Niger Delta Blues

trees lit up by a gas flare burning next to a village without electricity or running water Samuel James for Harper's Magazine

I have to admit to being a little concerned about the back-to-back posting of two such unhappy stories about the realities of life in countries from whose labor and resources we benefit, but that's what's coming up right now, and it's interesting and it's important.
   There are myriad reasons for us to cut down on our driving and to switch to alternative sources of energy, but perhaps one of the most compelling has to do with the devastation that oil extraction and production causes in countries where the government is corrupt and where the big oil companies (prime among them, in the case of Nigeria, is Shell) take advantage of and exacerbate that failing (story, slideshow): http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/13/money-for-the-taking-in-niger-delta-swamps/