Pushing Toxic Water Uphill: Chevron's Losing Battle in Ecuador Pollution Case

Chevron is back up against the ropes after a United States federal court judge denied a bid made by the corporation to stop Ecuadorian plaintiffs from collecting a damages award of $18 billion. Federal court judge Lewis Kaplan was asked to freeze assets owned by the plaintiffs until the result of a fraud lawsuit against the Ecuadorians was known. Unfortunately for Chevron, the bid was denied.

Adding to that, just a few days before the bid to freeze assets was made, Chevron was hit with one more nail in the coffin. An Ecuadorean appeal court upheld the $18 billion judgement over the oil damage in the county’s Amazon region. If the fraud lawsuit against the Ecuadorian plaintiffs fails, the oil giant has just one more option left, and that’s to make an appeal to Ecuador’s Supreme Court.

What caused the polution?

The exact circumstances of the pollution in question happened under Texaco, which has been part of Chevron Corporation since 2000. Texaco developed and operated the Lago Agrio oil field in the country from 1972 up until 1993, and during that time it is alleged that they did not dispose of industrial waste safely. It has been claimed that Texaco released up to 18 billion gallons of produced water into the Amazon rainforest, leaving a toxic trail that damaged vegetation, killed wildlife, and caused a variety of sicknesses in the local indigenous population. An environmental audit of the area pressured Texaco and Petroecuador, the two companies that extracted oil from the Lago Agrio oil field, to fund a $40 million remediation program from 1990 onwards. In 1998 a scientific team took water and soil samples only to find that around half of the samples analysed still had unsafe levels of petroleum hydrocarbon in them.

Action taken against Chevron

After years and years of campaigning, the Ecuadorian people finally managed to bring a case against Chevron in 2003. 30,000 Ecuadorean people were responsible for creating enough pressure and finding enough money to take on the multi-national corporation, and it paid off 8 years later. On the 15th of February 2011, an Ecuadorian court fined the oil company $8.6 billion for polluting the Amazon rainforest and the consequences of the damage. It was claimed during the lawsuit that local cancer rates increased, and crops and livestock were lost to the pollution.

The penalty rose to $9.5 billion dollars once an additional 10 per cent for reparations was included, but the total sum requested by Ecuadorian plaintiffs ended up being $27 billion. The court granted $18 billion, and the result of the case set a precedent, because it was the first instance of indigenous people suing a multinational corporation in a court located within the country the pollution actually happened in. Environmental activists celebrated and saw it as a start to charges being brought against other companies that pollute developing countries without punishment.

Chevron fights back

Chevron has opposed the fine since it was imposed, and filed a lawsuit against the Ecuadorian plaintiffs for fraud. The corporation believes that they have cleaned up their part of the damage to the rainforest, and they are being charged too much for the damages that have been claimed against them. Chevron has claimed that fraud and corruption have been used by the Ecuadorian plaintiffs, and the racketeering lawsuit they filed in New York in 2011 has yet to be decided.

This is not the first time that Chevron has been accused of illegal pollution, and they have even broken laws in America concerning pollution, namely the Clean Air Act. Other notable incidents were the 2002 oils spills in Angola that resulted in a claim for $2 million by the government of Angola for the damage. Only last year Chevron were prohibited from activities in Brazil after over 400,000 litres of oil were leaked into the ocean off the coast of Rio de Janeiro. The legal act that is being brought against Chevron in the Brazil case is demanding that $10.6 billion is paid in damages.

The controversy over Chevrons actions in Ecuador and whether they have been treated unfairly has been debated many times, but perhaps this new ruling is the beginning of the end to the case. What is certain is that no amount of money can turn the clock back and make good the damage done to the Amazonian rainforest.

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This is a guest post.

Olivia Lennox is a green freelancer from London. Normally she'll be extolling the virtues of tempurpedic products or the latest organic soaps, but she has her finger on the pulse of international environmental law too.

10 Biggest Health Dangers behind the US Oil Spill

Nursingschools.net was kind of enough to provide me the link to one of their posts on the dangers associated with the US Oil Spill. Their post talks about the present dangers and the future problems.

Such problems are

1) Sickness among the clean-up workers
2) Danger to marine life
3) Aggravation of existing illness
4) Pregnancy risks
5) Smoke fallout
6) Neurological disorder
7) Food contamination
8) Oxygen depletion
9) Dispersion of oil
10) Lung disease

Read the full article at their website.

Countries pledge to Copenhagen Accord

After the result of the Copenhagen Accord on December 2009, countries were given a time frame of January 31, 2010 to agree to the accord and the deadline has passed with US renewing vows to reduce CO2 emissions.

Basically the Accord summarized that global temperatures should not exceed more than 2 degrees and that countries affected by climate change were to be compensated by giving them financial support to combat climate change.

UN will announce the list of signatories soon but so far here are some of the pledges made by countries.

China - to reduce "carbon intensity" by 40-45% from 2005 by 2020.

India - to reduce carbon intensity by 20-25% from 2005 by 2020.

US - aim to cut emissions by about 17% by 2020, from 2005 levels.

EU - 20% emissions cut by 2020 from 1990 levels, and 30% if other nations deepen their reductions.

Brazil - to aim for 36-39% below projected levels by 2020.

Japan - 25% below 1990 levels by 2020

China to invest $5bn on solar power farms

China, the world's largest greenhouse emitter has signed a deal with eSolar Inc. to invest in solar power plants. China has overtaken US as the largest emitter in CO2 and China has pledged that they intend to reduce their emissions.

Solar thermal power farms will generate a capacity of 2000MW. This is a great effort by China as they are still considered as a developing economy so they do not have to agree with global bindings to reduce CO2 emissions. But since they have surpassed US, this project will be many more of green projects to come from China.

