hands off!

hands off: why ifis must stop drilling, piping and mining
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introduction

For many of us, it is unthinkable to go through a single day without the comforts provided by fossil fuels, metals and minerals.

Almost everything that we do or use has some connection with oil, gas and minerals:

homes, food, drinks, clothes, pots, knives, plates, pencils, pens, paper, plastic, glass, cars, trains, airplanes, guns, bullets, computers, telephones, televisions, refrigerators, freezers, factory equipment, farm implements, needles, thread, toothpicks…The list is endless.

Production and consumption of these goods happens at a great cost.

Although the comforts they provide are taken for granted by many, sustaining their cheap availability has come at a huge expense for others. In the name of development, International Financial Institutions (IFIs) use taxpayer money to support the exploitation of oil, gas and mineral resources.

contents

background

• hands off! foreword 3
• introduction 6
• the impacts of fossil fuel and mining operations 12
• broken promises 26
• recommendations 38
• resources 42
• glossary 43

case studies

• stifling dissent: colombia’s mining law 8
• lost rivers, lost lives marcopper spill on marinduque island, the philippines 10
• toxic rivers, poisoned fish sepon gold mine in laos 12
• paradise trashed: peru’s camisea project 16
• fighting for a rosy future: rosia montana gold mine in romania 20
• dividing and polluting: yanacocha gold mine in peru 22
• livelihoods piped away: chad-cameroon oil and pipeline project 26
• poisoning an island: papua new guinea’s lihir gold mine 30
• quadruple bypass the west: african gas pipeline 34
• dubious d-6 oil drilling in the baltic sea 36
• risky oil for the rich baku-ceyhan oil pipeline in the caspian region 38