Target: TotalEnergies CEO, Patrick Pouyanné
Goal: Don’t build new pipeline that will degrade delicate ecosystems in Uganda and Tanzania.
TotalEnergies, a French oil company, is trying to build a massive pipeline through Tanzania and Uganda on the African continent. If built, this pipeline would have devastating impacts on the surrounding environment, as well as on the health of people living near the proposed route. The project would also displace large numbers of people from their homes in order to accommodate the new pipeline.
If completed, the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) would transport up to 200,000 barrels of oil per day and emit 34 million tons of carbon into the atmosphere each year. At least 100,000 people would also be displaced throughout Uganda and Tanzania. Grassroots organizers in both of these two countries have been quick to note that many of the corporations involved in the project, like TotalEnergies, are not based on the African continent. Instead, they are from countries with long imperialistic histories that not only exploited resources in places like Uganda and Tanzania, but also oppressed people under a colonial rule.
Neocolonial relations have no place in the 21st century, and the construction of any new crude oil pipeline will only worsen the climate crisis. Governments and companies the globe over need to be combating climate change, not continuing to exacerbate it. Call on TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanné to do everything in his power to stop the construction of this pipeline.
PETITION LETTER:
Dear Mr. Pouyanné
Your company is a driving force behind a proposed international crude oil pipeline in Uganda and Tanzania. If built, the EACOP would displace at least 100,000 people along its route and emit 34 million tons of carbon each year. This proposed pipeline will have devastating impacts on the environment and populations of these two African countries.
In the age of an ever-worsening climate crisis and an awakening against global systems of power and oppression, neocolonial relations and the construction of any new crude oil pipelines should not continue to be perpetuated. Please do everything in your power to ensure TotalEnergies doesn’t move forward with its plan to build this project.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo Credit: Rawpixel/CC0
I realize that this world runs on oil. It is in every part of our lives, from the hospital bassinet that we were placed in upon birth to the gas running our vehicles later in life. But we have seen and experienced what it has done to our planet and our lives from day one. Oil use has caused illnesses, habitat destruction, pollution of land, sea and air, and is causing climate catastrophe. Oil companies need to help solve the problems they created by putting more money and research into clean, sustainable energies and to clean up the messes that they have caused through the decades. It has to happen NOW!