Stop Ecuador’s Ecological Disaster: Tell Chevron to Clean Up Its Mess in the Amazon

By: Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis

[ Posted On: 2010-02-03 ]

Every person on earth is gravely endangered by the calamitous consequences of Chevron’s undertakings in Ecuador’s rainforest, in the westernmost confines of the Amazon basin. Care2 calls people worldwide to sign a petition, telling Chevron to Clean Up Its Mess in the Amazon. Supported by Rainforest Action Network, the petition denounces the environmentally catastrophic drilling that had as consequence U.S. Oil giant Chevron’s deliberately dumping of more than 18 billion gallons of toxic wastewater into the rainforest.

I herewith publish the introductory text, the petition text, an insightful on the Rainforest Action Network, and the Welcome Letter by President and CEO, Care2.

I call you all to sign this petition because wherever you may live, Ecuador is just your next door neighbor.

Tell Chevron to Clean Up Its Mess in the Amazon
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/265329639?z00m=19822809

Target: Chevron CEO John Watson
Sponsored by: Rainforest Action Network

Chevron is responsible for one of the largest environmental disasters on the planet.

Over the course of 26 years of oil drilling in Ecuador's Amazon rainforest, U.S. oil giant Chevron deliberately dumped more than 18 billion gallons of toxic wastewater into the rainforest, leaving local people suffering a wave of cancers, miscarriages and birth defects. In spite of the tremendous suffering caused by this toxic pollution, Chevron has refused to clean up the catastrophe.

Within the next year, the outcome of a court case sixteen years in the making will be determined by a court in Ecuador. Chevron has stated that even if it is found guilty in court the company simply won't pay to clean up the site or provide health care, potable water and compensation to affected communities. Chevron needs to take responsibility. But the company won't unless it feels pressure from its American customers and the general public.

Send a letter to CEO John Watson and tell him he needs to clean up the toxic legacy in Ecuador. And tell him that Chevron must adopt sound human rights policies so that what is happening to the people of Ecuador and the rainforest never happens anywhere else.

Petition

Dear Mr. Watson:,

As the new CEO of Chevron, climate change and the environmental and human rights impacts of Chevron's operations are the two issues that will define your tenure at the helm of one of the world's largest oil companies. Chevron has fallen behind other businesses and many political leaders already taking a leadership position on climate change. Furthermore, your company is drawing increasing criticism for failing to rectify its massive human rights and environmental disaster in Ecuador. Taking the following steps will demonstrate a true commitment to environmental responsibility and respect for human rights which will only strengthen your company's future.

We the undersigned call on Chevron CEO John Watson to:

Clean up Chevron's toxic legacy in Ecuador, compensate affected communities for health and environmental impacts, and provide affected people real access to health care and potable water.

Develop a global environment and human rights policy that will prevent similar tragedies in the future.

Adopt aggressive strategies to provide clean energy to a carbon-constrained world.

Sincerely,

- End of Petition

Rainforest Action Network – An Insightful

Who we are
http://ran.org/about_ran/

Rainforest Action Network (RAN) is headquarted in San Francisco, California with offices staff in Tokyo, Japan, and Edmonton, Canada, plus thousands of volunteer scientists, teachers, parents, students and other concerned citizens around the world. We believe that a sustainable world can be created in our lifetime, and that aggressive action must be taken immediately to leave a safe and secure world for our children.]

Dubbed “some of the most savvy environmental agitators in the business” by the Wall Street Journal, RAN uses hard-hitting markets campaigns to align the policies of multinational corporations with widespread public support for environmental protection. We believe that logging ancient forests for copy paper or destroying an endangered ecosystem for a week’s worth of oil is not just destructive, but outdated and unnecessary.