There wont be a deal in Copenhagen- US climate envoy

"Its certainly possible that there wont be a deal in Copenhagen", US climate change envoy Todd Stern told Britain's Channel Four. So what does that mean? Is the US not participating in the summit? I was expecting that with the new US administration's motto of "Change" that tackling climate change was one of its top issues. However from this statement it signifies that US are expecting this Climate talks to collapse as well.

On the other hand Britain's climate secretary,Ed Milliband said he will be going "all out" in this Copenhagen summit. He also said that a new global climate treaty is "do-able".

It is still uncertain if any outcome will come about, but it is important that a treaty be made before the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.

Bioneers Conference 2009

2009 marks the 20th anniversary of this premiere sustainability "Thought Leadership" forum on environmental and social justice issues along with scientific and cultural innovations focused around positive solutions inspired by nature and human ingenuity.

Speakers include Andrew Weil, MD, Michael Pollan (Author Omnivore’s Dilemma and Co-Creator of the film Food, Inc.), Annie Leonard (Creator of The Story of Stuff), and many others. The event takes place October 16-18th at the Frank Lloyd Wright Marin Civic Center in San Rafael, California, and at 18 Satellite Beamer Locations. We’re thrilled to also be Webcasting it for the first time.

We'll be featuring these key not-to-be-missed speakers:

The conference starts this October 16 2009 to October 18 2009.

* From Small Steps to the Energy Revolution

Friday October 16, 9am-1pm, Plenary

How do we move rapidly from 1% solar and wind energy in the U.S. to 50%? To 100%? Jack Hidary, co-founder of SmartTransportation.org and chairman of Americans for CleanEnergy.org, explains what we have to do realize this necessary re-evolution.

* Rehydration Revolution

Friday October 16, 2:45-4:15

Water and carbon are two of life’s most essential elements, but managed improperly they can destroy the land. “Keyline” design is a cutting-edge system that harvests and distributes water more evenly for greater fertility, increased root growth and much higher carbon sequestration. With Brock Dolman, Occidental Arts and Ecology Center’s master permaculturalist and land management and watershed expert; and Darren Doherty, renowned Australian permaculturaist, a leading global expert of innovative “broadacre” agricultural system.

* Living Buildings; The Future of Architecture

Saturday October 17, 9am-1pm, Plenary

Jason McLennon, the leading figure in the global green architecture movement challenges us to imagine and demand buildings that operate as elegantly and efficiently as the living structures nature creates. As CEO of Cascadia Green Building Council, author of the Living Building Challenge and co-creator of Pharos (the most advanced building material rating system in North America) he shows breathtaking examples from the worldwide Challenge underway to design building that meet or exceed nature’s ecosystem services.

If your away from California then pack your bags and head for the conference. If you cant make it then keep your self updated by live telecast by dropping by this site again on the 16th.

New Hopes for a cleaner future

Last month the entire world watched one of the most powerful person in the world take an oath to serve his country, Barack Obama, the president of United States of America. He will be remembered in the history books and those who witnessed his oath will never forget. After more than two weeks in office he has taken some stern decisions about the current global crisis, however his take on the environment has given hope for the future. Policies like the Kyoto Protocol and advising car manufacturers to reduce the carbon exhaust, introducing greener solutions has given many possibilities. Well introducing greener solutions will introduce more jobs where the current job market is very dull and may boost the economy.

Although time is the factor, it looks like America finally realizes that the environment is also a major crisis like the economy and something must be done about it. Good Luck to the current Obama administration!

Car Exhausts ceases lung growth

A US research claims thats houses near, beside a busy main road or motorway could cease lung growth in children. The research consisted of 3677 children aged between 10-18 years, which is the normal time for the lungs to completely develop. The researchers indicated that pollution can stop the lung from growing completely even for those who are healthy.

Children living close to major roads/streets in cities with high levels of air pollution are prone to greater risks of lung problems. Scientists have no idea what air pollution has to do with lung growth but believe that lung inflammation of daily air pollutants may be the cause of it.

Ps. My exams got over today so i am free. I should now be able to post.

World has 10-year window

A leading US climate researcher said that the world has a 10 year window of opportunity to act on climate and take decisive measures to cut down global warming and avert to weather and climate change.

He suggested that the government take steps to check, maintain and cut emmissions and limit global temperatures by 1 degree Celcius. He also said that if the world continues with "a business scenario" then the global temperatures will rise by 2-3 degress Celcius and we will producing a different planet. The forecasted planet would be warmer, ice sheets would melt quickly, causing rise in sea levels that would most of Manhattan under water. The world would see more prolonged droughts and heat waves, powerful hurricanes and likely extinction of 50% of species.

A great man lost

My condenlences to the family of Steve Irwin or The Croc Hunter. He was a great person and I have seen some of his documentaries and they were exciting to watch. However the world lost someone who have helped the enviornment and its wildlife from extinction and now the world needs people like him to restore the balance in nature because our time is short and rapid action must be taken before dire consequences.

I was watching CNN and there was warning over a Hurricance named Florence which has been given a Category 1 but further hurricanes may occur just like last year's Katrina or even worse than that.United States of America has never been fond of cutting emmisions owing to their economy and have never been serious to produce alternate energy sources. Eventhough some of you may say I am wrong but just tell me what alternate source of energy is there at the present moment to run your vehicle. There has stations with bio-diesel, hydrogen and oxygen run vehicles but neither are in mass production for a populationof 12 billion people.(Estimated world population,if i am wrong please do correct me) .


P.s Sorry for not posting frequently my connection has been disturbing quite some time and hopefully with post on a daily basis.