With gas hitting a nice round $4.00 per gallon, there
has never been a better time to get even with the oil companies. Driving a car
with the highest possible fuel economy is one of the best ways to fight back.
It keeps more money in your pocket, and it puts less money in their
pocket. Both are fun. As a neighbor’s
license plate says on his Prius, “Exxon, Ha!” Walking, hybrid-cabbing, busing, and biking are also good take-that-big-oil strategies.
Oil companies are currently rich. Really rich. Consider that
Exxon Mobil reported the largest corporate profit in history of $40 billion in 2007. They also fund research that tries to
disprove global warming. Chevron has enjoyed 3 straight years of record profits
and raked in $19 billion alone last year.
Our next stop is the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador
visited recently by celebrities Daryl Hannah, Stuart Townsend, David De Rothschild, Trudie
Styler, and Q’orianka Kilcher. They trekked to see the site where
Texaco (now owned by Chevron) drilled and dumped 18 Billion gallons of oil contamination
into the once-pristine rainforest and indigenous peoples’ homes. This is 30
times worse than Exxon Valdez. This is
not an oil spill. This is an oil flood. It is a big black smelly toxic mess the size of Rhode Island for 1,700 square miles. It poisoned all of the air and water the
people and animals live on, and Chevron-Texaco refuses to clean it up. Chevron, boo.
Imagine if a company dumped crude oil into the entire Golden Gate Park or Central Park? I think there might a protest fit for a
torch or more. The ah-ha for me was that Chevron-Texaco’s drilling system
was designed to pollute from the start. No reinjection technology and no liners
for the oil pits. This essentially guaranteed one of the greatest human rights and
environmental disasters in the history of the world.
A high-profile lawsuit of 30,000 Ecuadorians versus
Chevron-Texaco has been brewing for decades and is reaching the boiling
point. The head lawyer Pablo Fajardo and
community leader Luis Yanza just won the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize
for their unwavering crusade for justice. The applause was boisterous. In a pivotal
moment last week, the court estimated that Chevron-Texaco owes $7 billion - $16
billion in potential damages. Note that $9 billion of this is how much extra profit
Texaco made by installing outdated technology designed to destroy
life of all sizes and colors in the Amazon. Chevron even tried going to the top
of a hill to take soil samples that they hoped were pure, but no such luck. Oil
contamination is still everywhere and will be until they clean it up.
Chevron just hired the infamous Sam Singer to attempt to
spin its way out of this, but let’s just say, that Mr. Singer is on the wrong
side of this issue.
Last night, I had the privilege of seeing the premiere of
the film Justicia Now. In one great scene, we see Daryl Hannah traipsing
around the rainforest and getting down and dirty with the oil. Thanks to the wonders of the web and the
visionary filmmakers Martin O'Brien and Robbie Proctor of MoFilms, you can download
this short film for free. Over 200,000 downloads have occurred so far. I
thought the film was going to be depressing and brought lots of recycled tissue
paper with me. But it wasn’t. Justicia Now was
riveting and enlightening because you go on a journey with the indigenous
people as they protest and with the lawyers as they fight for justice. “Justicia Ya!” the people chant. I felt like chanting too.
A companion photo book called Crude Reflections: Oil, Ruin
and Resistance in the Amazon Rainforest by Lou Dematteis is also being released.
For more scoop or to help, please see Amazon Watch led by
the amazing Atossa Soltani, and consider joining one of their upcoming activities. Just released is
their new animated YouTube video spoof by cartoonist Mark Fiore. See www.chevrontoxico.com and www.amazonwatch.org
All I can say for now is, thank goodness I finally got
that Prius, which has gone 90 mph on the freeway so far without a
shake. My average fuel economy is 43 mpg. And just wait until we can buy 100+
mpg plug-in hybrids. Chevron, Ha!
With gas hitting a nice round $4.00 per gallon, there
has never been a better time to get even with the oil companies. Driving a car
with the highest possible fuel economy is one of the best ways to fight back.
It keeps more money in your pocket, and it puts less money in their
pocket. Both are fun. As a neighbor’s
license plate says on his Prius, “Exxon, Ha!” Walking, hybrid-cabbing, busing, and biking are also good take-that-big-oil strategies.
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