For days, the Italian media has run front-page stories showing thousands protesting. On the pipeline route in Melendugno, hundreds of local residents block vehicles. Armed police enforce the excavation of ancient olive trees packaged in ghostly, white body bags, injuring protesters, including an elderly woman. And yet, this is only one, miniscule part of what it takes to ensure our future fossil fuel use.
The proposed 3,500km BP-led Euro-Caspian Mega (ECMP) pipeline would stretch from Azerbaijan to Italy and is opposed nearly everywhere. In Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev’s corrupt and repressive regime has ruled for 23 years propped up by oil and gas revenues. Journalists, writers, lawyers, and activists who dared to question Aliyev’s authority are jailed. The situation is now so dire that Azerbaijan has been suspended from the industry’s own initiative set up to promote transparency and good governance.
