Last night, four Indigenous and community leaders from Ecuador arrived in very steamy New Orleans to share their experiences with the long-term impacts of oil pollution with communities dealing with the tragic BP oil spill that continues to gush into the Gulf of Mexico.

As the Chevron in Ecuador blog reports:

Four very different people arrived last night in New Orleans on a late flight from Quito, Ecuador. One is a quiet but fierce 71-year-old grandmother with 27 grandchildren. Another is a gentle, soft-spoken man who is a leader of his Indigenous tribe from the Amazon. Another is a serious and sober man who has won worldwide acclaim for his unique work. And the last is another Indigenous man from the Amazon, who is more sharp-tongued than his traveling companion, but shares his good humor and dignified demeanor.

The four Indigenous and community leaders from Ecuador’s Amazon rainforest are on the front-lines of the nearly two-decade struggle to demand oil giant Chevron clean up the massive contaminate the company left behind in their lands. I’ve written profiles of two of them here before; Cofan leader Emergildo Criollo was in the U.S. in early March to help deliver 350,000 letters of support for cleanup in Ecuador to new Chevron CEO John Watson and campesina activist Mariana Jimenez was in Houston just a few weeks ago to speak out at Chevron’s 2010 shareholder meeting.

With them is Humberto Piaguaje, a leader of the Secoya tribe who has been outspoken about Chevron’s impact on his people, and Luis Yanza, who has helped organize the 30,000 people who have mounted the historic legal action against Chevron. In 2008, Luis won the Goldman environmental prize, often described as the Nobel Prize for the environment.

Gulf Coast American Indian Tribes in southeast Louisiana impacted by BP’s oil disaster will be hosting a cultural exchange with their Ecuadorean counterparts who have been severely impacted for decades by Chevron’s oil contamination in Ecuador’s rainforest. The Amazon leaders will tour areas of the Bayou affected by the spill, have community exchanges with the Houma and other Gulf coast residents, and participate in a public meeting in the heart of the largest Houma community on Thursday evening. The Ecuadorean leaders hope to share their experiences in recovery and protecting health, livelihoods, and culture in the wake of an oil disaster of this magnitude.

“The Gulf spill is an absolute threat on who we are as Houma people and our way of life. Our homeland and the health of our people are at risk and we must plan for the long-term effects of this catastrophe,” said Thomas Dardar Jr., Principal Chief of the United Houma Nation. “We look forward to meeting our brothers and sisters of the Amazon and sharing ideas and solutions regarding protecting the indigenous way of life when faced with such huge environmental impacts.”

The United Houma Nation is a state recognized Tribe of approximately 17,000 citizens that reside along the coastal marshes of southeast Louisiana. Traditionally Houmas have lived off the land and work as fishermen and trappers. As the Deepwater Horizon disaster unfolds it holds a deeper meaning for the Houmas, who reside on the front lines – it is the uncertainty of whether the culture of the Houma as it stands today will survive.

“Our hearts broke upon seeing images of the tragic spill in the Gulf of Mexico,” said Emergildo Criollo, a leader of the Cofan tribe in Ecuador’s rainforest who is participating in the delegation. “We are honored to accept the invitation of the United Houma Nation to visit the Gulf. We hope what we have learned from our own torment at the hands of Chevron will strengthen the resolve of the communities affected by the BP spill.”

To follow the Ecuadoreans journey in the Gulf this week, follow @ChangeChevron on Twitter or on Facebook.

As the largest oil disaster in US history unfolds in the Gulf, with the financial meltdown as a backdrop, the American public is finally waking up to the devastating consequences of decades of unchecked corporate power.

These days, it seems like the only people who trust corporations, especially the dirtiest and most deceitful energy companies, are our elected representatives in Washington and in state capitals across the country.

A healthy, functioning, non-corrupt democracy would respond to our most recent corporate- created catastrophe by reigning in the oil industry and taking this opportunity of public outrage to move our country immediately and aggressively away from dirty oil and energy and into the clean energy future we so desperately need.

But alas, America’s democracy is as dirty as our energy system. Today, as I write this, US Senators are voting on an anti-science, dirty air resolution that would gut the EPA’s ability to regulate dangerous greenhouse gas emissions and give $140 billion giveaway to the oil industry. It is no coincidence that Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who introduced the resolution, is the third greatest benefactor of oil and gas money. Number one is Senator Blanche Lincoln, of Arkansas, one of the few Democrats who are voting for the resolution and against public health.

There are some courageous politicians in Washington that still listen to their constituents more than oily contributors. Next Tuesday, Representative Markey has called the oil executives of the 5 largest oil companies to testify before the House.

Rainforest Action Network’s Change Chevron team will be at that hearing and will carry the outrage of the American public, not only at the oil companies, but at a government that has allowed money to cloud its judgment at tremendous cost to communities, health, livelihoods, and our environment.

BP, Chevron, Exxon, and the rest of their Big Oil buddies have made lying and killing a standard part of their business practice. From Alaska to Ecuador to the Gulf they cut corners to save pennies, fight regulation, lie, spill and pollute, refuse to clean up their messes, and insist on keep America dangerously addicted to oil. And they depend on Senators like Murkowski and Lincoln to get away with, literally, murder.

