Ecuador auctions off Amazon to Chinese oil firms

[wtmusic]

After the Texaco/Chevron disaster (casualty above), you'd think Ecuadorians would know better.

"Ecuador plans to auction off more than three million hectares of pristine Amazonian rainforest to Chinese oil companies, angering indigenous groups and underlining the global environmental toll of China's insatiable thirst for energy.

On Monday morning a group of Ecuadorean politicians pitched bidding contracts to representatives of Chinese oil companies at a Hilton hotel in central Beijing, on the fourth leg of a roadshow to publicise the bidding process. Previous meetings in Ecuador's capital, Quito, and in Houston and Paris were each confronted with protests by indigenous groups.

Attending the roadshow were black-suited representatives from oil companies including China Petrochemical and China National Offshore Oil. "Ecuador is willing to establish a relationship of mutual benefit – a win-win relationship," said Ecuador's ambassador to China in opening remarks."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/26/ecuador-chinese-oil-bids-amazon

[stuntcat]

1. at the National Zoo today I read a sign telling how we'll wipe out lots of species in the rainfor..

I read a sign telling how we'll wipe out lots of species in the rainforests without ever learning about them.

Half the animals had signs telling that they're threatened and some had signs saying they're already extinct in the wild. We went on a weekday hoping it would be quiet but no, there were strollers and screaming kids everywhere.. families with 3 and 4 and 5 kids. Guess no one there could imagine how their existence or all the carbon copies they made could have anything to do with the mass-extinction.
Animals just don't matter that much to people. YAY that's my species!! #humanity