Rainforest Communities Send Message to the World: Save Yasuni National Park From Devastation by Oil Industry |
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By: Amazon Watch Posted: 2007-07-08 10:40:08 |
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Indigenous communities from Yasuni National Park, home to some of the most biodiverse rainforest on the planet, have sent a message to the world pleading to save the park from devastation by the oil industry.
Lead by Ecuador's Vice President Lenin Moreno Garces, nearly 100 people spelt the words "Live Yasuni" as a helicopter carrying photographers hovered overhead. The images will be sent to the Live Earth world feed. The Yasuni images form part of several Live Earth events focusing attention on the Ecuadorian Amazon: -- A public service broadcast narrated by Martin Sheen and produced by Amazon Watch will be broadcast as part of the Live Earth feed -- Pablo Fajardo, the lead attorney against Chevron (formerly Texaco) in Ecuador, will be a special guest of Sting at the concert in New York -- Actress Daryl Hannah will be interviewed on Bravo TV talking about her recent visit to an area of the Ecuadorian Amazon devastated by Chevron The Yasuni event was organized to highlight the Ecuadorian Government's proposal to keep that nation's largest oil reserve, in the ground forever, saving the park and avoiding an estimated 436 million tons of carbon emissions. Yasuni, home to several indigenous groups, including some of the last still living in isolation anywhere in the Amazon, sits atop the Ishpingo- Tambococha-Tiputini (ITT) oilfields. Ecuador's experience with the oil industry has been bitter. Texaco (now Chevron) allegedly dumped 18 billion gallons of toxic wastewater directly into the rainforest in northern Ecuador over a period of 25 years, causing a public health crisis among 30,000 local people who now suffer an epidemic of cancers. They are suing Chevron for an environmental remediation provisionally priced at $6 billion in a landmark class-action lawsuit expected to conclude next year. Deforestation causes between 20 percent and 25 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions -- more than US automobile use. Stopping it will be a key element of any plan to tackle global warming. To view PSA, visit: http://www.amazonwatch.org and http://www.liveyasuni.org |
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