Pietro Paolini


Editorial

the sour lake

Chevron-Texaco: environmental disaster in Ecuador

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On 2014, the supreme court in Ecuador ruled that Chevron, now owner of Texaco, had to pay $9 billion in environmental damages for polluting the rainforest, in an unprecedented environmental ruling. 

the sour lake

The city of Nueva Loja is located in the Amazon forest is one of the most important city in northeastern Ecuador. It was founded in the 60’s as a base camp of Texaco. The workers that come from Texas had called the area “Lago Agrio” by the name of Sour Lake town in Texas, home of the company Texaco. In the region are situated more than 2.000 oil wells, and in Ecuador it’s the most rich of reserves. The economy of the country is heavily dependent on the oil extraction activity, that represent the 52,4% of total exports.

The area around the city has many ecological problems. The rainforest has been destroyed in this region and environment degradation is heavy, with catastrophic oil pollution in many areas. All the rivers are contaminated and also today many companies, the national one too, are working with no attention to the environment.

The people that lives in the area can’t cultivate anymore, they can’t eat fruits and animals. The water is contaminated and just having a bath they can have skin problems. They can eat just canned food. In every family there’s someone died for a cancer or suffering from that.

After a long work the citizens sued Texaco for the damages, with the help of some ecological organizations. On 2014, the supreme court in Ecuador ruled that Chevron, now owner of Texaco, had to pay $9 billion in environmental damages for polluting the rainforest, in an unprecedented environmental ruling. 

Other 80 families starded in the last years a legal action also against the national oil company “Petro Ecuador”.