Cross-posted from Alternet.

Cross-posted from The San Francisco Chronicle.

In advance of Chevron’s annual shareholder meeting in Houston next week, a damning report of the oil giant’s global operations was just released. The True Cost of Chevron: An Alternative Annual Report was written by contributors from 16 countries and 10 states where Chevron’s business is wreaking havoc on local communities, the environment, and our climate.

If you live in California like I do, you probably know that Chevron is the Golden State’s largest corporation, but did you know that Chevron is the 5th largest corporation on the planet? And, while they have spent millions on advertising campaigns to convince the public they are a different kind of “energy” company, the fact is Chevron’s investments in alternative energy are dropping (<1.8%) while their current business model is causing tremendous damage around the globe.

The report encompasses the full range of Chevron’s activities, from coal to chemicals, offshore to onshore production, pipelines to refineries, natural gas to toxic waste, and lobbying and campaign contributions to greenwashing.

From the coalfields of Alabama to the oil fields of Indonesia, the report reveals Chevron operations mired in accusation of extreme human rights abuse (Angola, Burma, Indonesia, Chad, and Nigeria); mass environmental and human health devastation (including Ecuador, Kazakhstan, and Canada); toxic abuse of its neighbors (including Alabama, California, Mississippi, Texas, Thailand, and the Philippines); abuse of its workers (including Utah); threats to endangered species (including Australia and the U.S. Gulf Coast); and, in Iraq, intensifying the violent insurgency and putting the lives of U.S. and Iraqi service members at greater risk.

All the while, Chevron continues to promote itself as a ‘green’ energy company while, the report reveals, expanding its coal operations (it was recently exposed as operating one of the most dangerous mines in the U.S., the Kemmerer, WY mine), offshore, and Canadian Tarsands operations; being named California’s single largest stationary Greenhouse Gas emitter; and being identified by Barrons as one of the ‘oiliest’ of the world’s major oil companies.

Next week, people from all over the world (whose stories are highlighted in the report) will be converging in Houston for Chevron’s annual shareholder meeting.

Chevron’s shareholders are showing increasing concern about the liabilities and risks associated with the company’s irresponsible and deadly global operations. A number of shareholder resolutions have been filed – and are gaining significant support – that are a response to the revelations in today’s report.

For example, Oxfam is sponsoring a shareholder resolution (and has been putting direct pressure on Chevron’s board members) “Regarding Disclosure of Payments to Host Governments.”

Chevron pays out billions of dollars in royalties, taxes, and other payments to host governments in its countries of operation. In many countries, these vast undisclosed sums of money have fueled corruption, repression and conflict. Chevron has refused to adopt a policy of disclosing payments in every country of operation. It has also not supported the U.S. Energy Security Through Transparency Act, a bipartisan bill that would require all SEC-registered companies to disclose payment information on a country-by-country basis.

As the report reveals, Chevron is the largest foreign producer of Angolan oil. Many Cabindans claim Angola illegally annexed the oil-rich territory and they blame Chevron for financing the Angolan government’s repressive hold on Cabinda ever since. Oil revenues largely financed Angola’s bloody internationalized civil war until 2002. Despite the ongoing war, Chevron steadily increased offshore production. The Angolan government uses military force in Cabinda to quash protest and secure resource-rich territory.

There are also shareholder resolutions urging the appointment of an independent Director with environmental expertise; regarding guidelines for country selection; on financial risks from climate change; and the development of a human rights committee.

Community leaders from Angola and Burma will join people from Nigeria, Ecuador, Australia, and the Gulf Coast inside Chevron’s shareholder meeting on Wednesday. They will share their stories and ask Chevron’s Board members and CEO John Watson to do the right thing and stop destroying their communities.

I will be doing a series of interviews with these courageous leaders next week. Tune in to learn and listen to the people who are bearing the real costs of Chevron’s global business.

Chris Noth hosting the RAN event!

On Thursday, April 29th, Sex and the City star (and RAN’s newest Honorary Board member) Chris Noth threw RAN a fabulous birthday bash at Manhattan’s (Le) Poisson Rogue.

Chris Noth has been a supporter of Rainforest Action Network for over 20 years now and started throwing a yearly NYC benefit party a few years back. These big apple parties always bring together New York’s finest celebrities, eco-gliteratti, musicians, and long-time RAN volunteers and supporters.

This year’s party really kicked off RAN’s 25th anniversary year in style!

The unforgettable moment of the night was a completely hilarious and raucous live auction that raised a ton of money to support the critical work RAN does to defend forests, fight climate change, and support Indigenous rights.

Party co-hosts Chris Noth and the fabulous Trudie Styler kicked off the auction with a lively bidding war for two backstage passes (and a lil’ something extra) to Sting’s July shows at the Met with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Other lucky party-goers grabbed work-out sessions with Chris’s personal trainer (and a year’s membership to Nimble gym) and a private dinner with ‘Mr Big’ himself.

And for all of you waiting, Cosmos in hand, for the Sex and the City sequel, Chris helped nab 2 tickets to the World Premiere of Sex and the City 2 and sweetened the deal with a gorgeous stay at Le Hotel Plaza Atheene.

