to independence and to freedom from outside influence. I am not one of those who shy away from protesting injustice and oppression, arguing that they are expected in a military regime. The military do not act alone. They are supported by a gaggle of politicians, lawyers, judges, academics and businessmen, all of them hiding under the claim that they are only doing their duty, men and women too afraid to wash their pants of urine. We all stand on trial, my lord, for by our actions we have denigrated our Country and jeopardized the future of our children. As we subscribe to the sub-normal and accept double standards, as we lie and cheat openly, as we protect injustice and oppression, we empty our classrooms, denigrate our hospitals, fill our stomachs with hunger and elect to make ourselves the slaves of those who ascribe to higher standards, pursue the truth, and honour justice, freedom, and hard work. I predict that the scene here will be played and replayed by generations yet unborn. Some have already cast themselves in the role of villains, some are tragic victims, some still have a chance to redeem themselves. The choice is for each individual.
I predict that the denouement of the riddle of the Niger delta will soon come. The agenda is being set at this trial. Whether the peaceful ways I have favoured will prevail depends on what the oppressor decides, what signals it sends out to the waiting public. In my innocence of the false charges I face Here, in my utter conviction, I call upon the Ogoni people, the peoples of the Niger delta, and the oppressed ethnic minorities of Nigeria to stand up now and fight fearlessly and peacefully for their rights. History is on their side. God is on their side. For the Holy Quran says in Sura 42, verse 41: “All those that fight when oppressed incur no guilt, but Allah shall punish the oppressor.” Come the day.
123. Stephen Kretzmann, “Shell’s Settlement Doesn’t Hide Unsettling Reality in Nigeria,” The Huffington Post, June 10, 2009 (huffingtonpost.com/stephen-kretzmann/shells-settlement-doesnt_b_213352.html).
124. “The Case Against Shell,” Center for Constitutional Rights and EarthRights International (wiwavshell.org/the-case-against-shell/).
125. Jad Mouawad, “Shell to Pay $15.5 Million to Settle Nigerian Case,” The New York Times, June 8, 2009 (nytimes.com/2009/06/09/business/
global/09shell.html?_r=1&ref=global).
126. Shai Oster, “Shell to Start Talks with Nigeria,” The Wall Street Journal, May 31, 2005, page A7.
127. “The Ogoni Issue,” Shell Oil (shell.com/home/content/nigeria/about_shell/
issues/ogoni/ogoni.html).
128. Oil for Nothing: Multinational Corporations, Environmental Destruction, Death and Impunity in the Niger Delta, a U.S. nongovernmental delegation trip report, September 6–20,
1999, p. 18 (essentialaction.org/shell/Final_Report.pdf).
129. “Bowoto v. Chevron Case Overview,” Earth Rights International (earthrights.org/site_blurbs/bowoto_v_
chevrontexaco_case_overview.html).
130. David Morris and Irshad Ahmed, The Carbohydrate Economy: Making Chemicals and Industrial Materials from Plant Matter (Washington, D.C.: Institute for Local Self-Reliance, 1992). This and many other titles about alternatives to petroleum are listed on the website of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance at ilsr.org/pubs/pubscarbo.html.
131. Sustainable Biomaterials Collaborative website: sustainablebiomaterials.org.
132. “Electricity Overview,” based on data from the International Energy Agency (IEA), Key World Energy Statistics 2008, Pew Center on Global Climate Change (pewclimate.org/technology/overview/electricity).
133. Shaila Dewan, “T.V.A. to Pay $43 Million on Projects in Spill Area,” The New York Times, September 14, 2009 (nytimes.com/2009/09/15/us/15ash.html).
134. Jeff Goodell, Big Coal: The Dirty Secret Behind America’s Energy Future (New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2006), p. 146.
135. Ibid., p. 10.
136. Ibid., p. xx.
137. “National Memorial for the Mountains,” iLoveMountains.org (ilovemountains.org/memorial).
138. Deborah Bräutigam, Taxation and Governance in Africa, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, April 2008 (aei.org/outlook/27798).
139. United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, adopted by the General Assembly September 13, 2007 (un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/en/declaration.html).
140. “Sustainable Development and Indigenous Peoples,” International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (iwgia.org/sw219.asp).
141. “Extractive Industries,” issue brief, World Bank Group (ifc.org/ifcext/media.nsf/AttachmentsByTitle/
AM08_Extractive_Industries/$FILE/AM08_
Extractive_Industries _IssueBrief.pdf).