Market activism

Our corporate campaigns seek to push companies to balance profits with principles, to show that it is possible to do well by doing good. We publicly applaud and support political and corporate leaders who show strong leadership and innovation in advancing sustainability. Sadly, many companies require more motivation. Our campaigns leverage public opinion and consumer pressure to turn the public stigma of environmental destruction into a business nightmare for any American company that refuses to adopt responsible environmental policies. But much more needs to be done. For our society to truly break its oil and coal addictions, protect endangered forests, and promote human rights and sustainable finance, everyone must get involved. Please join us.

Success Stories

On an annual budget dwarfed by those of the companies we target, RAN has helped convince dozens of corporations including Home Depot, Citigroup, Boise Cascade, and Goldman Sachs to change their practices. We've helped to protect millions of acres of forests in Canada, Indonesia, Brazil, Chile and beyond.

2008
RAN and allies convince ANZ, Australia's third largest bank, to not fund Australian logging giant Gunns Ltd's controversial Bell Bay pulp mill project in Tasmania. The pulp mill would have accelerated the conversion of Tasmania's native and old-growth forests to woodchips for export to Japan.

RAN successfully pressures Boise Inc. to cease purchasing wood fiber logged from the traditional territory of the Grassy Narrows First Nation in northwest Ontario without the Indigenous community's consent. Shortly after, AbitibiBowater, the largest paper company in the world, agrees to stop logging on Grassy Narrows land and throughout Canada's 2.7 million-acre Whiskey Jack Forest.

Ontario's premier announces a commitment to protect 56 million acres of old-growth forests in the northern boreal, the largest conservation agreement in North American history.

2007
Toronto Dominion becomes the first Canadian bank to adopt a comprehensive environmental policy to guide its financing and operations. It is also the first bank to recognize the rights of Indigenous peoples to free, prior and informed consent over industrial projects in their traditional territories.

2005
JPMorgan Chase releases a comprehensive environmental policy that takes significant steps forward on climate change, forest protection, and Indigenous rights.

Working closely with RAN, Goldman Sachs becomes the first global investment bank to adopt a comprehensive environmental policy, calling for urgent action by public policy makers and regulators to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

2004
RAN declares victory after a four-year campaign as Citigroup announces its "New Environmental Initiatives", the most far-reaching set of environmental commitments of any bank in the world.

Bank of America announces its new climate and forest protection policies on the eve of a planned National Day of Action coordinated by RAN.

2003
After three years of relentless RAN campaigning, Boise releases "Boise and the Environment", a policy that makes it the largest American forest products company to eliminate the logging and purchasing of wood and paper products from endangered forests.

After pressure from RAN activists, FleetBoston Financial transforms a Chilean logging company's bankruptcy into permanent protection for close to 150,000 acres of endangered temperate rainforest.

2001
Boise cancels $160 million Cascada Project in southern Chile, slated to be the world's largest chip mill.

RAN and a coalition of allies, First Nations communities and logging companies announce the largest rainforest conservation measure in North American history, protecting more than 3.5 million acres of Canada's Great Bear Rainforest.

Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum withdraws from the U'wa tribe's ancestral land in northeastern Colombia.

2000
RAN convinces Centex Homes, Kaufman & Broad, and Ryland Homes to stop using wood from endangered old-growth forests in new home construction.

1999
Home Depot, the world's largest wood products retailer, announces its commitment to stop selling wood from endangered forests.

Within the next year, home improvement retailers Wickes Lumber, HomeBase, Menard's, Lowe's, 84 Lumber and Payless Cashways all commit to phase out wood from endangered forests.

1998
Mitsubishi Motor Sales America and Mitsubishi Electric America pledge to end use of old-growth forest products and phase out use of tree-based paper and packaging products in favor of alternative fibers.

MacMillan Bloedel, Canada's largest logging company, announces that it will end its contentious practice of clear-cut logging in old-growth forests.

Twenty-seven Fortune 500 companies including IBM, Kinko's and Hallmark commit to go old growth-free.

1997
British-based RTZ, the largest mining company in the world, and Canadian mining giant ODIN both announce plans to abandon their operations in Ecuador.

