socialistfuture
14th June 2007, 00:02
I thought there is very little about indigenous issues on this thread and a dominance of technology and animal rights issues. So thought i'd put a few thing in this thread.
www.amazonwatch.org and another place to learn about threats to indigenous communities and the amazon is http://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/
LA-Based Oil Giant’s Conduct Leads to Legal Liability in the US
Los Angeles, CA – A report released today, on the eve of Occidental Petroleum’s (Oxy) annual general meeting (AGM), reveals that the LA-based oil giant deliberately ignored industry standards and employed out-of-date practices for 30 years, resulting in severe cadmium and lead poisoning among indigenous communities in the Peruvian Amazon.
According to the report, based on information gathered by a team of experts in May 2006 – including a doctor, nurse, lawyers, soil scientist, agronomist, environmental engineer, and chemist – children from five Achuar communities in the Corrientes River basin of the Peruvian Amazon now have unusually high concentrations of lead and cadmium in their blood, at levels known to cause developmental problems.
Andrés Sandi Mucushua, President of the Federation of Native Communities of the Corrientes River (FECONACO), said: “My people have suffered for 35 years from Oxy’s presence. Oxy has extracted petroleum from our ancestral territory, contaminating and destroying it. We have seen our rivers, farms, and animals sicken and we have become ill and died from the contamination. We have opposed oil drilling on our territory. It is important that Oxy shareholders are told what Oxy has done and continues to do in the Peruvian Amazon.”
Published by EarthRights International (ERI), Racimos de Ungurahui, and Amazon Watch (AW), the report also alleges that Oxy flouted Peruvian law and international human rights norms. The report found:
• Oxy dumped an average of 850,000 barrels per day of toxic oil by-products directly into rivers and streams used by the Achuar for drinking, bathing, washing, and fishing – totaling approximately nine billion barrels during the 30 years of operation.
• Oxy used earthen pits, prohibited by U.S. standards, to store drilling fluids, crude oil, and crude by-products. These pits, dug directly into the ground, were open, unlined, and routinely overflowed onto the ground and into surface waters, leaching into the surrounding soil and groundwater
• Oxy violated several international rights norms – including several in the American Convention on Human Rights and the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights – in its actions on Achuar territory, including the right to life, the right to health, the right to a healthy environment, and indigenous people’s rights.
• Oxy violated Peru’s General Water Law and General Health Law, as well environmental statutes meant to be applied in the hydrocarbon sector.
• As a U.S. corporation, Oxy’s disregard for the law and for the well-being of the Achuar could subject it to legal liability in the U.S. as well as in Peru.
ERI previously brought a lawsuit against Unocal, another LA-based oil company, for abuses in Burma, concluding in a landmark settlement in 2005. Ka Hsaw Wa, ERI's Executive Director, noted, “Oil companies think only about profits – they are blind to human rights and the environment. As an indigenous person from Burma whose people have suffered greatly at the hands of Unocal, I am compelled to act against similar abuses being experienced by my Achuar brothers and sisters.”
Atossa Soltani, Amazon Watch Executive Director, added: “Oxy’s history of disregard for the law and for the most basic human rights of the Achuar is appalling. Oxy needs to move decisively and rectify its past mistakes by cleaning up its toxic mess and helping the Achuar deal with their health problems. Otherwise this scandal could haunt Oxy for years to come with negative publicity and potential legal actions.”
ERI, FECONACO, and AW will also be holding a sidewalk rally, press briefing and photo op with celebrities and indigenous delegation on Friday May 4, 2007 from 9:45am to 10:15am and a press briefing at 12:00pm to give feedback from Oxy’s Annual General Meeting outside the Fairmount Miramar Hotel, 101 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica, California. (The AGM takes place in the hotel from 10:30am to 12:00pm). Participants will be available for interviews.
Teleconference about the report at 11am PST on Thursday May, 3.
******GUIDELINES FOR TELECONFERENCE PARTICIPANTS******
US direct dial 719-234-0201
US/Canada toll free 888-288-9321
International toll free – Colombia 01 800 518 0408
International toll free – Ecuador 1 800 010 170
International toll free – Venezuela 0 800 100 4684
Participant code for all callers 539547
EarthRights International (ERI) is a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization that combines the power of law and the power of people in defense of human rights and the environment. Focusing on earth rights, we work at the intersection of human rights and the environment. We specialize in fact-finding, legal actions against perpetrators of earth rights abuses, training for grassroots and community leaders, and advocacy campaigns that seek to end earth rights abuses and promote and protect earth rights.
