Photos courtesy of Morris Alagoa at ERA/FoE Nigeria.

The rig has now completely collapsed under the intense heat of the flames. Chevron is still “finalizing plans for a relief well to fight the fire”. But these pictures show no sign of the company’s efforts to monitor the impact of the fire or protect local fishers.

The local community, which relies on fishing as a primary means of livelihood, has drawn attention to the ecological impact of the disaster. Below is a deformed dead fish observed near the site.

The company has so far dismissed the impact on local livelihoods, claiming that “no impacts to the beach have been reported.” However, the disaster appears to be having devastating consequences for marine life. As ERA reports from the Koluama River:

“There were dead fish floating and some in throes of death; struggling to stay alive.”

I challenge anyone to find a more cynical example of corporate sponsorship than this one.

(Thanks to @Adammaanit in Brighton and @MsVanessaMurray in Australia for bringing it to our attention).

In the same week that Shell was condemned by the UN for its devastating oil spills in Ogoni, and admitted liability for 2 massive spills in Bodo village in the Niger Delta, the company announced that its sponsorship of an oil spill clean up competition in the US:

Shell has announced that it is a supporting partner of the Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X Challenge, a global competition to develop the most effective oil spill cleanup equipment.

10 teams from Northern Europe and the United States will compete for prize money, with Shell’s Peter Velez, global emergency response manager, judging the scores.

The team with the highest oil recovery rate and highest oil recovery efficiency will get $1m first prize; second place will get $300k and third place $100k.

So while the Ogoni people continue drink water contaminated with hydrocarbons 1,000 times higher than the legal limit, and have their land and fisheries turned into toxic dump, they can at least rest in the knowledge that Shell cares far more about its image than it does about their suffering.

If you feel it, tweet it:

“Shame on @Shell for decades of doing nothing to clean Ogoni oil spills.”

We won’t be holding our breath.

In an environment which suffers from daily oil spills, locals have learned that the multinationals, in particular Shell, and government authorities, will get away with almost anything.

Earlier today I spoke on the phone to a contact at Friends of the Earth Nigeria, based in Bayelsa State. He told me that in the last week alone, there have been 5 recorded Shell oil spills in Ikarama community.

I visited Ikarama around this time last year. Though I wasn’t on the look out for oil pollution, my guides (an inspiring local hunter named Washington(!) and another community leader) showed me the latest example of environmental devastation that has punished the village. On 4 June 2010, equipment failure had led to a leaking valve at Shell’s Okordia manifold, spraying oil into the village. Weeks later, on 23 June, a rupture occurred along the Trans-Niger Rumuekpe Trunk line, spewing oil into Taylor Creek. Both spills were caused by Shell.

The [FoE Nigeria] team reported that the volume of the spill was at over a thousand barrels and spread over 400 metres into farm lands and other parts in the area.

Shell’s response was to send in contractors who proceeded to scoop up the oil, dump it on the other side of the road and burn it, causing further damage to the environment. Several months later when I visited there was visible evidence of the dumped and burned waste and the smell of crude oil was overpowering. Below are some pictures I took from the scene.

“These are swamps, lakes that I used to take care of my children, train them,” said local hunter, Washington Odoyibo. Washington told me how pollution from Shell had ruined his livelihood and pushed his family deeper into poverty, a common experience in this rural community:

Today, it’s hard for you to get fish from [the] bush because Shell have destroyed all our swamps with this spillage. I am bitterly annoyed because [these are] the swamps I used to fish, to train my children. Today you see me, I don’t have money because the swamps are damaged. [Even] our economic trees: I used to cut… palm fruit to [make] palm oil, to take care of my children. But today, you cannot see any palm again because the damage. After the spillage they will send the boys to burn the swamps off. The palm trees burnt off will be affected and there is no way they will bear fruit again. I am suffering today because of those things.

‘Shaping the Future’: a PLATFORM residency programme of art, activism and education launched with a fiery spectacle at 5pm on Tuesday 10^th November at the Stephen Lawrence Centre in Lewisham, London. ‘Shaping the Future’ is led by the arts and ecology group PLATFORM, and speakers at the launch included the Mayor of Greenwich, Doreen Lawrence, (mother of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence), and Maria Saro-Wiwa, (widow of the Nigerian writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa).

The ground breaking Living Memorial to Ken Saro-Wiwa lit up the night sky with a burst of fire, to highlight the ongoing campaign to stop oil companies, in particular Shell, flaring gas in Nigeria.

The Living Memorial takes the form of a two-tonne steel Bus, created by Sokari Douglas Camp CBE. It is the centrepiece of a new, year-long PLATFORM residency at the Stephen Lawrence Centre, that commences in 2010 and aims to inspire young people to learn creative ways of campaigning for change through workshops and collaborations with established global artists.

Doreen Lawrence of the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust said, “Stephen Lawrence dreamed of becoming an architect, and making a positive impact on his community and the wider world. The Trust aims to empower young people to change their communities, both locally and globally. We are delighted to welcome the arts and campaigning group PLATFORM to take up a residency that will promote global awareness about environmental and social issues, and explore the vital role of creativity in bringing about social change.”

Ben Amunwa from PLATFORM said, “The oil fields of Nigeria are notorious for decades of pollution and toxic gas flaring on a massive scale. Fourteen years ago Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight others were executed for their campaigning against those gas flares. We now know that gas flaring in Nigeria affect us all, by destroying the global climate. We are launching ‘Shaping the future’ to keep alive the struggle for justice, and to inform young people about their role as global citizens and about responding creatively to these urgent issues.”

During a recent stop-over in New York for pretrial publicity, Ben Amunwa of PLATFORM’s remember saro-wiwa project used the time to capture some vivid moments at the courthouse rally and in the surrounding court district, lower Manhattan. To get closer to the action, click below to view a special slideshow by flickr, and see above for the famous view from the Brooklyn Bridge.

The sombre, civic architecture down there feels starkly removed from the topics under scrutiny in court; the crackdowns on poverty-struck Ogoni villages; the polluted creeks of the conflict ridden Niger Delta. The struggle for global justice has come to this island dense with sky-scapers to rewrite the script of rampant, unchecked corporate power.In this sense, New York could hardly be a better place to put Shell on trial.

Please feel free to use these pictures, and credit PLATFORM/remember saro-wiwa. Journalists, please contact us for higher res files and more.