The "Summer of Heat" rages on with record-breaking temperatures and a demonstration demanding that AIG refuse to insure the East African Cru
The "Summer of Heat" continuesâboth in terms of record-breaking temperatures driven by fossil fuels and a series of nonviolent direct actions targeting Wall Street for its contributions to the climate emergency.
After protests last month calling out Citibank for "financing the arsonists," climate campaigners on Friday set their sights on finance and insurance giant AIG for "stubbornly" refusing to join over two dozen other insurers that won't cover the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP).
EACOP is set to run nearly 900 miles from Uganda's Lake Albert oilfields to the port of Tanga in Tanzania. Rights groups have sounded the alarm about how the project has devastated the lives and livelihoods of people in its path as well as violence endured by African activists, who have been "kidnapped, arbitrarily arrested, detained, or subjected to different forms of harassment."
Ugandan climate activist Hillary Taylor Seguya declared Friday that "EACOP is a carbon bomb being built in my backyard."
"Thousands of communities in Uganda are being displaced because of corporate greed," added the campaigner, who is affiliated with StopEACOP. "Today, as Ugandans, as Tanzanians, as Africans, we want to be loud and clear that we shall not allow any pipeline to put oil in our backyards."