FECONACO is a federation representing Achuar, Kichwa and Urarina indigenous communities along the Corrientes River. Founded in 1991, FECONACO defends the environmental and cultural rights of its member communities.
Amazon Watch is an environmental and human rights organization based in San Francisco, California. We work to help indigenous communities in the Amazon basin defend their territories and culture from the impacts of large-scale industrial “development” such as oil and gas drilling.
AMAZON RAINFOREST wikipedia
The diversity of plant species is the highest on earth with some experts estimating that one square kilometre may contain over 75,000 types of trees and 150,000 species of higher plants.[citation needed] One square kilometre of Amazon rainforest can contain about 90,790 tonnes of living plants. This constitutes the largest collection of living plants and animal species in the world. One in five of all the birds in the world live in the rainforests of the Amazon.[citation needed] To date, an estimated 438,000 species of plants of economic and social interest have been registered in the region with many more remaining to be discovered or catalogued
Future of Deforestation
At the current rate, in two decades the Amazon Rainforest will be reduced by 40% (National Geographic, January 2007) The 2005-2006 year had a 41% drop in deforestation, This is the lowest figure since 1991. Deforestation rates are expected to go down as conservation has been at a very high rate in the past five years. At this rate, it is possible that the Amazon Rainforest will no longer exist by the end of the century.
Impact of Amazon drought
In 2005, parts of the Amazon basin experienced the worst drought in 100 years[32], and there are indications that 2006 could be a second successive year of drought[33]. A 23 July 2006 article in the UK newspaper The Independent reported Woods Hole Research Center results showing that the forest in its present form could survive only three years of drought.[34][35] Scientists at the Brazilian National Institute of Amazonian Research argue in the article that this drought response, coupled with the effects of deforestation on regional climate, are pushing the rainforest towards a "tipping point" where it would irreversibly start to die. It concludes that the forest is on the brink of being turned into savanna or desert, with catastrophic consequences for the world's climate.........
According to the WWF, the combination of climate change and deforestation increases the drying effect of dead trees that fuels forests fires.[36]
also see:
http://www.survival-international.org/
Worldwide organisation supporting tribal peoples and their human rights.
www.amazonwatch.org and another place to learn about threats to indigenous communities and the amazon is http://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/
LA-Based Oil Giant’s Conduct Leads to Legal Liability in the US
Los Angeles, CA – A report released today, on the eve of Occidental Petroleum’s (Oxy) annual general meeting (AGM), reveals that the LA-based oil giant deliberately ignored industry standards and employed out-of-date practices for 30 years, resulting in severe cadmium and lead poisoning among indigenous communities in the Peruvian Amazon.
According to the report, based on information gathered by a team of experts in May 2006 – including a doctor, nurse, lawyers, soil scientist, agronomist, environmental engineer, and chemist – children from five Achuar communities in the Corrientes River basin of the Peruvian Amazon now have unusually high concentrations of lead and cadmium in their blood, at levels known to cause developmental problems.
Andrés Sandi Mucushua, President of the Federation of Native Communities of the Corrientes River (FECONACO), said: “My people have suffered for 35 years from Oxy’s presence. Oxy has extracted petroleum from our ancestral territory, contaminating and destroying it. We have seen our rivers, farms, and animals sicken and we have become ill and died from the contamination. We have opposed oil drilling on our territory. It is important that Oxy shareholders are told what Oxy has done and continues to do in the Peruvian Amazon.”
Published by EarthRights International (ERI), Racimos de Ungurahui, and Amazon Watch (AW), the report also alleges that Oxy flouted Peruvian law and international human rights norms. The report found:
• Oxy dumped an average of 850,000 barrels per day of toxic oil by-products directly into rivers and streams used by the Achuar for drinking, bathing, washing, and fishing – totaling approximately nine billion barrels during the 30 years of operation.
• Oxy used earthen pits, prohibited by U.S. standards, to store drilling fluids, crude oil, and crude by-products. These pits, dug directly into the ground, were open, unlined, and routinely overflowed onto the ground and into surface waters, leaching into the surrounding soil and groundwater
• Oxy violated several international rights norms – including several in the American Convention on Human Rights and the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights – in its actions on Achuar territory, including the right to life, the right to health, the right to a healthy environment, and indigenous people’s rights.