Besides being a fantastic fundraising event, the party was also a fantastic way to connect and engage on the issues we are fighting everyday.

Trudie Styler

Rainforest Action Network’s Acting Executive Director Rebecca Tarbotton gave a rousing speech about the breadth of our campaign work and our 25 history of pressuring (and inspiring) some of the world’s largest corporations to transform their social and environmental practices.

As she spoke about our recent recent successes to get Indonesia fiber out of high-fashion bags I saw Barney’s Fashion Director Julie Gilhart nodding and eco models (and activists) Summer Rayne Oakes and Kate Dillon cheering along.

When Trudie Styler – who has traveled and worked extensively in the Amazon rainforest where Chevron is responsible for massive oil contamination – spoke about the environmental and health disaster in the region, the crowd was gasping and asking for ways to get involved in our campaign to Change Chevron.

With such a star-studded and perfect event, what was my favorite celebrity sighting of the night? It wasn’t anyone you’ll read about in People magazine. Pablo Fajardo and Luis Yanza, the two courageous men, who have been defending the 30,000 impacted people in Ecuador to force Chevron to do the right thing and clean up the oil pollution, made a surprise appearance.

Speaking with Pablo and Luis reminded me why we do this work, and why the support of so many people have kept RAN going strong for 25 years.

Want to join the community of support? Become a monthly sustainer today. We can’t offer you backstage passes to Sting, but we can guarantee that your donation will help protect forests, fight climate change, and support human rights.

Click here for more photos of the event!

This week’s hilarious *and dangerous* Greenwash of the Week webisode takes on The Copenhagen Accord, a political greenwash of epic proportions.

This week’s episode comes on the heels of a leaked document about the Obama administration’s spin strategy around the climate negotiations.

The Guardian reports:

A document accidentally left on a European hotel computer and passed to the Guardian reveals the US government’s increasingly controversial strategy in the global UN climate talks.

Top of the list of objectives is to: “Reinforce the perception that the US is constructively engaged in UN negotiations in an effort to produce a global regime to combat climate change.” It also talks of “managing expectations” of the outcome of the Cancun meeting and bypassing traditional media outlets by using podcasts and “intimate meetings” with the chief US negotiator to disarm the US’s harsher critics.

The Copenhagen Accord was formalized just before UN climate talks resumed in Bonn this past weekend.

Faced with arguably one of the largest problems facing humanity – climate change – the world gathered in Copenhagen last December with the hope of passing a fair, ambitious, and legal binding treaty. Thousands of us were there and millions of people around the world stood up and demanded that our political leaders do the right thing and pass the sort of climate deal science – and the world- desperately needed.

Instead, we got The Copenhagen Accord.

At the final hour the world’s most polluting countries brokered some ugly backroom deals that excluded most of the world – and definitely the most vulnerable and impacted countries.

As the world watched in horror this political cop out, and leaders of small island states began drafting evacuation plans, US President Obama declared it a great achievement. And dirty energy corporations popped the champagne and their shills in Congress called it a “home run.”

As the recent lack of development in Bonn shows, The Copenhagen Accord is really the Greenwash of the Century.

Greenwash of the Week is sponsored by @ChangeChevron, because Energy Shouldn’t Cost Lives.

The truth is, Chevron cares more about their image than California students.

Our struggling schools here in California need every penny they can get, but until the oil giant (and California’s largest corporation) stops fighting a fair extraction tax that would bring $2 BILLION into our ailing education system, we’ll save our applause.

California is the 3rd largest oil producing state in the nation, and yet the ONLY oil producing state in the United States without an extraction tax. Texas has an extraction tax, Louisiana has a 12.5% tax, even Sarah Palin increased Alaska’s oil severance tax (upwards of 25%) to pay for education programs. It’s time that California joins the rest of the US, imposes a tax on oil companies for removing our state’s resources, and uses the funds for real education finance reform.

In California we have a $20 billion dollar deficit. Chevron’s $1 million donation to South Bay schools doesn’t begin to address the crisis facing our schools, but forcing our oil companies to pay a fair and reasonable tax does.

Lawmakers in Sacramento and voters across the state are ready for these oil companies to step up their responsibility to the residents of California. Assemblymember Alberto Torrico, supported by the California Faculty Association and the University of California Students Association, introduced a solution-based bill – AB 656 – that would generate $2 billion a year for higher education by instilling a 12% tax on the extraction of oil and gas in California.

Chevron is our state’s largest oil corporation, our state’s largest employer, and our state’s largest (and richest) barrier to saving our education system.

Big Oil will spare no amount of money to defeat AB 656. In 2006, a similar battle unfolded over Prop 87, which would have put just a 6% tax on the oil industry which could have raised $485 million for the state. Big Oil – led by Chevron – poured truly epic amounts of money into defeating the proposition. The oil industry spent more than $45 million in what became a historic spending spree on a single campaign. Chevron has a long history of bullying elections with their deep pockets, and depriving our state of much needed resources.

In the first months of 2010, Chevron has already earned the honor of being the oil industry’s largest political contributor. Sacramento should brace itself and California voters should get ready for the misinformation campaign of a lifetime around AB 656. With the backing of the California Chamber of Commerce, California Independent Petroleum Association, and Western States Petroleum Association, Big Oil in California will no doubt be championing to defeat a bill that could produce over $2 billion in funds for our struggling education system.

