'We simply replaced two letters in Esso's logo with the
internationally recognised symbol for the US dollar. We find it
ironic that the richest corporation in the world can't recognise
the dollar sign and confuses it with a Nazi symbol.' -- Stephen
Tindale, Greenpeace UK director

'This is just ridiculous. Esso knows it can't win a debate about
climate change, and it won't discuss the content of the website.
Instead Esso is trying to gag us with legal threats. We will
fight this in court.' -- Gerd Leipold, Executive Director of
Greenpeace

'In the meantime, Greenpeace agrees that the public's repulsion
with the Esso brand should not be based on a logo. It should be
based on the facts of ExxonMobil's record of endangering our
future.' -- Greenpeace Netherlands

Oil giant E$$o, the world's richest corporation and premier
league polluters, are suing Greenpeace to stop the French
StopE$$o campaigners using their logo. The StopE$$o campaign is a
world-wide alliance united against Esso's dirty fuels, tricks,
money and lies. E$$o has a history of throwing money around to
buy researchers to deny the existence of global warming. They
also bought themselves a president by donating more cash to the
Republicans than anyone else.

The company says the replacement of the middle two letters of
Esso with dollar signs makes it resemble the Gothic-scripted
symbol of the SS and this is confusing to the public. Urh! To us
the symbolism is one of GREED. Is there a guilty conscience at
work here. Were E$$o, like many US corporations, eg IBM and
Coca-Cola, willing to work with the Nazis? Coke used the brand
name Fanta to carry on business as usual, IBM boss Watson rode in
with the US troops to check his Germany factories were OK.

ExxonMobil is worried about the reputation of its brand, and is
attempting to sue Greenpeace to protect it.

It's not worried about the fact that it has tried to convince the
public that global warming isn't happening. It's not worried
about getting criticism because it has sabotaged international
climate agreements. Nor has it expressed concern that it has
chosen to prioritise selling more petrol over scientific warnings
of famine, floods, and disease for future generations.

It's worried that Greenpeace is taking the piss out of its logo.

It thinks that Greenpeace is deliberately trying to create 'a
repulsion, which turns away customers from the ESSO brand' by
swapping two letters in its brand with dollar signs. It is even
suggesting that Greenpeace is attempting to draw a connection
between the world's biggest climate criminal and 'the infamous
SS.'

In a suit filed with the French courts over Greenpeace's use of
the Esso logo, the corporation is demanding a penalty of 80
thousand euros for reputational damage and 80 thousand euros a
day per logo should Greenpeace fail to comply. It also demands
removal of all use of the term 'StopEsso'.

StopEsso, a coalition of groups including Greenpeace, is
campaigning around the world to stop ExxonMobil from sabotaging
international action to address climate change, such as the Kyoto
Protocol.

The French website over which ExxonMobil wants to sue, is one of
several StopEsso sites globally.

Esso (or ExxonMobil in America) pressured Bush into backing out
of the Kyoto agreement on global warming and were caught out this
April when secret memos to the White House were leaked. One asked
Bush Jr to get rid of top UN climate scientist Dr Watson and
replace him with someone 'less biased'. Under Watson the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had concluded that
'most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is
attributable to human activities' and predicted that average
global temperatures will rise between 3 degrees C and 10 degrees
C by the end of the century.

Bush did just as his oily friends told him and led the charge to
get Watson out. He has now been thrown out of his job and is not
even allowed a position on the panel. Bush's top climate
negotiator now refuses to take stock of climate change until
2012.

Maybe E$$on need a little history lesson. In 1997 BP sought
punitive damages from Greenpeace with the intention of putting
them out of business. All Greenpeace assets were frozen and
Greenpeace were barred from talking. Across Europe people rode to
the aid of Greenpeace. Service stations in Germany were shut
down. BP was forced to back down.

Greenpeace has a couple of cute e-cards you can send out to alert
your friends, also a standard letter which you are free to modify
to tell the E$$oles what you think of them.

We are now calling for a worldwide boycott of E$$on. We wish to
see E$$on shut down worldwide.

 http://www.stopesso.org
 http://www.stopesso.com
 http://www.greenpeace.org
 http://www.campaignexxonmobil.org
 http://www.heureka.clara.net/gaia/bpgreen.htm