• Oxy violated Peru’s General Water Law and General Health Law, as well environmental statutes meant to be applied in the hydrocarbon sector.
• As a U.S. corporation, Oxy’s disregard for the law and for the well-being of the Achuar could subject it to legal liability in the U.S. as well as in Peru.
ERI previously brought a lawsuit against Unocal, another LA-based oil company, for abuses in Burma, concluding in a landmark settlement in 2005. Ka Hsaw Wa, ERI's Executive Director, noted, “Oil companies think only about profits – they are blind to human rights and the environment. As an indigenous person from Burma whose people have suffered greatly at the hands of Unocal, I am compelled to act against similar abuses being experienced by my Achuar brothers and sisters.”
Atossa Soltani, Amazon Watch Executive Director, added: “Oxy’s history of disregard for the law and for the most basic human rights of the Achuar is appalling. Oxy needs to move decisively and rectify its past mistakes by cleaning up its toxic mess and helping the Achuar deal with their health problems. Otherwise this scandal could haunt Oxy for years to come with negative publicity and potential legal actions.”
ERI, FECONACO, and AW will also be holding a sidewalk rally, press briefing and photo op with celebrities and indigenous delegation on Friday May 4, 2007 from 9:45am to 10:15am and a press briefing at 12:00pm to give feedback from Oxy’s Annual General Meeting outside the Fairmount Miramar Hotel, 101 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica, California. (The AGM takes place in the hotel from 10:30am to 12:00pm). Participants will be available for interviews.
Teleconference about the report at 11am PST on Thursday May, 3.
******GUIDELINES FOR TELECONFERENCE PARTICIPANTS******
US direct dial 719-234-0201
US/Canada toll free 888-288-9321
International toll free – Colombia 01 800 518 0408
International toll free – Ecuador 1 800 010 170
International toll free – Venezuela 0 800 100 4684
Participant code for all callers 539547
EarthRights International (ERI) is a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization that combines the power of law and the power of people in defense of human rights and the environment. Focusing on earth rights, we work at the intersection of human rights and the environment. We specialize in fact-finding, legal actions against perpetrators of earth rights abuses, training for grassroots and community leaders, and advocacy campaigns that seek to end earth rights abuses and promote and protect earth rights.
FECONACO is a federation representing Achuar, Kichwa and Urarina indigenous communities along the Corrientes River. Founded in 1991, FECONACO defends the environmental and cultural rights of its member communities.
Amazon Watch is an environmental and human rights organization based in San Francisco, California. We work to help indigenous communities in the Amazon basin defend their territories and culture from the impacts of large-scale industrial “development” such as oil and gas drilling.
AMAZON RAINFOREST wikipedia
The diversity of plant species is the highest on earth with some experts estimating that one square kilometre may contain over 75,000 types of trees and 150,000 species of higher plants.[citation needed] One square kilometre of Amazon rainforest can contain about 90,790 tonnes of living plants. This constitutes the largest collection of living plants and animal species in the world. One in five of all the birds in the world live in the rainforests of the Amazon.[citation needed] To date, an estimated 438,000 species of plants of economic and social interest have been registered in the region with many more remaining to be discovered or catalogued
Future of Deforestation
At the current rate, in two decades the Amazon Rainforest will be reduced by 40% (National Geographic, January 2007) The 2005-2006 year had a 41% drop in deforestation, This is the lowest figure since 1991. Deforestation rates are expected to go down as conservation has been at a very high rate in the past five years. At this rate, it is possible that the Amazon Rainforest will no longer exist by the end of the century.
Impact of Amazon drought
In 2005, parts of the Amazon basin experienced the worst drought in 100 years[32], and there are indications that 2006 could be a second successive year of drought[33]. A 23 July 2006 article in the UK newspaper The Independent reported Woods Hole Research Center results showing that the forest in its present form could survive only three years of drought.[34][35] Scientists at the Brazilian National Institute of Amazonian Research argue in the article that this drought response, coupled with the effects of deforestation on regional climate, are pushing the rainforest towards a "tipping point" where it would irreversibly start to die. It concludes that the forest is on the brink of being turned into savanna or desert, with catastrophic consequences for the world's climate.........
According to the WWF, the combination of climate change and deforestation increases the drying effect of dead trees that fuels forests fires.[36]
also see:
http://www.survival-international.org/
Worldwide organisation supporting tribal peoples and their human rights.