Re: THANK YOU AL GORE
- From: 9 Trillion Dollar Republican National Debt <icadserve@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 07 Jul 2007 19:18:04 -0700
On Jul 7, 10:07 pm, Harold Burton <hal.i.bur...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
In article <1183859913.904548.88...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,= Yeah, like Al Gore, with his McMansions and SUVs. That you
9 Trillion Dollar Republican National Debt <icadse...@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
On Jul 7, 9:40 pm, Harold Burton <hal.i.bur...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
In article <1183858278.677548.50...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
9 Trillion Dollar Republican National Debt <icadse...@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Keep up the good work Al, you did good.
= Yep, you raped the planet, with your SUVs and McMansions and their
energy demands, but you bought indulgences (energy credits) so it's all= OK, to the idiot leftards at least.
snicker
I don't drive an SUV and I am very energy conservation minded, I also
rely on facts not empty hype and bloated assumptions, like you, the
uneducated and self serving do.
No the people who REALLY rape the planet are the greedy rich...
couldn't
= figure that out makes you too stupid to even qualify as a leftard.
= hahahahahahaha.
I don't drive an SUV and I am very energy conservation minded, I also
rely on facts not empty hype and bloated assumptions, like you, the
uneducated and self serving do.
No the people who REALLY rape the planet are the greedy rich
Republican corporate pigs, like these pigs here did -->
Chevron (CVX) in the Amazon - Oil Rights or Human Rights?
Texaco's legacy, Chevron's resposibility
"Our health has been damaged seriously by the contamination caused by
Texaco. Many people in our community now have red stains on their skin
and others have been vomiting and fainting. Some little children have
died because their parents did not know they should not drink the
river water."
Excerpt: Affidavit of the Secoya tribe given by Elias Piaguaie -
Aguinda, et al v. Texaco Inc. - Case # 93-CV-7527.
The human rights situation of Indigenous peoples and environmentalists
in Ecuador continues to be a serious concern for Amnesty
International. For over four decades, Indigenous communities have
witnessed multinational oil companies cut through the Ecuadorian
Amazon and their ancestral lands in search of the country's vast
petroleum resources. Testimonies by members of these communities,
verified by independent health studies and reports (including "Amazon
Crude" by Judith Kimerling) have described how oil companies have left
dead rivers, road-scarred forests, polluted air, and daily discharges
of millions of gallons of toxic waste in their wake that are affecting
the daily lives of the communities in the area.
Take Action
Act now to help defend communities in the Amazon and hold Chevron
(CVX) accountable.
Operating in a region of the rain forest known as the 'Oriente' both
transnational and domestic oil companies threaten the survival of
Indigenous populations as well as those who seek to protect their
communities and the environment. Over the past four decades, a
succession of U.S. petroleum companies including Texaco (now owned by
Chevron Corporation), Occidental Petroleum, ARCO, and Maxus Energy
Corporation, among others, have come to Ecuador in search of oil.
Environmental and human rights defenders claim that these companies
have left behind a trail of destruction, posing a serious danger to
people's survival.
Northern Amazon:
The Chevron Pollution and Three Decades of Neglect
Texaco, currently owned by Chevron Corporation (CVX), began
prospecting for oil in Ecuador in 1964, becoming the first company to
discover commercial quantities. Subsequently, Texaco's joint venture
with Petroecuador, in which the U.S. company was an operating partner,
set the standards for operations in the region. According to the 1993
report "Crudo Amazónico" (Amazon Crude) by the environmental lawyer
Judith Kimerling, from 1972 until it left Ecuador in 1992, Texaco
intentionally dumped more than 19 billion gallons of toxic wastewaters
into the region and was responsible for 16.8 million gallons of crude
oil spilling from the main pipeline into the forest. By comparison,
the infamous Exxon Valdez tanker disaster in 1989 spilled 10.8 million
gallons off the coast of Alaska. The report alleges that these actions
contaminated both the soil and the groundwater of the communities in
the area and will continue to threaten the economic and cultural bases
of Indigenous peoples' survival.
