AMAZON WATCH » Chevron: Clean Up Ecuador. Visit Chevron. Toxico. Chevron accountable for its toxic legacy in Ecuador. Support Clear. Water, a movement for clean water, rainforest protection, and cultural survival in the region contaminated by Chevron. The company deliberately dumped billions of gallons of toxic wastewater into rivers and streams, spilled millions of gallons of crude oil, and abandoned hazardous waste in hundreds of unlined open- air pits littered throughout the region. The result is widespread devastation of the rainforest ecosystem and local indigenous communities, and one of the worst environmental disasters in history. Chevron has never carried out a meaningful clean up of the mess it is responsible for, and its infrastructure continues to poison the communities of the Ecuadorian Amazon. Despite Chevron's repeated efforts to sabotage the trial, the local people remain determined to hold Chevron accountable, demanding clean- up costs and compensation for the devastation the company caused. The indigenous inhabitants of this pristine rainforest, including the Cof. The forests and rivers provided the physical and cultural subsistence base for their daily survival. They had little idea what to expect or how to prepare when oil workers moved into their backyard and founded the town of Lago Agrio, or . The Ecuadorian government had similarly little idea what to expect; no one had ever successfully drilled for oil in the Amazon rainforest before. The government entrusted Texaco, a well- known U. S. This led to systematic pollution from multiple sources on a daily basis for almost three decades. Many of these pits leak into the water table or overflow in heavy rains, polluting rivers and streams that tens of thousands of people depend on for drinking, cooking, bathing and fishing. Chevron also dumped more than 1. At the height of Texaco's operations, the company was dumping an estimated 4 million gallons of per day, a practice outlawed in major US oil producing states like Louisiana, Texas, and California decades before the company began operations in Ecuador in 1. By handling its toxic waste in Ecuador in ways that were illegal in its home country, Texaco saved an estimated $3 per barrel of oil produced. It has irreversibly altered and degraded an environment that people have called home for millennia. Indigenous peoples who knew the forest intimately and lived sustainably off of its resources for countless generations have found themselves forced into dire poverty, unable to make a living in their traditional ways now that the rivers and forests are empty of fish and game. Where to go, what to do this week in Shanghai. Read on for Shanghaiist's picks. Example @ MAO Livehouse English Electronic, Hip-hop and Dubstep singer songwriter, Example is heading to MAO Livehouse as part of a.Native Amazonians and recent migrants to the area alike suffer from a severe health crisis that includes cancer, birth defects, and everyday ailments related to toxic exposure. For the indigenous residents, the physical ailments they face are accentuated by the cultural impoverishment that the oil industry has brought to the region, in some cases amounting to the almost total loss of ancient traditions and wisdom. No permission was ever granted, and no vote ever taken, by those whose lives were to be irrevocably changed with the arrival of Big Oil. Not until Texaco had already done its damage, packed up and left the country were the people of the Oriente able to organize to effectively defend their rights. Now they are involved in a struggle of epic proportions and worldwide consequences as they fight to hold Chevron, the inheritor of Texaco's legacy, accountable for one of the worst oil disasters on the planet. The indigenous peoples of the area included the Cof. They lived by a combination of hunting, gathering, fishing and small- scale, subsistence agriculture. The populations of these indigenous groups had been greatly reduced by prior conflict with settlers, and disease epidemics brought on by contact with the outside world, particularly during the rubber boom of the late 1. Nonetheless, many ancient traditions were intact, and indigenous peoples lived in close harmony with the forest, subtly managing its resources in sophisticated and ecologically sustainable ways. At the time, two nomadic indigenous groups, the Tetetes and the Sansahuari, inhabited the region and were as of yet uncontacted by the outside world. Oil workers showed little respect for native cultures; more than half of people in one survey recalled being treated . Workers ridiculed indigenous peoples for their customs and ways of dress, were hostile or unresponsive to those with grievances against the company, and committed acts of sexual violence against local people. Texaco workers introduced alcohol to communities unprepared for it; one Cof. We have rides for the whole family here at Pleasurewood Hills. Whether you like fast or more relaxing ones – we have it all. From our classic rollercoasters to our swashbuckling old favourite The Pirate Ship or even a gentle The man, from Bristol, has been diagnosed with psittacosis - commonly known as parrot fever, which causes fever, chills and an intolerance to light, according to