142. “Environmental and Social Policies,” Bank Information Center (bicusa.org/EN/Issue.Background.4.aspx).
143. Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (eiti.org/ru/node/614).
144. “Anti World Bank, IMF Activists Say,” Agence France-Presse, March 14, 2000 (globalpolicy.org/component/content
/article/209/43161.html).
145. “World Bank Bonds Boycott,” Center for Economic Justice (econjustice.net/wbbb/).
146. Jared Diamond, “What’s Your Consumption Factor?” The New York Times, January 2, 2008 (nytimes.com/2008/01/02/opinion/02diamond.html).
147. “The State of Consumption Today,” Worldwatch Institute (worldwatch.org/node/810).
148. “Earth Overshoot Day,” Global Footprint Network (footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN
/page/earth_overshoot_day/). For much more detailed information on the resource use of individual countries, see the Living Planet Report 2008, coauthored by the World Wildlife Fund and the Global Footprint Network (footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/
page/national_assessments/).
149. One Planet Living website: oneplanetliving.org/index.html.
150. Ibid.
151. Hawken and Hunter, Natural Capitalism, p. 8.
152. “1994 Declaration of the Factor 10 Club” Factor 10 Institute (techfak.uni-bielefeld.de/~walter/f10/declaration94.html).
Chapter 2: Production
1. Many references, including: Our Stolen Future (Ourstolenfuture.org); State of the World 2006, Worldwatch Institute; Nancy Evans, ed., State of the Evidence 2006, executive summary, Breast Cancer Fund, p. 4 (breastcancerfund.org/atf/cf/%7BDE68F7B2–5F6A-4B57–9794-AFE5D27A3CFF%7D/State%20of%20the%20Evidence%202006.pdf); Gay Daly, “Bad Chemistry,” OnEarth, Winter 2006 (nrdc.org/onearth/06win/chem1.asp).
2. “Of the more than 80,000 chemicals in commerce, only a small percentage of them have ever been screened for even one potential health effect, such as cancer, reproductive toxicity, developmental toxicity, or impacts on the immune system. Among the approximately 15,000 tested, few have been studied enough to correctly estimate potential risks from exposure. Even when testing is done, each chemical is tested individually rather than in the combinations that one is exposed to in the real world. In reality, no one is ever exposed to a single chemical, but to a chemical soup, the ingredients of which may interact to cause unpredictable health effects.” From “Chemical Body Burden,” Coming Clean (chemicalbodyburden.org/whatisbb.htm).
3. Theo Colburn, John Peter Myers, and Dianne Dumanoski, Our Stolen Future: Are We Threatening Our Fertility, Intelligence, and Survival? (New York: Plume Books, 1997). See the Our Stolen Future website for chapter synopses (ourstolenfuture.org/Basics/chapters.htm) and recent news about chemical exposures (ourstolenfuture.org/New/recentimportant.htm).
4. Fred Pearce, Confessions of an Eco-Sinner: Tracking Down the Sources of My Stuff (Boston: Beacon Press, 2008), p. 89.
5. A. K. Chapagain, A. Y. Hoekstra, H. H. G. Savenije, and R. Gautam, “The water footprint of cotton consumption,” Ecological Economics, vol. 60, no. 1, November 1, 2006, pp. 201–2 (waterfootprint.org/Reports/Report18.pdf).
6. Ibid., p. 187.
7. Ibid., p. 195.
8. Ibid., p. 186.
9. Ibid., p. 187.
10. Pearce, Confessions of an Eco-Sinner, pp. 111–12.
11. Ibid., p. 90.
12. Worldwatch Institute, State of the World 2004 (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2004), p. 162.
13. “Problems with conventional cotton production,” Pesticide Action Network North America (panna.org/Node/570).
14. Ibid.
15. Pearce, Confessions of an Eco-Sinner, p. 114.
16. Charles Benbrook, Pest Management at the Crossroads (Yonkers, N.Y.: Consumer’s Union, 1996), p. 2.
17. “Problems with conventional cotton production.”
18. Ibid.
19. Ibid.
20. Billie J. Collier, Martin Bide, and Phyllis Tortora, Understanding Textiles (Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2008), p. 11.
21. Ibid., pp. 20–27.
22. Michael Lackman, “Care What You Wear: Facts on Cotton and Clothing Production,” Organic Consumers Association, June 29, 2007 (organicconsumers.org/articles/article_6347.cfm).