Chevron likes to present itself as a different kind of oil company – one that cares about the communities it operates in. If Chevron truly wants California to believe they care, they must drop the PR ploys, lobbyists and industry front groups, and support a bill that could help save California’s public education institutions.

This Chevron whistleblower hotline is toll-free and confidential. 1-877-844-4114

A confidential Spanish-language hotline is also being established in Ecuador. We hope Chevron employees and contractors, who worked in the oil pits and witnessed first hand the fraudulent “remediation” of the toxic oil pits Chevron is responsible for, will come forward.

As the blog “Chevron in Ecuador” reports:

Today, it was revealed that threatened to reveal damaging evidence “cooked” by Chevron in the environmental trial in Ecuador unless he received enough money for turning over secret videotapes to high-ranking Chevron executives. The revelations are contained in a report authored by San Francisco Bay Area-based attorney and Private Investigator Grant Fine.

Borja says Chevron hired him to create four companies so his work for the oil company would appear “independent.” He suggests that the companies were connected to a laboratory to test contamination samples. Borja says the laboratory was not independent, but rather “belonged” to Chevron.

Today’s revelations are only the latest example of Chevron using dirty tricks to muddy and delay justice for the people of Ecuador who have been waiting for decades for the oil giant to clean up their toxic mess.

Chevron has delayed the legal case against them for over 17 years now and have recently hired big gun law firm Gibson and Dunn to further deny justice to families who are suffering in Ecuador,

The 30,000 Ecuadorean people who continue to drink poisoned water because of Chevron, need Chevron employees and contractors with a conscience to come forward.

We know that good people work within the company that know damaging details about their employer’s corrupt activities. It can be frightening to come forward, but if there was ever a moment to find that courage, it is now. Every day that a Chevron employee conceals critical information, more people in Ecuador get sick and die.

If Chevron Whistleblowers don’t want to use our confidential hotline, they can also contact wikileaks.org or whistleblower.org.

And no, today they’re not lying to the public about their toxic legacy in Ecuador, climate change, their massive greenhouse gas emissions, their expansion into the tar sands of Canada, their human rights abuses in Nigeria, or their massive dirty energy lobbying and campaign expenditures.

Nope. Today, Chevron has got the social media world a-Twitter over their “substantial” investments in renewable energy. Project Brightfield, a 740 kW project with 7,700 solar panels, will be built on an 8-acre dirt plot in California where Chevron formerly ran a refinery that belched out gasoline and asphalt. Chevron’s solar testbed news comes on the heels of the oil giant announcing last month that it will build a 1 MW concentrating solar photovoltaic system on the tailing site of a mine in Questa, New Mexico.

Call me cynical, but Chevron’s “substantial” investments in renewable energy, seem like little more than a typical corporate greenwash move to hide their real crimes in Ecuador and around the world, and deceive the public into believing that they have turned over a new leaf.

Fact is, Chevron hit a new-time low in renewable energy investments in 2009. Antonia Juhasz, oil industry expert and NY Times best-selling author reports:

“In 2009, Chevron spent its lowest amount on green alternative energy since at least 2006, spending less than 2%, or just 1.96% of its total capitol and exploratory budget on green alternatives. And, remember, this is a VERY generous estimate. We are including in this estimate lots of things that are decidedly NOT green.”

Another fact that Chevron “forgot” to mention in their “Project Brightfield” media blitz is that regardless of this Bakersfield, CA solar project, Chevron continues to be the #1 greenhouse gas emitter in California.

Finally, I would love to see how Chevron’s investment in “Project Brightfield” compares to the amount they spend on lawyers, lobbyists, and PR expenses to delay cleaning up their toxic oil legacy in Ecuador and denying the communities justice.

If Chevron wants me to blog and tweet about them as clean energy heroes, they’re going to have to do a helluva lot more. John Watson, Chevron’s new CEO does have a real opportunity to not just talk about turning over a new leaf, but really doing it right now. First step, committing to clean up Ecuador and the rest of your dirty operations around the world.

Those are some press releases I would like to read!

cross-posted from http://itsgettinghotinhere.org/2010/03/22/chevrons-solar-announcement-more-than-hot-air/

For a whirlwind few days this week, Emergildo shared his story with Chevron employees, California Senators and Assemblymembers, journalists, activists, and Chevron’s new CEO John Watson’s Lafayette neighbors.

Emergildo Criollo Indigenous Ecuador leader of the Cofan people.

Here is the story that Emergildo told (translated from Spanish):

“I want to start telling my story from when I was a child.

In 1964, I was 6 and living by the river.

As was the tradition of my people we would migrate from area to area to hunt. We were in (what is now called Lago Agrio) hunting.

At one point we heard this really loud noise coming from the sky. We thought it was a large bird (it was a helicopter). We were scared and hid.

The helicopter landed and we were very scared. They landed and started cutting down trees. They cut down about 10 hectares of trees.

Texaco (now Chevron) set up a worker camp. Me and my father tried to sell our jewelry. I was wearing my traditional dress. The workers came up and lifted my dress. I was so embarrassed. They lifted it because they didn’t know if I was a little girl or boy. It was so humiliating.