Public Health England. A collection of the Web's creepiest Halloween-related resources, searchable by keyword. Spookysites.com currently lists in excess of 100 free Halloween-related links, as well as several links to commercial Halloween celebrations. For over three decades, Chevron chose profit over people. While drilling for oil in Ecuador's Amazon rainforest region, the company deliberately dumped billions of gallons of toxic wastewater into rivers and streams, spilled. None of these social disruptions, however, were anything compared to the devastation that Texaco's oil operations themselves would bring. We began to live in a world very different from before, with noise, big machines and oil spills and petroleum waste products. A road completed by Texaco in 1. Lago Agrio to the Andes mountains to the west, invited settlement by migrants from the highlands. Indigenous peoples who left their lands because, as a Cof. Contamination reduced fish and game stocks; those used to subsisting by hunting and gathering found it impossible to survive by those methods any longer. Indigenous cultural traditions and beliefs began to die alongside traditional ways of life. All of the traditional indigenous communities of the region have been greatly affected. Chevron claims that the Cof. Due to Texaco's operations, most ethnic Cof. Texaco dumped 1. 8 billion gallons of toxic wastewater directly into the region's rivers and streams depended upon for drinking, cooking, bathing and fishing. The contamination of water essential for the daily activities of tens of thousands of people has resulted in an epidemic of cancer, miscarriages, birth defects, and other ailments. Scientific surveys have confirmed what local people know from their own experience: rates of cancer, including mouth, stomach and uterine cancer, are elevated in areas where there is oil contamination. The court- appointed independent expert in the ongoing trial estimated that Chevron is responsible for at least 1. Other studies have found high rates of childhood leukemia in particular, as well as an abnormal number of miscarriages. Children whose mothers were exposed to contaminated water have been born with birth defects. Those who bathe in contaminated rivers report skin rashes. Those who drink the water report diarrhea. In this way, oil contamination has become a constant, oppressive, inescapable fact of life for tens of thousands of residents of the Oriente. The overall toll that oil exploitation has taken on the region is impossible to quantify, and can perhaps best be understood through the words of people directly affected. Another Texaco oil well was upstream from where we got our drinking water, and the water was usually oily with a yellowish foam. I lost Pedro when he was 1. He had three cancerous tumors: in his lungs, liver, and his leg. The water near my house, where I washed clothes, was full of crude and the sore grew bigger, as if the flesh were rotting. It didn't hurt, but I couldn't stand its stink. I had a fever and chills. She was born that way, not moving with soft bones. The doctors were never able to tell me what was wrong with her. Now she can sit up, crawl, pull herself along the floor, turn over. I have to feed her by hand. When it left in 1. Conditions have unfortunately worsened since then. State oil company Petroecuador inherited Texaco's obsolete infrastructure and continued to operate it. Chevron, which purchased Texaco in 2. Texaco took advantage of limited Ecuadorian government oversight, and abused the trust of oil officials, who assumed that an American oil giant would employ the same state- of- the- art technology in Ecuador that it had developed and used at home. It has ruined a way of life, rendering it nearly impossible for indigenous peoples to practice their traditional modes of subsistence. Oil contamination has also created a vast public health crisis throughout the Texaco concession area. The major sources of contamination from its operations are. Seventeen years later, the trial continues today against Chevron in an Ecuadorian courtroom in the Amazon town of Lago Agrio. The oil industry and communities around the world are watching and waiting on the outcome. A victory for the affected communities would send shockwaves through corporate boardrooms around the world, putting multinational corporations on notice that they can and will be held accountable for environmental and human rights abuses, no matter where they are committed. The company has engaged in repeated attempts to subvert the rule of law in Ecuador, ranging from the use of deceptive sampling techniques in scientific studies of the contamination, to lobbying efforts in Washington, to dirty tricks campaigns to contrive a phony corruption scandal and smear the presiding judge. We have successfully worked with shareholders, consumers, environmentalists, indigenous rights supporters, and other concerned people to expose these efforts and keep the heat on Chevron to clean up its toxic legacy in Ecuador. However, we need continuing support to ensure that 3. Ecuadorian indigenous and campesino peoples get their day in court to demand accountability from one of the world's largest corporations.
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