For the first time in over 30 years, Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum will no longer be involved in destructive drilling in the Amazon Rainforest. For over three decades, OXY drilled and polluted the rainforest homeland of the indigenous people with no regard for the wellfare of the inhabitants of the forest -- the plants, the rivers, the soil, the insects, the animals, or the human beings!
The toxic legacy is staggering. Over 800,000 barrels of oil, along millions of gallons of poisonous waste water were dumped DAILY in to the local ecosystem -- leaving a mess even larger than the widely known Exxon Valdez oil spill.
Ten years ago, Amazon Watch, a small and powerful activist group headed by Malibu resident and eco-hero Atossa Soltani, began sounding the alarm.
And on December 6, the group was given the second of two recent victories -- Occidental Petroleum announced the end of their involvement destructive drilling into an ecosystem we all know is connected to the very life support for every part the planet. This announcement came on the heels of the company's October agreeement with the Peruvian government to stop dumping toxic oil and waste water by July 2008 -- an agreement achieved after two weeks of protests by an Indian group, the Native Federation of the Corrientes River, which shut down jungle operations.
This sweet victory was timely, because on the very same evening in Santa Monica, I was able to join the standing-room-only fundraiser with the Achuar leaders and the staff of Amazon Watch to celebrate with fellow donors, activists and supporters.
“We welcome this news and thank Oxy for finally respecting our rights,” said Gonzalo Payma Sandi, an Achuar leader currently visiting the U.S. “And we will also continue demanding that Oxy assume responsibility for the toxic contamination it left on our territory. We very much hope that Oxy will clean up the pollution and justly compensate the affected communities.” Read the exciting press releases (here and here).
The Indigenous leaders and activists say the the work has still only just begun, because the 30 years of pollution caused by the Los Angeles-based OXY has left the forest residents with high concentrations of cadmium and lead in their polluted drinking water, food sources, air -- and in their blood.
Even so, these events point to a very positive shift in the relationship between modern civilization and indigenous people all over the world. This historic agreement marks a turning point for our modern world to not only respect the needs of our indigenous brothers and sisters, but also integrate their wisdom and reverence for all life into our way of being.