A few months passed and we saw great waves of oil floating down the river. We had to part the sheets of oil to get the water. As we walked we waded through oil. We tried to get it off our skin but we couldn’t get clean.

After a bit we said we can’t live here anymore and we had to relocate.

About a decade passed. I met my wife. She got pregnant and was drinking water that we didn’t know was contaminated. My son was born but didn’t grow well. He died at just 6 months. I took him to a hospital in Quito but they couldn’t do anything.

Then our second son was born. I would take him to the river to swim. One day at the river he drank the water and started vomiting and vomiting. He soon started vomiting blood. Within 24 hours, he was dead too.

After seeing this I realized we couldn’t drink from the river. We started digging wells and looking for subterranean water which we hoped was cleaner.

After being exposed my wife became ill. She had uterine cancer and had to have a hysterectomy. She was never the same after. Always in pain.

It wasn’t just my family that was affected by the polluted water. And not just my people, the Cofan, but all the other Indigenous communities and campesinos in the area. Many, many of our brothers and sisters have died as well.

Before Texaco (now Chevron) arrived we lived well. We had plenty of food. Plenty of animals and plenty of medicinal plants. Everything has changed. All of our customs have been transformed since the company’s arrival.

If you can imagine, we have lost our traditional healers and medicine with Texaco’ (now Chevron) arrival. The irony is we now have so many new illnesses and we have lost our abilities to heal.

There were changes for the women as well. The women would traditionally get firewood by the river. Because of oil spills, the wood was drenched in thick, black oil. The oil coated their bodies and polluted the food they cooked over the wood.

The women suffered as well. The Cofan women never had miscarriages before. With Texaco (now Chevron) and the contamination there were suddenly many miscarriages and children born with abnormalities. There has been so much pain for our women.

This continues today. People are dying of cancer and oil-related illness. They just left so many open oil pits and never cleaned up. This is why we started the lawsuit.

That’s what our lawsuit is about. To get Chevron to take responsibility. They need to see the supposed clean-up was not a proper clean-up. They just sprinkled dirt on the oil pits, covered them up. But if you dig even 50 cm it is thick with oil. This is not a proper clean up. The oil is still there.”

These open waste pits had no protective liner. The oil would seep into the the ground, and then into the smaller rivers, and the larger rivers. The contamination affects so many people.”

Emergildo’s story is the story of thousands of people in the region. What will it take for Chevron to do the right thing, clean up Ecuador, and put an end to the suffering?

Cross-posted at http://itsgettinghotinhere.org/2010/03/05/emergildos-story/

Senator Fran Pavley and Assemblymember Jared Huffman hosted the reception in Sacramento entitled, “From Ecuador to California: California’s largest corporation, one of the world’s worst oil related disasters, and what California’s legislators can do.”

Despite the pouring rain, the reception was packed with Senators, Assemblymembers, and their staff. Lawmakers in attendance included Senator Fran Pavley, Senator Loni Hancock, Assemblyman Manny Perez, Assemblyman Paul Fong, Assemblyman Ira Ruskin, and Assemblyman Jared Huffman. These key leaders from both the Environmental and Latino Caucuses not only listened to Emergildo’s story, but spoke of their desire to support the people of Ecuador who are suffering and dying because of Chevron’s operations.

Assemblymember Jared Huffmand spoke of the need “to remedy a very serious environmental and human tragedy.”

At the reception, Emergildo shared his story. He told the lawmakers about how he was only 6 years old when Chevron (then Texaco) began oil drilling in his community. He spoke of how his family was forced to relocate because of the contamination. About he had to part centimeters of oil off of the river to drink the water. About how he has lost two sons and nursed a wife through uterine cancer because of the contamination. His family drank, bathed, and fished in water that was poisoned by oil dumping.

After telling his story, Emergilod asked all of the Assemblymembers and Senators for their help and invited them to visit his home and see for themselves the devastation Chevron’s behavior has caused.

Senator Loni Hancock, from the Contra Costa district where Chevron is headquartered, said she “would like to come and visit. This is an international issue and an issue here as well.”

Assemblymember Manny Perez had a heartfelt exchange with Emergildo in Spanish and lawmaker after lawmaker stood up and said they wanted to learn more and to see what action they could take.

We are excited about the possibilities moving forward and look forward to working closely with California’s legislators to make sure California’s largest corporation is held responsible for cleaning up one of the largest environmental disasters of all time.

Learn more at www.ChangeChevron.org.

For years, the people of Ecuador have been trying to get Chevron to clean up the billions of gallons of toxic waste and unlined oil pits that were left to poison their water, their land, and their community.

Chevron has used dirty tricks and tactics every step of the way during the decades-long legal challenge to force them to clean up Ecuador. They’ve hired dirty PR, legal, and lobby teams; forced the case to move around the globe; fabricated a story to discredit the original Judge; and filed endless motions that are eventually denied but nevertheless succeed in further draining the plaintiff’s resources and delaying a judgment.

As Steven Donziger, a legal advisor for the 30,000 Ecuadoreans who are suffering because of the 18 billion gallons of toxic oil waste Chevron refuses to clean up, says:

“Chevron is again trying to strong-arm the court by misrepresenting facts. This is part of an underhanded attempt to derail a trial Chevron is losing based on the voluminous scientific evidence.”

