In June we were fortunate to have Cyndie Berg, Development Director of Amazon Watch, as our speaker in San Francisco. I was inspired to invite Amazon Watch to join us at EcoTuesday after I watched the documentary called CRUDE, which chronicles the account of Chevron's systematic contamination of the Ecuadorian Amazon, one of the biggest environmental disasters in history. It's a must see! Since the invitation was extended - we have encountered yet another environmental disaster - the Gulf oil spill. Her talk was timely and full of pertinent information.

Amazon Watch works in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru to strengthen indigenous communities to defend their rights and territories.  In the US, they wage campaigns against companies operating in the Amazon, urging greater corporate social responsibility around human rights and the environment.  Since 2002, Amazon Watch has campaigned for justice in Ecuador, where Texaco (now Chevron, California’s largest company), deliberately dumped more than 18 billion gallons of toxic wastewater in the Amazon, causing an environmental catastrophe which experts have dubbed the “Rainforest Chernobyl.”

As the Gulf oil spill is the big story of the moment, Cyndie discussed the relationship between governments and oil companies. For the last four decades, multinational oil companies have caused tremendous environmental destruction and human rights abuses from Nigeria to Burma to Richmond, California.  Time and time again, governments seeking revenue from oil have refused to impose the kinds of oversight and safeguards that would prevent or mitigate damage. Oftentimes, governments need the money that these huge companies offer them, even if the long-term effects are devastating.

Additionally, she pointed out that Chevron "portrays itself as the cutting edge of renewable energy with its whole human energy ad campaign. It turns out that in 2009 Chevron only invested 2% of its capital and exploratory budget on renewable energy. We're not seeing much of a shift past petroleum." With Chevron's huge budget - we all know that they have more dollars to spare, especially if they are marketing themselves a clean energy researchers.