IN 1962 my wife and I drove into a nearby forest to check out a large clearing that had suddenly appeared at the same time as a number of unexplained bangs.

We were curious but then we were in the Niger Delta rather than North Yorkshire. The mud road was deeply rutted and it all soon became clear - Shell had arrived - and facing us was a seismic investigation compound, and a drilling rig.

The next two years saw streams of large wagons, and huge piles of pipes, and then we left, fleeing the Biafran war in which oil revenues played a major role. We haven't been back but if we did we would be appalled at what has happened to the peaceful farming and fishing communities of the Isoko, Ijaw and Ogoni. Their lives have been devastated, even terminated, and their delta despoiled.

Nigeria is now the tenth largest oil producer in the world, and the largest in Africa, producing over two million barrels a day. These generate three quarters of Nigeria's export earnings and could have revolutionised the country but it wasn't in the multinationals' plan.

The thousands of small wells produce large volumes of natural gas as well as the oil, over 100 million cubic metres a day, but rather than use it to generate electricity it's cheaper to flare off at least 70 per cent of it, and light up the delta. This, the equivalent of a quarter of the UK's daily use, is wasted, and now provides the largest single source of carbon dioxide emissions anywhere in the world. It's supposed to have stopped, but still continues in many areas.

That's bad enough but the dense network of narrow pipelines has corroded badly in the tropical conditions resulting in more than 7,000 oil spills since 1970 – the equivalent of the disastrous 1989 Exxon-Valdez oil spill in Alaska every year for the last fifty years. And this isn't at sea, it's in one of the world's most biodiverse rain forests, destroying mangrove swamps, crops and fresh water fisheries in an area of dense population.

Unsurprisingly the locals weren't happy. Their response, which included some sabotage, was brutally confronted by the military and eight local leaders were hanged. Human rights violations were common, hundreds died, and villages destroyed as well as law and order being severely tested. In addition there's been a marked deterioration in health, with contaminated soil and fish, and poor air quality.

Disappointingly the indigenous folk of the Arctic countries are next in line for Shell's oil exploiting shortcuts, and I do hope the successful anti-fracking villagers of Balcombe, in West Susssex, realise just how fortunate they've been.