A Cofán Child Photo by Josh Schacter.
According to the authors of the 1999 "Yana Curi" Report, which details
the impact of oil development on the health of the people of the
Ecuadorian Amazon, living in proximity to oil fields seems to have
increased the risk of residents developing health problems. For
instance, based on the characteristics of the population, cancer rates
are statistically higher in the oil producing village of San Carlos
than should be expected. Another study published in the International
Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health points out the
relationship between higher spontaneous abortion rates and living in
the proximity of contaminated water streams. In some streams, the
levels of oil chemicals like hydrocarbon concentrations was as high as
280 times the permitted levels in the European Community. Meanwhile,
Chevron (CVX) has not only refused to acknowledge any link between the
public health hazards and the environmental problems caused by its
drilling policies in the Ecuadorian Amazon, but has also refused to
clean up the pollution, claiming that a 'clean up' agreement with the
Ecuadorian Government has released it of any further liability. The
company has further denied direct compensation to the affected
communities for threatening their health and their economic and
cultural survival by polluting their environment.
Legal Issues... A Trial: In 1993, a class action lawsuit was filed
against Chevron (CVX) under the Alien Tort Claims Act in a federal
court in New York on behalf of an estimated 30,000 Amazon residents
for polluting their environment. Chevron (CVX) has fought the
litigation and succeeded in having the U.S. courts send the case to be
heard in Ecuador, where it has been re-filed. The trial is still
ongoing and judicial inspections are taking place in the affected
zones.
An Arbitration: Chevron (CVX) has filled a claim with the American
Arbitration Association (AAA), so that the Ecuadorian oil company,
Petroecuador, will take on any clean up costs and legal fees if
Chevron (CVX) loses the lawsuit to the Amazon residents. The
Ecuadorian Government and Petroecuador have filled a suit with New
York's Supreme Court against Chevron (CVX) and the AAA to stop the
arbitration proceedings, which have been temporarily suspended.
Violated Human Rights
These reports point out serious human rights abuses against the people
living in the area where Texaco operated. As set forth in the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, their
rights to the highest attainable standard of health, to an adequate
standard of living and to water and sanitation, have been and are
still being violated.
Corporate inaction ignores the fact that human rights responsibilities
extend beyond states. Since 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights has provided a common standard of achievement, which means that
every individual and every organ of society bears responsibility for
the universal and effective recognition and observance of the rights
and freedoms in the Declaration. In 2003 the UN Norms on the
responsibilities of transnational corporations and other business
enterprises with regard to human rights were adopted by the UN Sub-
Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and
transferred for discussion to the UN Commission on Human Rights. The
preamble to the UN Norms notes that "transnational corporations and
other business enterprises, their officers and persons working for
them are also obligated to respect generally recognized
responsibilities and norms contained in United Nations treaties and
other international instruments." While the UN Norms do not yet have
legal status as law, they reflect the emerging consensus view,
recognizing that if international obligations can be placed on
individuals and states, then corporations too have character under
international law.
Shareholder Activism
For the third year in a row, Amnesty International USA, along with
other concerned Chevron (CVX) shareholders, have submitted a
resolution on Texaco's toxic legacy in Ecuador. This year, the
resolution calls on the company to report the total costs relating in
any way to the health and environmental consequences of hydrocarbon
exposures and Chevron's remediation of Texaco drilling sites in
Ecuador. The shareholder proposal was filed by Trillium Asset
Management, a Boston-based socially responsible investment firm that
manages more than $900 million in assets for individual and
institutional clients, and joined by the New York State Common
Retirement Fund, holding 10.2 million shares in Chevron (CVX)
currently worth more than $603 million. A similar proposal was
presented at Chevron's Annual Shareholder Meetings in April 2004 and
2005, both times garnering 9% approval from investors, more than
enough to allow us to resubmit it this year. Read the press release
announcing the filing, as well as an update from the 2005 shareholder
meeting.
Take Action! Join our new campaign, SHARE POWER, to defend the rights
of communities in Ecuador who have been threatened by Chevron.