Today’s trick? To claim in a press release to their investors it had “newly discovered” evidence that the court-appointed Special Master who conducted a damages assessment, Richard Cabrera, owns a remediation company in Ecuador that stands to benefit from a clean-up should the plaintiffs win the case. The filing is the 29th official motion Chevron has made to the court to disqualify Cabrera but the court has never accepted Chevron’s arguments.

Carbera, working with a team of 14 scientists, found that Chevron could be responsible for $27.3 billion in damages.

Pablo Fajardo, who grew up in the contaminated region and is now the lead Ecuadorian lawyer in the case, took a moment to dispel some of today’s Chevron lies and half-truths:

* Cabrera disclosed to the court that he owned a clean-up company beforehis appointment as Special Master. This fact was properly cited by the court as one of the reasons he was qualified to do the damages assessment.
* Chevron thought so highly of Cabrera’s qualifications that it accepted him as a court-appointed expert in an earlier part of the case and paid his fees as required by court rules.
* The fact Cabrera’s company is qualified to bid on clean-up contracts offered by Ecuador’s state-owned oil company is irrelevant. That company, Petroecuador, is not a party to the case against Chevron and would have no role in any eventual cleanup.
* Cabrera by virtue of his role in the case would be barred from having a role in a future clean-up.

To Chevron, this is all about money and pulling out every dirty trick in the book to avoid taking responsibility for the devastation they have caused.

For the people of Ecuador this is about so much more than money.

This is about the children who are getting sick and dying because they are forced to drink poisoned water. This is about justice for the 1,400 people who have died of cancer. And for the families who were unfortunate enough to build their homes on dangerous oil pits that Chevron (then Texco) lied about properly cleaning up. This is about their right to drink clean water. A right that Chevron denies with every lie and legal trick.

Chevron- when will the lies end and the clean up begin?

Visit www.ChangeChevron.org to become part of the movement to change Chevron.

Cross-posted from www.ItsGettingHotinHere.org.

It is undeniable that the world wants to change Chevron. People from all over the globe are signing this petition, people young and old, from so many backgrounds. We’ve had celebrities, musicians, investors, and Chevron employees standing up and demanding change from one of the largest corporations on the planet.

As the new leader of the 3rd largest oil company in the world, CEO John Watson can right the wrongs of his predecessors and transform his company into one that cares.

150,000+ are saying “Enough is enough. Energy shouldn’t cost lives.”

From Ecuador to Richmond,CA to Burma and everywhere the oil giant operates in-between they leave a trail of environmental devastation, human rights abuses, and a legacy of health problems.

150,000+ say ENOUGH to Big Oil destroying our environment and the health of our communities.

Chevron, and their Big Oil cohorts, spend hundreds of millions of dollars on lobbyists and political contributions to buy off politicians and destroy policies that would be good for our climate and our future.

150,000+ people say ENOUGH to Chevron’s control of our government and our democracy.

To truly change Chevron and the oil industry, we are going to need to be 150,000 x stronger and louder and more powerful than we ever have been before. Our communities, our climate, our planet, and our future depend on it.

You in?

Learn more from our friends at Amazon Watch!

As many of you know, there is lawsuit that has been going on for over 16 years to get Chevron to own up and clean up its toxic legacy in Ecuador. The lawsuit is on behalf of 30,000 Ecuadorean people who are suffering and dying because of Chevron’s refusal to the do the right thing.

The legal team working on behalf of the impacted people in Ecuador has a great blog called The Chevron Pit which is a great source of information about the case, Chevron, and the people seeking justice.

They’ve just launched a powerful new series featuring the first of many personal stories about how the oil contamination left behind by Texaco has impacted the people living near the oil company’s former oil sites. Chevron purchased Texaco in 2001.

The first story is about Modesta Briones, who passed away not long after she and her husband, Segundo Salinas, gave an interview to author Lou DeMatteis for his book Crude Reflections.

The story and images are powerful, and as they say, speak so much louder than words. Every year that Chevron does not clean up Ecuador more people will get sick and die. We can, and we must, Change Chevron

After getting unintentionally embroiled in a corporate free speech campaign involving a scrappy little enviro group called Rainforest Action Network, The Washington Post, and one of the largest oil corporations on the planet (Chevron), it’s got me thinking of the political ad campaign implications of the ruling. And what it means for the public’s access to real information in our withering media landscape.

First, the Corporate Speech vs. the People’s Speech story.

Rainforest Action Network (RAN) recently began a campaign to Change Chevron. As part of the launch of the campaign we bought ads last week in The New York Times and WashingtonPost.com. The ads had a picture of Chevron’s new CEO John Watson face (which we bought the rights to from Getty images) and the copy read: “Oil men have polluted the Ecuadorean rainforest for decades. This man can do something about it now.”

Chevron’s behemoth legal team immediately pressured Getty, the New York Times, and the Washington Post to pull the ad. The New York Times ran the ad. The Washington Post did not. The Washington Post (which receives huge ad revenue from Chevron) has sided with the oil giant and frozen our ad. As of 3 pm Tuesday (Feb 2, 2010) The Washington Post has said they will “unpause” our ad after a meeting between their legal counsel and Chevron’s ad rep at the paper.

