'Shell's Wild Lie', put together as part of London Rising Tide's 'Art Not
Oil' campaign, features photographs and illustrations that it considers to
be a truer snapshot of the disastrous effects of Shell and the fossil fuel
industry as a whole on our planet. It tours the country, and was last seen
outside the Natural History Museum on the first weekend of the 2007
exhibition, (see report below. One campaigner and one journalist have made
official complaints to the Museum as a result of aggressive security that
day.)

Shell has a 2 year contract with the NHM, worth £750,000, with 2007-8
being the second of those years. Sam Chase from London Rising Tide said:
'We have been led to believe that the Museum is unlikely to renew such a
controversial contract, but we the public need to keep up the pressure on
it to steer clear of Shell and Big Oil's tainted cash. In fact, it's time
for oil industry sponsorship of arts and culture to become extinct before
it's too late to save some of the countless species whose future is
threatened by climate chaos.'

As well as asking people to make their feelings known to the Museum, it is
also asking them to contact BBC Wildlife magazine, which boasts noted
environmental campaigners and journalists such as Friends of the Earth
boss Tony Juniper, Jonathon Porritt, George Monbiot, David
Attenborough and John Vidal, on its Advisory Panel.

For more information, contact  info@artnotoil.org.uk
LRT, c/o 62 Fieldgate Street, London E1 1ES. Tel: 07708 794665
www.shelloiledwildlife.org.uk, www.artnotoil.org.uk,
www.londonrisingtide.org.uk

Check out the Shell's Wild Lie exhibition:
 http://www.artnotoil.org.uk/gallery/v/Shell/
and let us know if you'd like to borrow it.

------------------------------------
NOTES:

1.) This text accompanies the exhibition:
IS IT TIME FOR OIL INDUSTRY SPONSORSHIP OF ARTS & CULTURE TO BECOME EXTINCT?

Shell is the third largest oil company in the world. It is also the
sponsor of the Natural History Museum and BBC Wildlife magazine’s Wildlife
Photographer of the Year exhibition. As a response, we have put together
Shell’s Wild Lie, which paints what we think is a truer snapshot of the
effects of Shell and the fossil fuel industry as a whole on our planet. It
also depicts some of the actions being taken throughout the world to halt
Big Oil in its tracks, and perhaps to ‘build a new world in the ruins of
the old’.

We think that Shell has no right to pay for its logo to sit alongside a
photograph of a family of polar bears struggling to make its way across
disintegrating ice floes, or any of the other wonderful, often
heartbreaking images that make up NHM’s exhibition. If you agree, please
tell NHM boss Michael Dixon directly what you think, (also perhaps not
forgetting BP, which is a Museum partner):
(020) 7942 5000;  m.dixon@nhm.ac.uk, cc’ing to  feedback@nhm.ac.uk,
 wildlifeletters@bbcmagazinesbristol.com & us.

Despite attempts to ‘greenwash’ its reputation via blanket advertising and
cultural sponsorship, Shell is still heavily implicated in producing
ever-greater quantities of the oil and gas that are destabilising our
climate to such an alarming degree. Climate change is set to wipe out
millions of plant and animal species and to devastate the poorest regions
of the planet.
* Shell’s activities also result in oil spills which are major causes of
death and destruction for many varieties of life.
* It is still burning off 'unwanted' gas all across the already massively
despoiled Niger Delta.
* Its planned refinery and pipeline project in County Mayo, Ireland,
threatens a pristine ecosysystem, not to mention the homes and livelihoods
of the inhabitants.
* It is currently constructing a massive development at Sakhalin Island in
Russia which is threatening the survival of the Western Pacific Gray
Whale. Lastly, Shell is the only company that has been investing hundreds
of millions of dollars to open up for oil exploration
the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas of the American Arctic.

For all these reasons, and many many more, Shell should not be sponsoring
the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition. We call on the Natural
History Museum to end its sponsorship deal with Shell. (After all, if the
UK government wasn't investing billions in reckless wars for oil,
perhaps it could pump more of our wealth into our cultural institutions,
large and small?)

Shell’s Wild Lie was put together by London Rising Tide (LRT), as part of
its ongoing Art Not Oil campaign, which stands for ‘creativity, climate
justice and an end to oil industry sponsorship of the arts’. Rising Tide
is part of a worldwide network of groups taking creative direct
action on the root causes of climate chaos. Thanks for taking the time to
take a
look…

2.) Songs of freedom at opening of Shell's Wild Lie exhibition, 27.10.07
Photos and more info:  http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/10/384536.html
Short film:  http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/10/384607.html

3.) Celebrated photographer Subhankar Banerjee resigns from International
League of Conservation Photographers (ILCP) over its support for Shell
Wildlife Photographer exhibition:
 http://www.artnotoil.org.uk//content/view/40/2/

4.) More on the image accompanying this article:
‘The photo was taken at Nome in Alaska in September 2004. The sandpiper had become stuck on barrels of waste oil that was leaking from barrels dumped on the tundra.’
www.globalwarmingimages.co.uk