The SHARE POWER campaign helps every individual or group to find a
connection to a large Chevron (CVX) shareholder and to use that
connection to press for positive change inside of Chevron (CVX) and
garner support for Amnesty's proposal. Learn how you can get involved!
For the past two years, Amazon Watch, a non-profit organization that
works to defend the environment and protect indigenous peoples' rights
from large-scale extractive development projects, has sent a
delegation to Ecuador to investigate the claims that Chevron (CVX) had
polluted the environment. Among those invited last year, were
representatives from shareholder institutions. While in Ecuador, the
delegation visited a number of waste pits, wells and water sources -
none of which appeared clean or adequately remediated. They also heard
testimony from numerous residents describing how the byproducts of oil
drilling had slowly poisoned the region's waterways, causing a 70%
decline in agricultural productivity and leading to an increase in
serious ailments. The residents claimed a rise in cancers, birth
defects, respiratory infections, and both skin and stomach ailments,
in addition to unclassifiable mysterious deaths.
Southern Amazon:
Indigenous communities and their resistance to oil exploration
Both environmentalists and human rights defenders in Ecuador have been
subject to anonymous threats and intimidation. The Sarayaku Indigenous
community (part of the Kichwa nationality) of the Pastaza province
oppose the oil concession of Block 23 given by the Ecuadorian
Government to the Compañía General de Combustibles (CGC), an Argentine
oil company, allowing it to start operations on Sarayaku territory.
Burlington Resources, a US based energy company, holds a 50% working
interest in this block. The Sarayaku community argues that oil
extraction in their territory will damage their environment and way of
life, which they do not want to abandon. They have proposed
alternative, sustainable development in their territory so that their
culture will not suffer.
Shuar Indians Protest Against Burlington Resources Oil
ExplorationCourtesy of Amazon Watch Shuar Indians Protest Against
Burlington Resources Oil Exploration, Courtesy of Amazon Watch
Their community and their leaders, including their president Marlon
Santi, have been the object of a campaign of intimidation and
defamation apparently because of their opposition to oil concessions.
The perpetrators appear to be individuals aligned with the oil
companies, acting with the acquiescence of the security forces. Death
threats, along with physical and verbal abuse, led the Inter-American
Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), one of the bodies of the
Organization of American States (OAS), to order that the Ecuadorian
government protect the Sarayaku. Ecuador's Minister of Energy and
Mines reportedly responded to the Inter-American Commission's
precautionary measures by stating, "the OAS does not give orders
here" ("la OEA no manda aquí").
Anonymous bomb and death threats have also been targeted to local
human rights organizations that support the Sarayaku community. José
Serrano Salgado, a member of the Ecuadorian non-governmental
organization (NGO) Centro de Derechos Económicos y Sociales (CDES),
Economic and Social Rights Centre, was reportedly threatened with
death on April 25, 2004. The Fundación Pachamama, another supporter of
the Sarayaku community, received a telephone bomb threat on April 6,
2004; this was not their first threat. To date, Amnesty International
is not aware of any investigation by the Attorney General's office
into these allegations. The last organization to be targeted was
Acción Ecológica, whose offices were robbed in May 22, 2004. Amnesty
fears that the lives of the organization's staff may be in danger.
On Block 24 (south of Block 23), environmental advocacy groups and
Indigenous peoples continue to fight oil development in the Amazon. In
April 2004, Pablo Tsere, a Shuar Indian leader, attended a shareholder
meeting for Burlington Resources, the US energy company that holds the
oil concession of Block 24, where Mr. Tsere lives. He sharply
criticized Burlington's plans for oil drilling and called for the
company to immediately halt its exploration in the remote part of the
Ecuadorian Amazon area where his people, the Shuar, live with two
other Indigenous groups, the Achuar and Kichwa. The indigenous
peoples' opposition to both Compañía General de Combustibles and
Burlington Resources operations in their territories has compelled the
companies to halt their exploration activities and issue declarations
of "force majeure" (literally "greater force", a clause designed to
protect companies that can't perform contractual obligations because
of unavoidable events beyond their control, such as natural disasters
or wars) as specified in their contracts.
