Comments for Rain Forest Residents, Texaco Face Off In Ecuador »
Posted By bruhaha 7 months, 1 week ago in NewsA judge is preparing to render a decision in a long-running, multibillion-dollar lawsuit filed by residents of Ecuador's Amazonian rain forest against Texaco for fouling their land.
In the lawsuit, filed in 1993, the plaintiffs charge that, throughout the 1970s and '80s, the American oil company so polluted a swath of northern Ecuador that hundreds died of cancer. The defendant, Chevron Corp. — which bought Texaco in 2001 — denies the accusations.
But a court-appointed expert agrees with many of the plaintiffs' charges and has assessed damages at $27 billion. Now, a judge in the small town of Lago Agrio, says he hopes to have a decision before the end of the year.
Read Full Story at npr.org »
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quicksilver06027 months, 1 week ago
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Good point, Bru...60 Minutes does generally approach things from one side.
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That said, as much as I'm inclined to want to blame Big Oil, there is another side to this. I found the following video (very long but interesting) stating the other side of the story. Whilst it's on Chevron's website and therefore, one-sided itself, I can't say there aren't some very valid counter-arguments for the residents' failing health...one being raw sewage which, for years, has been dumped directly into Quito's main water source - and not by Chevron.
Either way, I suspect both sides have some cleaning up to do.
http://www.chevron.com/ecuador/?VideoId=EcuadorLon...-
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bruhaha7 months, 1 week ago
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Reading the transcript. I would probably agree that the contamination has been exaggerated by the plaintiffs....however, I also know from personal experience with my job that certain major (and I'm sure minor as well) oil companies will do the minimum when dealing with contamination....and that's here in the US.
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