23. Michael Lackman, “Permanent Press: Facts behind the fabrics,” OrganicClothing.blogs.com, January 3, 2009 (organicclothing.blogs.com/my_weblog/2009/
01/permanent-press-facts-behind-the-fabrics.html).
24. “Formaldehyde,” U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (epa.gov/iaq/formalde.html#Health Effects).
25. Lackman, “Care What You Wear.”
26. Chapagain, Hoekstra, Savenije, and Gautam, “The water footprint of cotton consumption,” p. 202.
27. Pearce, Confessions of an Eco-Sinner, p. 104.
28. “Haitian Garment Factory Conditions,” Campaign for Labor Rights Newsletter, July 8, 1997 (hartford-hwp.com/archives/43a/136.html).
29. Personal correspondence with Yannick Etienne, August 2009.
30. “Lawmakers Vote to Increase Minimum Wage for Haitians,” Caribarena, August 5, 2009 (caribarena.com/caribbean/haiti/haiti-lawmakers-vote-to-increase-minimum-wage-for-haitians.html">caribarena.com/caribbean/haiti/haiti-lawmakers-vote-to-increase-minimum-wage-for-haitians.html).
31. Pearce, Confessions of an Eco-Sinner, p. 91.
32. “The Footprint Chronicles: Tracking the Environmental and Social Impact of Patagonia Clothing and Apparel,” Patagonia (patagonia.com/web/us/footprint/index.jsp).
33. Susan Kinsella, “The History of Paper,” Resource Recycling, June 1990 (conservatree.org/learn/Papermaking/History.shtml).
34. Ibid.
35. “Environmentally Sound Paper Overview: Environmental Issues. Part III—Making Paper: Content,” Conservatree (conservatree.org/learn/Essential%20Issues/EIPaperContent.shtml).
36. “Book Sector,” Green Press Initiative (greenpressinitiative.org/about/bookSector.htm).
37. “The Trees of Central
Park,” Central Park Conservancy (centralparknyc.org/site/PageNavigator/
virtualpark_cptreedbase).
38. “Impacts on Climate,” Green Press Initiative (greenpressinitiative.org/impacts/climateimpacts.htm).
39. “Paper Making and Recycling,” U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (epa.gov/waste/conserve/materials/paper/
basics/papermaking.htm).
40. Comparison of Kraft, Sulfite, and BCTMP Manufacturing Technologies for Paper, white paper, Environmental Defense Fund, December 19, 1995 (edf.org/documents/1632_WP12.pdf).
41. Carola Hanisch, “Finished in 15 Minutes: Paper Industry Global View,” Clariant, February 1999 (emt-india.com/process/pulp_paper/pdf/
Paper_industry_globalview.pdf).
42. Pulp and Paper Chemicals: Industry Forecasts for 2011 and 2016, Freedonia Group, February 2008 (reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS68793+23-Jan-2008+BW20080123).
43. Jeffrey Hollender, “Putting the Breast Cancer/Chlorine Connection on Paper,” The Non-Toxic Times, July 2004 (consumerhealthreviews.com/articles/
WomansHealth/BreastCancerChlorine.htm).
44. Draft Dioxin Reassessment: Draft Exposure and Human Health Reassessment of 2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-Dioxin (TCDD) and Related Compounds, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2003 (cfpub.epa.gov/ncea/cfm/part1and2.cfm?ActType=default); “Dioxin,” U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, National Center for Environmental Assessment (cfpub.epa.gov/ncea/CFM/nceaQFind.cfm?keyword=Dioxin); “Polychlorinated Dibenzo-para-Dioxins and Polychlorinated Dibenzofurans,” IARC Monographs on the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risks to Humans, vol. 69, August 12, 1997; J. Raloff, “Dioxin confirmed as a human carcinogen,” Science News, May 15, 1999, pp. 3–9 (monographs.iarc.fr/ENG/Monographs/
vol69/volume69.pdf).
45. The American People’s Dioxin Report, Center for Health Environment and Justice (mindfully.org/Pesticide/Dioxin-Report-CEHJ.htm).
46. “Chlorine Free Processing,” Conservatree (conservatree.org/paper/PaperTypes/CFDisc.shtml).
47. “Getting Mercury Out of Paper Production,” Natural Resources Defense Council (nrdc.org/cities/living/mercury.asp).
48. Michelle Carstensen and David Morris, Biochemicals for the Printing Industry, Institute for Local Self-Reliance; available for purchase at ilsr.org or online at pneac.org/sheets/all/Biochemicals_for_the