We are now trying to get The Washington Post to run our new version of the ad featured above. While this may seem small, it is a window into what we will likely see run rampant as a result of the Supreme Court’s ruling allowing corporation’s unbridled campaign finance AND advertising. With the Supreme Court ruling, the controversy over the Super Bowl ads (which allow anti-choice but not pro-gay advertising), and this recent small example of Chevron throwing its money around to suppress critical ads, it feels like a good time to think about what this means.

Advocacy groups like RAN have meager budgets with little money to spare on advertising. Chevron spends hundreds of millions of dollars EVERY year on ads that are deceptive, misleading greenwash. Don’t corporations already control our airwaves enough?

As we’ve seen over and over again in the hugely frustrating climate and energy debate in this country, it matters less if you’re right and more if you can scream misinformation to the general public- either through paid advertising or through Fox News.

A Chevron media relations representatives said it best, “Not to say that news media ignores us,” said Jim Hendon, media relations rep for Chevron, “but our ads tell a story that wouldn’t get told otherwise about our company’s environmental concerns. Oil companies can’t rely on media, so we do it through this [ad] campaign.”

As we look forward, both in our advocacy work and at the coming election season how are we possibly supposed to compete with Corporate America’s “free speech?”

We must work together to right the wrongs of that Supreme CT ruling, support media advocacy groups like Center for Media and Democracy, and continue to work to change Chevron and other corporations that are destroying our climate, our communities, and our democracy.

*Reposted from Itsgettinghotinhere.org.

The runners had paid for a table to distribute “I’m Running for Human Rights” stickers and information about Chevron’s refusal to clean up over 18 billion tons of toxic oil sludge they are responsible for in the Ecuadorean rainforest.

At approximately 10 a.m. this morning, Managing Director Steven Karpas told the Rainforest Action Network team, “higher ups at Chevron are freaking out” and threatened to arrest the peaceful runners. Police then ejected the runners from the city-owned and operated building for exercising their right to free speech.

“We are outraged that Chevron would deny marathon participants the right to run for what they believe, in our case, human rights in Ecuador,” said Rainforest Action Network runner Maria Ramos. “It is sad that the Chevron Houston Marathon – which raises awareness and money for many important causes – would deny the rights of participants to appease a corporate sponsor that is clearly ashamed of its human rights record.”

When asked for a reason for their ejection, Steven Karpas told the runners they were being removed for “protest activities.” The Rainforest Action Network team’s objective at the Expo was not to protest, disrupt the Expo or dampen other runners experience at this important race. The runners merely wanted to sit at their table and invite other runners to run with them for human rights.

Undeterred, the RAN running team stood outside the entrance and gave the stickers to runners going into the Expo. A really cool group of around 30 local high school students took the “I’m running for Human Rights” stickers and promised to wear them in the race on Sunday. Yay!

Ready to “freak” Chevron some more? Go to our brand new campaign website, www.ChangeChevron.org, and let Chevron’s new CEO John Watson know they’ve got to start respecting human rights.

I arrived in Houston, TX yesterday (yeehaw!) to run for human rights in Ecuador at this weekend’s huge Chevron-sponsored Houston marathon.

We have a rad team of people who are running the marathon for Emergildo Criollo, an Indigenous Ecuadorean man who has had to bury two children and nurse his wife through cancer because Chevron refuses to clean up their toxic legacy in Ecuador. Over 18 billion tons of toxic sludge was DELIBERATELY dumped into the Ecuadorean Amazon (on people’s home, in their water, etc) in one of the largest environmental disasters of all time. Emergildo’s family drank, fished, and bathed in the water that Chevron has refused to clean up.

Check out this great, short video made by our friends at Amazon Watch about the crisis in Ecuador.

While we’re in Houston, besides running, Rainforest Action Network advocates will drop “Change Chevron” banners along the race route, distribute “I’m Running for Human Rights” stickers to runners at the Marathon expo, and host a free screening of Crude – the critically acclaimed documentary about the crisis in Ecuador – for Chevron employees and the Houston community. Stay tuned for more marathon and changing Chevron fun.

Chevron wants the world to believe they are company that cares – and they sponsor community events like marathons and concerts- to hide their real, dangerous impacts on communities around the world. I feel it is important to bring the voice of people and communities that are literally dying because of Chevron’s deadly operations to these events.

That’s why at the Chevron Houston marathon on Sunday I’ll be running for Emergildo and the over 1,400 Ecuadoreans who have died because of Chevron’s negligence.

****This is cross-posted on ItsGettingHotinHere.org***

as RAN’s resident media maven what makes me shiver with glee? the photos and videos that people send in from all over the world that document creative actions from Alberta to Alabama, corporate crime (especially the nasty, nasty stuff that Weyerhaeuser does up in Canada), and Ford’s inability to put enough hybrids in their lots.

besides making me happy in San Francisco these submissions help us tell the stories of corporate criminals and the communities they often seem hell-bent on destroying. you’d be amazed how many under-funded media outlets get hot and bothered when we can provide them with quality footage from an oil site in Russia or photos from demos in over 100 spots. also, it lets us become citizen journalists when the corporate-controlled media doesn’t report the issues that are important to us.

let’s make 2006 even bigger. let’s make RAN a hot-spot for citizen journalism and guerrilla media. if you’re a photographer, videographer, editor, or wannabee drop me a line at brianna@ran.org and let’s work it out.

