Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Rainforest Action Network on Richmond-San Rafael Bridge

Filed under: Citizen Action | Energy | Environment | Nonviolent Action — by Will Kirkland @ 10:23 am
Tags: , , ,

This morning, May 23, activists from Amazon Watch and the Rainforest Action Network rappelled off the Richmond Bridge and unfurled a 50 foot banner which read: “Chevron Guilty: Clean Up Amazon.”

Anchored to the bridge deck, three brave souls dangled airborne above the bay alongside the banner, within view of an oil tanker. The banner drop was carried out to draw attention to Chevron’s environmental contamination in the Amazon Rainforest in Ecuador.

In an historic court victory in Ecuador on Feb. 14, Chevron was found guilty of causing $18 billion worth of environmental damage to a Rhode Island-sized swath of the Amazon. The widespread soil and water contamination, caused by decades of toxic dumping by Texaco and Chevron, has been linked to high rates of cancer and birth defects. Amazon Watch has been campaigning to get Chevron to clean up the oil pollution for 18 years.

“Chevron has said they are going to appeal the decision,” noted Paul Paz y Miño, managing director of Amazon Watch. “They’ve said they’ll fight it till hell freezes over.” So activists are keeping the pressure on.

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Words for Acts

It is impudent in the extreme for this man to go around Europe haranguing people on their duties to civilization when his own country presents one of the most lawless aspects of modern life the whole world affords.

Roger Casement
Irish Human Rights Champion

commenting on Teddy Roosevelt's 1910 Guildhall
speech telling Great Britain to either rule Egypt or get out.



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