How Chevron Polluted the Amazon and Fought Environmental Lawyer Steven Donziger
Decades ago, the U.S.-based petroleum corporation Texaco devastated Lago Agrio in the Ecuadorian Amazon with pollution, in what came to be known as “the Amazon Chernobyl.” It resulted in roughly 1,000 carcinogenic waste pits and 16 billion gallons of toxic wastewater dumped into pristine rivers. Among local people who drank and bathed in these waters, cancers and miscarriages skyrocketed. Represented by Steven Donziger, Indigenous peoples sued the company, which had been bought by Chevron in 2000, and won over $9 billion. Chevron, however, ignored the Ecuadorian courts and took its case to New York, where it found a friendly judge, amenable to its aim of not paying and of destroying Donziger. Contacted for comment, Chevron noted it paid roughly $40 million for environmental remediation and accused Donziger of being a disbarred racketeer convicted of criminal contempt. Details provided by Donziger, however, tell a different tale altogether.
#environment #Chevron #Ecuador #StevenDonziger #Amazon #Amazonia #Truthout
