I watched "Crude: The Real Price of Oil" this weekend

[IDemo]

Posted earlier in GD, without a single response. I'll try again here...

This is a documentary which follows the story of the struggle of Ecuadorians to gain redress from Chevron-Texaco for damages to their land and water and for the resulting health fallout due to decades of careless oil extraction practices. "Fallout" isn't too strong a word here - the cancer rate among the population, as well as numerous other sicknesses and chronic health conditions, resembles what one might expect from a Chernobyl. About 30 times the oil from the Exxon Valdez accident was left in the soil and water of the Amazon jungle.

The two main advocates for the plaintiffs are Steven Donziger, an American lawyer, and Pablo Fajardo, a native Ecuadorian who went from working in the oil patch for Texaco at an early age to attaining a law degree. Fajardo is later awarded the CNN World Heroes Award in the 'Fighting for Justice' category for his efforts.

To keep things balanced out, lawyers and "environmental analysts" for Chevron-Texaco are featured as well, but their segments come across as cynically as pronouncements from the old Tobacco Institute - "Who really knows where all that black sludge came from immediately below the surface of the ground", or "If children are contracting cancer and other diseases, it's because the water is dirty, not because of oil." One of the lawyers for Chevron-Texaco was later charged with fraud by Ecuador.

The countless scenes of blackened water, tarry soil, fouled water, pock-covered infants and their tear-streaked mothers makes the case pretty plainly: this is the story of still another giant corporation that has sucked the resources out from under the feet of a native population, poisoned them in the process, and brought the full force of a highly paid legal team against them to defend themselves against the ugly truth. Sadly for Chevron-Texaco, the last order by the court was for the plaintiffs: a 27 billion dollar judgment. The case is expected to take another decade of wrangling before any kind of closure occurs.

Closure for many of the victims will likely take much longer.

I also watched "Inside Job" last week, which was supposed to get my outrage meter pegged, and did. This one blew up the meter, though.

[Catherina]

1. If people only knew. Rec'd Where's the GD link? n/t

[IDemo]

2. Here ->

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x714328

[Catherina]

4. Thanks. Asked you a question there. n/t

[14thColony]

3. Great documentary

I saw it in London last year. Wow, couldn't believe just how bad it was. And the cynical way Chevron tried to blame Texaco and/or the Ecuadorian state oil company was well-illustrated.

I remember saying to my girlfriend afterwards that Chevron could make themselves look like knights in shining armor by saying "look, we don't know where the blame really falls here, and while we don't think it's with us, you know what? We're going to clean this place up anyway. We're going to put it all as right as we can get it, build schools, build clinics, establish a supply of clean water, and even try to foster some sustainable jobs in this region to help these people, because that's the humane thing to do regardless of who made this mess. We CAN clean it up, so we WILL clean it up."

Supposing that they were to actually follow-through on something like that I think the PR benefits reaped would be orders of magnitude beyond any minor loss recorded for a quarter or two. A few projects like that (legit, not just PR ops) and Chevron could make itself look like an angel to BP's Satan. And you can't tell me that wouldn't be worth a whole more in the lot in the long-term than the capital actually expended.

[IDemo]

5. Their Eight Step Site Remediation story basically said it all

As scene after scene showed the black sludge evident only inches below the surface in numerous locations. Remediate? Hell, just throw some dirt on it, we have work to do!

[14thColony]

6. Yep, pretty much it

Ecuador should seize all their assets in the country and sell them off the pay for the clean-up.