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

[IDemo]

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 serious nuclear accident. About 30 times the oil from the Exxon Valdez accident was left in the soil and water of the Amazon jungle.

The two main heroes 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.

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

[Catherina]

1. Where did you watch this? I'd like to see it. If people only knew the real price humanity pays

maybe more would care.

Rec'd

[IDemo]

2. Netflix

http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Crude/70112742

[Catherina]

3. Thanks. Now you've got me hopping around on youtube watching

60 minutes did a piece on this, I'm watching now. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hMdsxrAyT0

I'll look for the documentary tonight. Thanks for bringing this up. This makes me so angry I dumped my car years ago, grow my own produce and do everything I can to cut the link to these sick corporations. The world is not our dump.