element: ifie and tina
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You don’t expect fire to feel metallic.
That’s what flaring feels like – you feel it as a whine, like metal being rubbed. Turn off the engine, someone said, but it wasn’t on – it was the flame’s vibration shaking the van.
Tina is angry. Why is this gas being burnt, when it could be used, and people are suffering because of it?
Then she’s quiet. It just feels wrong.
Gas is ‘flared’ or burnt up as part of the process of extracting crude oil from the ground. Separating the gas from the oil makes the oil more usable. This gas could also be stored and used. But it’s cheaper – if only economically – to burn it off than to build the infrastructure that storage would require.
Especially if you’re not paying for the damage locally, and the tab for the long term is split between everything on earth.
Gas flaring in Nigeria contributes more greenhouse gases – the gases contributing to climate change – than all activity in sub-Saharan Africa combined. More than from Portugal, Switzerland, Sweden or Norway!
Flaring is illegal in Nigeria: its toxicity and effects on health and the environment make it a violation of human rights.
Oil companies get away with flaring and other activities because we want more oil to do more with. There are ways to change this.
Tina and Ifie are filming testimonies so that people around the world see the local cost of oil.
We can also:
- Demand that energy companies are more socially and environmentally responsible
http://climatelaw.org
http://www.foei.org/campaigns/ - Write to the Nigerian government requesting that they uphold this recent court decision
http://www.climatelaw.org/media/Nigeria%20May%202007 - Reduce how much oil (and gas!) we each use and support renewable forms of energy
http://www.greenpeace.org< - Read here for more on the oil spill documented by Tina and Ifie:
Tina and Ifie’s Element relates to Millennium Development Goal 7: Ensure Environmental Sustainability.
Lance E said on May 24th, 2007 at 5:39 pm:
I have no problem with companies being focused on profit, because if they actually did operate that way they would not “flare” all that gas into the atmosphere, and they would realise they have low cost labour at their back door. Those people live on $1 a day, pay them $10 a day to do a job and watch everyone benefit. Bottle and sell the gas and watch the companies profits go through the roof. What is wrong with these companies? Are they stupid, or blind, or both?
tovorinok said on July 5th, 2007 at 4:34 pm:
Hello
Great book. I just want to say what a fantastic thing you are doing! Good luck!
Bye
Nigeria: Gas Flaring Continues in Defiance of Government Order - AfricanLoft said on January 15th, 2008 at 2:45 am:
[...] Related item: Element: Ifie and Tina – a documentary of the burden of oil in the Niger-Delta [...]
yemi oyedele said on May 29th, 2008 at 7:26 am:
Hey Tina and Ifie.
I have to commend you guys for a very brave step, you are the reason why the like of Ken Saro-Wiwa may have been killed but he’s never dead, I commend you and I hope there will be more like you, the struggle MUST never stop.
God bless you and stay safe.
Yemi
elias lostrom said on August 16th, 2008 at 2:47 am:
Hey i lived and worked in Nigeria between 1984 and 1994 and during my stay I continually complained to the oil companies that the development they were doing in the Delta basin was minimal. I was preaching to deaf ears.
Lars Johansson said on August 16th, 2008 at 8:04 am:
Here’s a 28 min documentary about Ifie and Tina:
poisonfire.org
Victor Ikoh said on September 8th, 2008 at 1:17 am:
The government of Nigeria is not protecting the rights of her citizens living in the Niger Delta Region. If the laws on gas flaring are fully implemented, the companies will have no choice but to comply with the policies. I believe in justice. These foreign companies can never do what they are doing in the Niger Delta in their on country. Government must start doing the right things or face the music later because the oil shall finish one day
jamie and anita said on October 17th, 2008 at 10:26 am:
Fantastic work. So inspiring. And you two brave women are very firy people which makes sense when you are fightiong such unnecessary and greed fuleed fires yourselves. Good luck and all support from London town!
FELIX said on October 23rd, 2008 at 5:40 am:
HELLO DERA, AM HAPPY A NIGERIAN YOUTH LIKE ME IS DOING CONCERNED ABOUT OUR ENVIRONMENT. U HAVE DONE A GREAT JOB HERE, I AM INTERESTED IN THE STUDY. PLEASE CONTACT ME THROUGH MY EMAIL, LETS PUT HEADS TOGETHER AND MAKE THIS BETTER FOR OUR PEOPLE. ALL THE BEST
FELIX
christos michael said on November 18th, 2008 at 9:01 pm:
how can people from other countries help/i thought that if people that love nature come and stay for some time at places that can host them and bring their money in comunities that try to do something about the pollution then so we can win.i allready know people from nigiria that stay in cyprus….but their concern is not nature …i talk to them about this so i can turn their mind on this proble….together we can do something.
Hannah Jenn Santaniello said on May 19th, 2009 at 7:59 am:
i Love you tina! your the best ,and i will always remember and love you,… even when i’m dead. Jacob wants to hook up with you also!
Gaetano Ingrasciotta said on September 18th, 2009 at 5:30 am:
Fight for the humans right. All the people are the same but we live in a world were the money are more important of people and we fight for this absurdity.Come on Ifie and Tina you are on the right way!! We are with you!! Contact me for some news. Thanks all.