Gregor MacLennan of Amazon Watch, Activists join Indigenous People of Peru in Challenging Big Oil Development Plan for Rainforest
Amazon Watch has issued a call to action to protect the Peruvian Rainforest in solidarity with the people who live there. We hear about what Talisman oil company has been doing lately in seeking to divide indigenous people and buy cooperation from a minority in the hopes that they will put pressure on the majority who oppose further oil development. PETITION here.
TRT: 29:00
Produced by Dori Smith, Storrs, CT
Download at Pacifica's Audioport here or at Archive.org and radio4all.net
Gregor MacLennan spells out the significance of the ongoing fight to stop massive oil development in the Peruvian rainforest. He and Achuar leader, Peas Peas Ayui, President of the National Achuar Federation of Peru (FENAP), have just returned from Calgary, Canada where they met with Talisman CEO John Manzoni to demand that the company respect the Achuar people, withdraw from their territory and cease insistent attempts to convince communities to sign agreements. We hear about an ongoing petition campaign and call to action for all who are concerned about preserving the Amazon's rainforests. The Achuar previously delivered the same message to Mr. Manzoni in 2008 and 2010, but despite the Achuar people's steadfast opposition to oil drilling, Talisman Energy continues its relentless search for oil, resorting to dangerous industry practices: Divide and conquer. attends annual meeting of Talisman Oil in Canada. People of world uniting against deadly advance of big oil across globe.
See Related Video here: Father Diego Clavijo, a Salesian missionary priest with Father Luis Bola working in northern Peru near the Ecuador border, with the Achuar and Wampisa indigenous peoples. We work with the Wampisa of the River Morona in Datem del Marañon province.
Prior to the push by Talisman Oil, the Peruvian Amazon was under oil development pressure from Occidental Petroleum. See more on the crisis caused by Occidental here and here. "Until very recently, flagrant pollution has been the norm. Oxy's legacy of harm continues to be felt: the company's reckless operations illegally dumped approximately 9 billion barrels of "produced waters" – which contain highly toxic substances such as barium, lead and arsenic – throughout 30 years of operations (averaging 850,000 barrels dumped per day). " -- "Adults and local children have tested positive for dangerously high blood-lead levels, and local residents cite countless tales of unexplained diseases, tumors, skin ailments and miscarriages from oil exposure. Fish and local game are not fit for consumption and fraught with contamination, and the soil is also no longer fit to produce the agricultural crops on which the Achuar depend for subsistence." more here.
Also, we mention some headline news from the week of December 10-24, 2011:
Shell Oil Messes Off Two Coasts, By Julia Whitty, Thu Dec. 22, 2011 11:20 AM PST here
Brazil police seek Chevron oil spill charges, Brazilian police are seeking charges against employees from US oil company Chevron and drilling firm Transocean for their alleged role in an oil spill off the coast of Rio last month.
Police said environmental crimes had been committed. December 22, 2011 here
New Leak found in Brazil, December 18, 2011 "A handout picture released in November by the Brazilian National Agency of Petroleum shows supply boats cleaning an oil spill around a Chevron platform operating in the Frade oil field in the Atlantic Ocean 120 km offshore Campos, northern state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Brazil slapped a $28 million fine on US energy giant Chevron Monday for an oil spill." here See too, Chevron suit, freezing of assets, here from 12/15/11.
Shell oil spill off Nigeria likely worst in a decade, An oil spill from Royal Dutch Shell's Bonga field near the coast of Nigeria is likely the worst to hit those waters in a decade, according to a government official. here
BP says Halliburton 'destroyed evidence', BP has accused Halliburton of destroying evidence that could be used to show that the US oil services company shares the blame for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. HERE
Brazil lawsuit against Chevron may scare investors, STAN LEHMAN, Associated Press, Updated 04:02 p.m., Friday, December 16, 2011, here
PHOTO: Achuar Region, Peruvian Rainforest, photos from Amazonwatch.org
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