1996
The Brazilian government issues an order that officially recognizes the Indigenous land rights of the Panara people within their traditional territory in the Brazilian rainforest.

1994
Hollywood's major studios agree to phase out the use of lauan, a tropical forest hardwood used in set design, and switch to alternative wood products.

True Geothermal abandons its plans to build a controversial power plant and withdraws from the last Hawaiian lowland rainforest.

1992
U.S.-based Stone Container's plans to build a rainforest chip mill that would decimate 2.5 million acres of Honduras' virgin pine forests are halted.

Brazilian government declares Yanomami lands permanent Indigenous territory.

RAN helps support Ecuadorian Indigenous people's march to secure title to 2.5 million acres of their ancestral rainforest lands.

1991
Dupont-owned Conoco pulls out of a multimillion dollar oil development project within Yasuni National Park in the Ecuadorian Amazon.

1989
U.S.-based Scott Paper forced to cancel a $653 million Indonesian pulp mill that would have clear-cut 2 million acres of rainforest on the Indonesian island of Irian Jaya.

1988
Funding canceled for the development of the Nam Choan dam, which threatened to displace local rainforest communities in Thailand.

1987
RAN's first grassroots market campaign yields success when fast-food chain Burger King cancels $35 million worth of Central American rainforest beef contracts, a major milestone in the fight against converting rainforests to cattle ranches.

1986
Kicking off a worldwide movement to highlight the destructive lending practices of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, RAN hangs its first banner off the World Bank's Washington, D.C., headquarters.

The Care2 Story – An Insightful
http://www.care2.com/aboutus/

Welcome!

I started Care2, back in 1998, to help make the world a better place.

The idea is simple: Make it easy for everyone to live a healthy, green lifestyle and impact the causes they care about most.

The seeds for Care2 were planted many years ago. I was 13 years old, traveling up the Amazon with my father in a thatch-covered boat. My father, an ornithologist, studied the birds, while I marveled at the rich wildlife, lush vegetation and fascinating people we encountered deep in the jungle.

What struck me most was the contrast between the remote tribes living in harmony with the rainforest, and the poverty and deforestation in the most "modernized" towns we visited. I realized the world was terribly out of balance.

From that truth, an overwhelming desire to make a difference was born. I believed the power to make a positive change in the world was within each of us.

But how could we harness that power?

The answer came in 1998. The Internet. Finally, the power to mobilize the world was at hand. I raised money from some kind and crazy souls, and then really lucked out in finding two extraordinary partners -- Matt McGlynn (now our chief technology officer) and Camilla Eriksson (now our vice president of eCards). In September 1998, we launched Care2 from my tiny apartment.

Care2 provides powerful tools to make a difference in your life, your community, and the world. Our website is driven by passionate people (like you) who want to restore the world's balance. We pride ourselves on being a different kind of company. As a certified Benefit Corporation (B-corp), we’re committed to using the power of business to make a positive social and earth-friendly impact on the world.

Care2 grew out of my apartment a long time ago. Today we are more than 50 employees, 11 million members, 400 nonprofit partners and hundreds of responsible advertisers making a difference.

Thank you for caring!

President and CEO, Care2

Note: An artistic viewpoint on an ecological disaster. In real life terms, no activity undertaken by Chevron in Ecuador reflects any form of beauty.
From: http://twilightearth.com/energy/oil/worlds-largest-oil-related-environmental-catastrophe-chevron-ecuador/

Article Source: http://www.afroarticles.com/article-dashboard

About The Author: Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis - is Orientalist, Assyriologist, Egyptologist, Iranologist, Islamologist, Historian and Political Scientist. Dr. Megalommatis, 52, is the author of 12 books, dozens of scholarly articles, hundreds of encyclopedia entries, and thousands of articles. He speaks, reads and writes more than 15, modern and ancient, languages.

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