This past week, Emergildo Criollo, an Indigenous Ecuador leader of the Cofan people traveled 3,000 miles from his home in the Amazon rainforest to California. He came to California to share his story and ask for support in getting one of the world’s largest oil companies (Chevron) to clean up one of the largest environmental disasters in history.

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.
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Last night, Emergildo Criollo, the Indigenous leader from Ecuador, met with California legislators and asked for their support in the 16+ year campaign to demand Chevron remediate massive oil contamination affecting over 30,000 people. Along with supporters from Amazon Watch and Rainforest Action Network, Emergildo spoke with lawmakers about the impact of California’s largest company in Ecuador, and what they can do to support his community’s call for environmental cleanup and action to prevent such tragedies in the future.

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.

In today’s “Chevron is a dirty liar” news: The oil giant pulls another dirty PR trick and lies to avoid paying $27 billion to clean up their toxic legacy in Ecuador.

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.

Ok so you may or may not know, but Nigeria has a crazy huge film industry. In fact it’s third in the world after Hollywood and India’s Bollywood scene. In fact, its been named Nollywood as its very similar.

Well last week I attended the first film in the Nigerian Film Series that the Smithsonian Museum of African Art is hosting. The movie was great but the fact that Chevron is the main sponsor was disconcerting. Yep, the same Chevron that is responsible for massive environmental destruction and human rights violations in the Niger Delta. I find it disrespectful that Chevron would use an event like this to make their public image more appealing, especially within the Nigerian community of DC.

Why is Chevron the wrong sponsor for Nigeria?

• Over the last fifty years, Chevron has spilled 1.5 million tons of oil in the Niger Delta, contaminating waterways, fish-stocks and farmlands.
• Chevron still engages in the illegal practice of gas flaring [the burning and emission of natural gas into the air during the oil extraction process], contributing massive amounts of carbon dioxide and resulting in high rates of cancer, asthma and other respiratory illnesses.
• Chevron employs the Nigerian military’s secret security forces – known to violently repress peaceful protests. In 2008 Chevron stood trial for torture; extrajudicial killing; and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment of Nigerian villagers.

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Thanks to a big push from Avaaz yesterday, there are now over 150,000 people who have signed a petition telling Chevron’s new CEO John Watson to clean up the oil giant’s toxic legacy in Ecuador, and around the globe.

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

In the weeks since the Supreme Court’s horrible, democracy-eroding ruling giving corporations unbridled spending on political contributions and advertisements under the guise of “free speech,” many of us have asked what impact this will have on climate legislation and contested 2010 races.

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.

Illustration by Stefan Lorant

As an ode to the  “rank ‘em and spank ‘em” strategy coined by our outgoing Executive Director Mike Brune, we proudly present the following roster of international banks backing expansion in the tar sands.

The table below is based on credit extended underwritten by each bank to companies operating in the tar sands since 2007 according to Bloomberg. Restrictions at Bloomberg now prevent us from publishing deal-by-deal details to the web, but are available upon request if you leave your email in the comments.

Each of these banks received letters from RAN, IEN and BankTrack late last year requesting information about how they are addressing the damage caused by tar sands development. Responses (or lack thereof) will help us identify which banks are serious about responsible banking, and which may need more convincing. Responses received to date are also linked in the table after the jump.

UPDATE: There’s been some questions about how these numbers are derived.  We have answers, following the table. More »

The Rainforest Action Network team that is running for human rights in Ecuador at this Sunday’s Chevron Houston Marathon was just kicked out of the marathon’s Expo by Chevron Marathon Managing Director Steven Karpas!

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.

Who knew that leg stretching and laps could challenge the CEO of one of the world’s largest and most powerful corporations?

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***