NOTE: Images in this archived article have been removed.
This essay comes from the book ENERGY: Overdevelopment and the Delusion of Endless Growth Published by the Foundation for Deep Ecology in collaboration with Watershed Media and Post Carbon Institute.
Download Sweet and Sour: The Curse of Oil in the Niger Delta
Sweet and Sour: The Curse of Oil in the Niger Delta – Michael Watts
Read more and take action at energy-reality.org
Michael Watts is Director of African Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. The author of eight books,he has published widely on Nigeria and the Niger Delta over the last three decades. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2001 for his work on the impact of oil in Africa.
Tags: energy industry, energy-reality, Natural Gas, Nigeria, Oil, resource conflicts, resource curse
Related Articles
'SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS wp_posts.ID
FROM wp_posts LEFT JOIN wp_term_relationships ON (wp_posts.ID = wp_term_relationships.object_id)
WHERE 1=1 AND wp_posts.ID NOT IN (1924857) AND (
wp_term_relationships.term_taxonomy_id IN (1)
) AND wp_posts.post_type = \'post\' AND ((wp_posts.post_status = \'publish\'))
GROUP BY wp_posts.ID
ORDER BY wp_posts.post_date DESC
LIMIT 0, 3'
By The Last Farm, Adapt : Survive : Prevail
The claim is ubiquitous: if we’re to meet our climate goals, we need a mass buildout of renewable energy production. But this claim is false, and worse yet, attempting it will accelerate climate collapse.
February 12, 2026
By Nate Hagens, The Great Simplification
This week’s Frankly is another edition of Nate’s Wide Boundary News series, where he invites listeners to view the constant churn of headlines through a wider-boundary lens. Today’s edition features reflections on a new peak in crude oil production, the growth of non-dispatchable electricity, and a report recently released by the World Economic Forum assessing global risks.
February 10, 2026