Chevron (Texaco) seriously polluted the Ecuadorian Amazon for 25 years. Erin Brockovich defends Steven Donziger, the lawyer who defeated the oil companies in court – only to face retribution.
By Erin Brockovich, The Guardian
Most people have probably heard of Chernobyl, or the BP oil spill. You may also know about my legal battle over contaminated water in California, dramatized in the movie Erin Brockovich. Yet far fewer people have heard about what transpired in the Ecuadorian Amazon – though it’s considered by some activists, journalists, and members of US Congress to be one of the world’s worst environmental disasters.
![Oil spill cleanup; Steven Donziger fought for the victims.](https://progressivehub.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/shutterstock_1801591879-uai-258x145.png)
What if I told you that a multinational oil company allegedly polluted the Amazon for almost three decades? And that the oil company has spent even more years refusing to accept liability? Or that a US attorney (Steven Donziger) who agreed to represent thousands of Ecuadorian villagers in a lawsuit against that oil company has lost his law license, income, spent hundreds of days under house arrest in New York, and in 2021 was sentenced to six months in prison?
From 1964 to 1990, Texaco, which merged with Chevron in 2001, allegedly spilled more than 16m gallons of crude oil – “80 times more oil than was spilled in BP’s 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster”, according to Gizmodo – and 18bn gallons of polluted wastewater in the Amazon rainforest. The pollution allegedly contaminated the ground and waterways with toxic chemicals that the plaintiffs – mostly Indigenous people and poor farmers – say has caused cancer, miscarriages, skin conditions and birth defects. (Chevron has said that Texaco’s operations were “completely in line with the standards of the day” and told the New Yorker, in 2012, that “there is no corroborating evidence” for the health allegations.)
Recent Posts
Israeli Forces Reportedly Kill U.S. Human Rights Activist With ‘Deliberate Shot To The Head’
September 6, 2024
Take Action Now “A soldier fired directly at the protestors, hitting the American activist in the head from behind,” said one……
Who Wants To Kill And Die For The U.S. Empire?
September 6, 2024
Take Action Now As Israeli and Ukrainian leaders see their political support crumbling, Netanyahu and Zelenskyy are taking increasingly desperate…
Knowledge Is Power. Gaza War Supporters Don’t Want Students To Have Both.
September 5, 2024
Take Action Now The elites that were appalled by the moral uprising on college campuses against Israel’s slaughter in Gaza are now doing all they can…
U.S. Media Doesn’t Care About Macron’s Election Corruption
September 4, 2024
Take Action Now The U.S. press is losing interest as the winners of France’s election are barred from taking power. By Paul Hedreen, FAIR……