Indigenous Peoples issues... Ecuador ratified the International Labor
Organization Convention concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples (ILO
Convention 169) in 1998, the same year it adopted a new constitution,
which for the first time recognizes the collective rights of
Indigenous peoples. Both the ILO C169 and the Constitution specify
that the indigenous peoples have a right to be consulted on any
exploration or extraction plans of non-renewable resources found in
their lands and that could affect their environment or their culture;
participate in the benefits of these projects when possible; and to be
indemnified for any socio-environmental damage.
Heavy Crude Oil pipeline brings more Oil Concessions in the Amazon
Environmentalist defenders are concerned about the opening of almost
the entire Ecuadorian Amazon region to oil development.
Residents of Mindo take over OCP tractors
Residents of Mindo and the environmental group Accion Ecologica take
over tractors belonging to the OCP (Oleoducto de Crudos Pesados)
Pipeline Consortium. (© El Universo)
In June 2001, the Ecuadorian government gave the go ahead to start
construction of a new 298 mile pipeline that runs from the Oriente,
the country's eastern rainforest region, to the port in Esmeraldas on
the Pacific Coast. The pipeline was inaugurated in December 2003.
Touted as the panacea to Ecuador's economic crisis, the $1.3 billion
project has the capacity to double Ecuador's oil production.
The pipeline was constructed by OCP (Oleoducto de Crudos Pesados)
Ltd., a consortium of seven multinational corporations, including
U.S.-
based Occidental Petroleum, Kerr McGee, Alberta Energy of Canada, Agip
Oil Company of Italy, Repsol YPF of Spain, Perez Compac S.A., and
Techint of Argentina.
The heavy crude reserves that will flow through the pipeline are found
in protected national parks, wildlife reserves, and Indigenous lands.
Environmentalists fear this could lead to the irreversible loss and
destruction of some the country's last remaining old growth rainforest
and territories of isolated Indigenous peoples. New oil developments
are threatening protected areas such as Yasuni National Park, Cuyabeno
Wildlife Reserve, the Limoncocha Biological Reserves, and the
Pañacocha Protected Forest. This project is also fueling the search
for additional oil reserves on millions of hectares of frontier
forest, the majority of which falls on the ancestral territories of
the Achuar, Shuar, Huaorani, Kichwa, Shiwiar, and Záparo Indigenous
communities. Many of these communities have vowed never to permit oil
development on their land, while others are afraid they will lose
their lands if they try to resist.
In August 2004, the Ecuadorian government approved plans by Brazil's
state oil company Petrobras to drill in Block 31, located in Yasuní
National Park, despite the fact that UNESCO designated the Park as a
protected biosphere reserve in 1989. Both the US corporation
Occidental Petroleum and the Spanish Repsol-YPF hold oil concessions
in the Park as well. These concessions have caused alarm among
Indigenous and environmentalists groups who fear for the Reserve's
biodiversity and the safety of their communities.
Economic issues... Ecuador's economy is highly dependant on oil. The
government is the owner of all non-renewable resources. According to
Ecuador's Ministery of Energy and Mines, Oil represents 40% of the
country's total exports and it finances more than a third of the
Government's National Budget.
Because of Ecuador's dependency on oil, it is imperative that all oil
operations comply with the highest social and environmental standards
to ensure that oil's economic importance does not overshadow the
importance of human rights.
Pattern of Abuses
Concerns for the safety of environmental and Indigenous activists in
Ecuador's oil zones are well founded. AI has issued numerous Urgent
Actions calling on the Government to investigate and protect the
Sarayaku community and the Environmentalist defenders supporting them,
and calling on the companies involved to cooperate with any
investigation.
Alongside this, Ecuadorian security forces have been cited for
numerous cases of human rights abuses against the civilian population.
Amnesty has urged that the necessary steps be taken to ensure those
members of the security forces accused of human rights violations be
brought to justice. These incidents point to the need for a preventive
strategy to ensure that communities and activists who oppose the
government's development policies and the irresponsible practices of
the oil industry are safe from abuse.
More Resources
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