----- forwarded message ----- Date: Sat, 7 Jul 2001 01:20:36 -0700 (PDT) From: Robert Clay <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> when spiderwebs unite, they can tie up a lion ethiopian proverb ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 5 Jul 2001 09:30:46 -0700 From: Brian Hill <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [bioregional] Boycott of Exxon-Mobil gaining momentum Greetings; Body Shop is owned by Anita Roddick who is very radical and very effective. With this momentum started in UK if we can help spread it to the US and other industrialized countries this may become the first victory in controlling multinationals through global boycotts of their products. Only their bottom line will get their attention. Lets demonstrate to all that the power of unified efforts can overcome corporate control. Boycott Exxon Mobil! Brian Hill ********** If we came out in unity in the US now they would cave in. Exxon Mobil is prime for the picking. I hope we don't miss the boat on this one. John ----- Original Message ----- From: Alex Tapia Sent: Wednesday, July 04, 2001 10:07 PM To: Stop Exxon Info Subject: [stopexxoninfo] Esso says concerned over Body Shop's UK boycott move Esso says concerned over Body Shop's UK boycott move ---------------------------------------------------------------------- -- UK: July 5, 2001 LONDON - Esso yesterday expressed dismay over the Body Shop's decision to back a UK boycott of Esso garages in protest at its parent company's stance on global warming and its past record on renewable energy spending. "From our point of view we are disappointed that is what the Body Shop has chosen to do," said a spokesman for Esso, the European brand of ExxonMobil . Reiterating previous statements he said the company denied allegations that it was not concerned by climate change. "Calls for a boycott are of concern to the company. Particularly from our point of view if the position on climate change is different to what might have been represented." The Body Shop yesterday became the first business to publicly back the boycott pledging to distribute leaflets in its UK stores and banning its fleet of trucks from filling up at Esso service stations. It has also urged its 2,500-strong staff to do the same. The boycott, part of the Stop Esso Campaign launched by an alliance of green groups back in May, has gradually been gaining momentum. High profile celebrities including former model Bianca Jagger and popstar Annie Lennox have backed the cause while European Members of Parliament have urged consumers to boycott Exxon Mobil Corp's Esso brand products. Green groups like Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth maintain that Exxon Mobil has been instrumental in helping to derail the Kyoto Protocol by funding orgaisations like the Global Climate Coalition. The powerful lobby group counters the view that fossil fuels cause global warming. Environmental groups also berate the company for failing to spend a cent on renewable energy initiatives in recent years. Exxon Mobil counters that it supports the study of climate change and has invested over $500 million in renewable energy. But on closer inspection it emerges that the super major pledged this sum in the late 1980s. It is not known if the boycott is biting into Esso's bottom line - the company declined to comment on the impact on sales - but analysts said that the campaign would be damaging to any oil company operating in the notoriously competitive UK fuel retail environment. Retail margins on fuels have been wafer thin for sometime and oil companies are only just beginning to benefit from an upturn in profits after the fuel protests of last year which forced retailers to hold prices down. "We are in a period at the moment where the fuels retail environment in the UK has switched to being reasonably favourable, where oil product prices are coming down, and margins are coming down," said Stephen Brooks an oil analyst with Wood Mackenzie. "Esso would want to take advantage of that and maximise their volume throughput at their filling stations...The boycott might have the effect of dampening demand." Story by Stefano Ambrogi REUTERS NEWS SERVICE ____________ Alex Tapia Climate Coordinator [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Exxon Mobil, the biggest (oil company), is also the world's most powerful climate-change skeptic � If the world's biggest purveyor of fossil fuels ever accepts openly that global warming is real, that may turn out to be more important to the planet than any Kyoto deal." --The Economist, December 2, 2000 Campaign ExxonMobil (http://www.campaignexxonmobil.org) 611 South Congress, Suite 200, Austin, TX 78704 (512)479-0335; cell: (512) 636-0507; fax: (512)479-7645 Toll free 87 SAVE TIGEr