That’s the why we do it. But who does it and how? One major skill that people are learning at the Alberta Eco Action Camp is how to do direct action climbing. A smaller group has spent the last few days getting calloused hands up in the trees, tying knots, and learning a whole new vocabulary (would you be able to identify a rudy, girth hitch or piece of webbing?) the training is being run by three inspiring and highly competent climber/ trainer women from BC. It may seem like a climbing workshop would be purely James Bond style fun- which it is- but its also about safety, problem solving and and basic physics. The new climbers spent a few hours yesterday doing complex calculations about kilo newtons.

After physics class and a LONG day up in the trees, they worked late into the night practicing banner unfurling with a tarp in the kitchen with people hanging from the ceiling (it was raining), followed by a very early morning of strong coffee, measeurements, and anchor placements. today at 2 they have invited Alberta media for a banner hang demonstration that will officially kick off the weekend camp.

Who are the climbers? You don’t have to be a diesel dude to be a rockin’ climber. In fact, nearly all the climbers here are women. Amongst the climbers there’s a lawyer, a student, an organizer, and a mom.

Learning how to climb is incredible. Its a great challenge to your body, mind, and (depending how you use it) corporate and state control. If you’re interested in setting up or attending a climbing workshop near you, contact our newest Jumpstart Ford partner The Ruckus Society.

Have to get back to the camp now to see the banner unfurl and meet the media.

More soon.

The excitement is building around Alberta’s Eco Action Camp as we sort through trainings and schedules, greet new and extraordinary activists everyday, move tables and chairs around, gather wood for the fire, drink LOTS of tea and cocoa, and figure out how exactly we are going to fit 60 plus young people from around the world (the number grows everyday and is three times as many people as last year) into 2 cabins – we were told there were more but they’re apparently hiding.

THIS JUST IN: an alarm that sounded like San Francisco’s fog bell just sounded- when i asked the librarian if we needed to evacuate the building she chuckled and said only if were hungry. “Its just the lunch alert. You’re in small town Alberta now, hon.”

Not having been to Canada since I was 7 years old and my grandparents took a shortcut through Canada to get to Michigan and I marvelled at the novelty of paying for my McDonald’s happy meal with funny money, my expectations for Alberta were wide open. After being here for a good 48 hours now I can safely say that Lake Wabamun is one of the more beautiful and disturbing places I’ve been in awhile.

Driving from Edmonton to Lake Wabamun was the first indication that the work we do at RAN is right on and real neccessary. In the space of about an hour we saw many Weyerhaeuser logging trucks taking wood away from the Boreal forests and headed towards the consumer market. As the road changed from highway to gravel, we were welcomed into Wabamun “A powerhouse of a community.” The welcome sign was directly across from a HUGE coal plant. As we wound our way through the golden-amber-red fully fall forest, our route followed that of a train track. Since, we’ve arrived there’s been an almost constant rumble of train running coal along the line. Alberta extracts more coal than the rest of Canada combined and a full 70% of Canada’s coal comes from here.

As we drove along this truly beautiful lake the view is obscured by not one, not two, but three huge spewing nuclear power plants. Aaaah. No wonder the crisp fall air has a chemical tinge to it (the smell that seeps out of drains and permeates the air is reminiscent of the time when i ill-advisedly got a perm in the late 80s)

There are warning signs everywhere. Little orange flags advertising caution for gas pipelines under construction. Don’t drink the water. Don’t fish in the water. Don’t swim in the water. Don’t get anywhere near the bloody water. A chat with a local revealed that 2 months ago one of the famous trains that unsustainably transports dirty energy across the country) had derailed and dumped oil onto the land. Even though the spill was actually quite far from the water, the rail company delayed containing it and soon the whole lake was covered in that sickening slick oil. By now the oil has killed off a lot of life, frozen, and sunk to the bottom of the lake. Even though it looks picturesque again, don’t drink the water.

All in all, a great place for a camp to get young people to learn skills so that they can find community solutions to Alberta’s environmental problems. As I write this some people are harnessed and learning how to safely climb high up into trees (i got a chance yesterday and it was pretty amazing- the view and the connection I felt to the incredible, life-sustaining Boreal forest that the corporations are trying the darnedest to descimate). Others are providing free child care, cooking delicious lentil soups, and reviewing corporate campaign materials for the weekend workshops.

We finalized the schedule last night and if you are anywhere near Edmonton you should get your butt on a bus an join us. There’s going to be visioning for the future we want to create, activist storytelling around the fire, workshops on legal rights, non-violent direct action, political theater, and (facilitated by lovely RAN staffers Brianna and Jess) grassroots organizing, corporate campaign strategy, media relations, and video activist training. There will also be panels on oil and the Boreal, delicious food cooked by extremely kind organizer’s parents and lots and lots of amazing, inspiring people.

For more information visit www.earthjustice.ca.