©Tom McElroy |
Dirty Deeds
Consequences of oil in the Ecuadorian Amazon
©Tom McElroy |
Since first contact over 50 years ago, a slew of environmental
catastrophes wrecked havoc on the Waorani people’s homeland. In the late ’60’s, the now defunct
American oil company, Texaco, discovered oil near their territory, though
further exploration provoked deadly clashes with Waorani warriors. This prompted both the oil company and
the Ecuadorian government to turn to missionaries, whom they provided with
resources for relocating the Waorani to a “protectorate”. More than 200 individuals were contacted
and physically removed from Texaco’s path. Many fled deeper into the rainforest where they still remain
in voluntary isolation. Of those lassoed
into the protectorate, most converted to Christianity, and largely abandoned
their traditions and way of life.
Alien
diseases wiped out half of their population, and new
sedentary lifestyles depleted valuable natural resources near their
communities, forcing a dependence on imports. As oil
companies swooped into their ancestral lands, the forest fell devastated in the
wake. Today, this land and nearly
all that of surrounding tribes became a “rainforest Chernobyl”, a wasteland of
black sludge and frequent oil spills, which prompted a $6 billion lawsuit that remains unresolved today. Beyond
these damages, the rest of Ecuador’s lush environment also suffered. Between 1990 and 2005, the country lost
roughly 21.5 percent of its forest cover, and the rate of deforestation increased
by 17 percent after the ’90’s.
Despite relatively recent efforts to assuage its deplorable reputation,
Ecuador still has the highest deforestation rate and the worst environmental record of any South American country.
Ecuador’s forests suffer at the hands of a number of industries including
mining, illegal logging and slash/burn agriculture, though the most problematic
has long remained oil production.
The aforementioned lawsuit is the controversial subject of the
documentary, Crude, in which 30,000
indigenous Ecuadorians sued Chevron (which bought Texaco) for Texaco’s 25 years
of environmental misdeeds. During
that time, numerous oil spills in rivers, some exceeding volumes of the ExxonValdez
in 1989, and the dumping of more than 20 billion gallons of
toxic drilling by-products caused irreparable environmental damage. Moreover, they were linked to an
epidemic of dire health problems within nearby indigenous communities including
cancer, skin infections, spontaneous abortions, and respiratory infections. Despite damning
evidence, Chevron vehemently denies any connection to or responsibility for these ailments. But beyond the
acute damages, perhaps the most devastating and long lasting of all deeds is
road construction, which continues to inspire settlement and mass
deforestation. It single handedly
encourages the annual destruction of hundreds of millions of acres, gradually
whittling away viable hunting grounds for indigenous people, including the
Waorani. Living off the land is
quickly becoming a memory of ages past.
©Tom McElroy |
Of course, the glaring question here is how does a small group of
indigenous people defend themselves and their forest against seemingly
insurmountable odds? With relatively
little legal experience, they face the power of the government and an enormous
multinational corporation. For decades, Ecuador’s indigenous people’s have struggled to bring a
multi-billion dollar corporation to justice while also challenging basic
principles of international law.
Tom McElroy, a master’s student in International Policy at the University
of Connecticut dedicated his thesis to identifying loopholes in the
international legal system, which allow transnational corporations to
circumnavigate international human rights regulations. He has generously agreed to guest blog
about his work. Be on the lookout
for his post coming soon. In the
meantime, check out his photography.
It’s awesome.
-Jennifer Berglund
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