To underscore the seriousness of oil pollution, MAP's director joined a US delegation in Nigeria to visit the Niger Delta.

I have just returned after a brief visit to the front lines of a battlefield called the Niger Delta, where an intense war has been obscurely raging for over 40 years now.

The Niger Delta contains the 3rd largest contiguous mangrove forest in the world. Once rich in biodivesity and teeming with marine life, the area is now being rapidly degraded by petroleum production.

The entire region is engulfed in what might be called a Petroleum War - a war fueled by the uncontrolled greed of the multinational oil conglomerates and their cronies and mafia-style henchmen in government.

During my 2nd week in Nigeria, I was struck down by malaria - wounded in battle, you might say - another victim in this unholy war against the planet. But the roads to oil riches in Nigeria are lined with countless other victims and environmental refugees, whose very source of life and sustenance is left in abject ruin.

Yet, this is a war in which there can be no victors, only victims, for in the end everyone who is native to this planet stands to lose. Those hundred and more uncontrolled gas flares burning continuously for decades are adding to global warming, eerily lighting the way towards imminent natural disaster, while those multifarious oil spills and pipeline leaks are saturating the land and water ways, until, as one local resident put it:

"There are no fish near shore now, the mangroves are dying, our food crops will not grow, our well waters are contaminated, and even our rainwater is no longer safe to drink!"

Read more about the massive power failures and corporate irresponsibility, about news blackouts and human rights violations. This is also a story of the immense suffering and the courageous struggle of the people of the Niger Delta. It is in this light of supporting their just struggle for a healthy environment, for their self-determination and basic human rights, that this story is written. And, one thing I have personally learned during this difficult journey through a part of a man-made inferno is that there are no easy shortcuts on the road to sustainability! Meanwhile, for the people of the Niger Delta, the struggle continues...