BP’s Dumb Investors
George Monbiot says that the companies now threatening to sue BP have only themselves to blame. His argument has implications for those who continue to invest in other extractives companies, including mining companies, about whose activities they are constantly being warned by LMN member groups and others. Monbiot says: “They might not have been warned by BP, but they were warned repeatedly by environmental groups and ethical investment funds. Every year, at BP’s annual general meetings, they were invited to ask the firm to provide more information about the environmental and social risks it was taking. Every year they voted instead for BP to keep them in the dark. While relying on this company for a disproportionate share of their income (BP pays 12% of all UK firms’ dividends), they refused to hold it to account.” Read more at http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2010/06/21/bps-dumb-investors/.
BP Oil Disaster Threatens Mississippi Delta Goods and Services Worth Far More Than BP’s Value
In a recently posted article, mining researcher Roger Moody warned against attempting to put a financial price on environmental destruction (See London Calling warns against “costing” mining’s socio-environmental destruction at http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=10166). A recent study of the damage caused by BP in the Gulf attempts to do just that – using it as an argument for wetlands restoration. See First Study of Delta as Capital Asset Concludes Restoring Wetlands Would Produce $62 Billion in Annual Benefits at http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bp-oil-disaster-threatens-mississippi-delta-goods-and-services-worth-far-more-than-bps-value-96046614.html.
See also: Gulf Oil Spill: A Hole In The World by Naomi Klein at http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2010/jun/19/naomi-klein-gulf-oil-spill.