Stop Esso campaign
Encyclopedia
Greenpeace
Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over forty countries and with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, The Netherlands...
, Friends of the Earth
Friends of the Earth
Friends of the Earth International is an international network of environmental organizations in 76 countries.FOEI is assisted by a small secretariat which provides support for the network and its agreed major campaigns...
and People and Planet aimed at boycott
Boycott
A boycott is an act of voluntarily abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with a person, organization, or country as an expression of protest, usually for political reasons...
ing the oil company Esso
Esso
Esso is an international trade name for ExxonMobil and its related companies. Pronounced , it is derived from the initials of the pre-1911 Standard Oil, and as such became the focus of much litigation and regulatory restriction in the United States. In 1972, it was largely replaced in the U.S. by...
, known as ExxonMobil
ExxonMobil
Exxon Mobil Corporation or ExxonMobil, is an American multinational oil and gas corporation. It is a direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil company, and was formed on November 30, 1999, by the merger of Exxon and Mobil. Its headquarters are in Irving, Texas...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, on the grounds that it is damaging the environment
Natural environment
The natural environment encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally on Earth or some region thereof. It is an environment that encompasses the interaction of all living species....
.
The campaign alleges that Esso / ExxonMobil is:
- not investing in renewable energyRenewable energyRenewable energy is energy which comes from natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, and geothermal heat, which are renewable . About 16% of global final energy consumption comes from renewables, with 10% coming from traditional biomass, which is mainly used for heating, and 3.4% from...
sources - denying the existence of global warmingGlobal warmingGlobal warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
- funding the creation of junk scienceJunk scienceJunk science is a term used in U.S. political and legal disputes that brands an advocate's claims about scientific data, research, or analyses as spurious. The term may convey a pejorative connotation that the advocate is driven by political, ideological, financial, or other unscientific...
which denies climate change, delaying urgently-needed climate change action - undermining the Kyoto ProtocolKyoto ProtocolThe Kyoto Protocol is a protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change , aimed at fighting global warming...
.
Stop Esso (France) website injunction
Greenpeace was sued in France by Esso, who alleged that the company's reputation was damaged by the campaign's use of a parody Esso logo featuring dollar signs in place of the letters "ss".Esso claimed that the $$ resemble the SS
Schutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
of the Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
paramilitary organization http://www.guardian.co.uk/oil/story/0,11319,751901,00.html. A French court ruled in favour of Esso, granting them an injunction against the French website. The campaign then moved their French web site to the USA
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Another French judge has subsequently overturned the original ruling, so the site has moved back to France. The Stop Esso campaign continues to use the dollar sign logo.
Esso's greenhouse gas production
Stop Esso's consumer boycott has focused on the greenhouse gas production and climate change policies of Esso. Esso's critics claim the company produces twice the CO2 pollution of a country such as NorwayNorway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
. Company data revealed a 2% increase in greenhouse gas production in 2004 to 135.6m tonnes. Supporters of Stop Esso argue that BP
BP
BP p.l.c. is a global oil and gas company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest energy company and fourth-largest company in the world measured by revenues and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors"...
has a similar level of production as Esso with nearly 50% less greenhouse gas emissions. One environmental consultancy believed Esso underestimated its greenhouse gas production because it excluded petrol stations and tankers. It estimates Exxon's production at over 300m tonnes. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,1321223,00.html
Esso's reaction
In response to Stop Esso, Esso gave financial support to climate change research. However, it continued to encourage President BushGeorge W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
and other world leaders not to sign the Kyoto Protocol which mandates decreased production of greenhouse gases.
A proportion of Esso's greenhouse gas production arose because of the flaring of gas in Nigeria. When natural gas is brought out with oil, Esso in Nigeria burned the gas rather than processing it. Esso pledged to cease this practice by 2006.http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,1321223,00.html
Stop Esso days held so far
- UKUnited KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
- December 1, 2001 - about 306 Esso stations boycotted
- May 18, 2002 - about 400 Esso stations boycotted
- LuxembourgLuxembourgLuxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...
- October 25, 2002 - all 28 Esso stations boycotted
See also
- EssoEssoEsso is an international trade name for ExxonMobil and its related companies. Pronounced , it is derived from the initials of the pre-1911 Standard Oil, and as such became the focus of much litigation and regulatory restriction in the United States. In 1972, it was largely replaced in the U.S. by...
- ExxonMobilExxonMobilExxon Mobil Corporation or ExxonMobil, is an American multinational oil and gas corporation. It is a direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil company, and was formed on November 30, 1999, by the merger of Exxon and Mobil. Its headquarters are in Irving, Texas...
- Alternative political spellings
- Global warming controversyGlobal warming controversyGlobal warming controversy refers to a variety of disputes, significantly more pronounced in the popular media than in the scientific literature, regarding the nature, causes, and consequences of global warming...