Tell Chevron to Clean Up Its Toxic Mess in Ecuador

Targeting: John Watson (Chevron CEO)

Sponsored by: Rainforest Action Network

Over the course of twenty-six years of oil drilling in Ecuador’s Amazon rainforest, U.S. oil giant Chevron deliberately dumped more than 18 billion gallons of toxic wastewater into the rainforest, leaving local people suffering a wave of cancers, miscarriages and birth defects. The tragedy in Ecuador is so profound, it has been compared to the Exxon Valdez spill and called the “Amazon’s Chernobyl.”

In spite of the tremendous suffering caused by this toxic pollution, Chevron has refused to clean up the catastrophe.

Within the next year, the outcome of a court case sixteen years in the making will be determined by a court in Ecuador.

Chevron has pledged that even if it is found guilty in court the company simply won’t pay to clean up the site or provide health care, potable water and compensation to affected communities.

Chevron needs to take responsibility. But the company won’t unless it feels pressure from its American customers and the general public.

Send a letter to CEO John Watson and tell him he needs to clean up the toxic legacy in Ecuador.

And tell him that Chevron must shift to clean sources energy and adopt sound human rights policies so that what is happening to the people of Ecuador and the rainforest never happens anywhere else.

photo: Lou Dematteis from Crude Reflections

Then, after you sign the letter, check out the pits we have in our own Texan backyards.