Since the earyly '70s, America has become more enlighted about its harm to the environment than at any other time before. Years of environmental research led to claims of ground and air pollution which then helped cast many new environmental laws we live by today. These laws were past because people and corporations were not taking care of the environment and it was begining to cause problems. Problems with air quality and even water quality. One prime example of a corporation taking advantage of the environment and ruining the lives of thousands of people is Chevron, an American multinational energy corporation. In 1993, Chevron was in a class action law-suit from over 30,000 Ecuadorians. It was being accused of poisoning the land, for over 20 years, by dumping millions of gallons of oil-tainted water in Ecuadors creeks and streams. To help avoid harm, Chevron had the case thrown out saying that the law suit should be litigated in Ecuador, closer to where the alleged crimes occured. Now, however, Chevron could be in big trouble. The court case that was moved to Ecuador is going badly for the corporation and Chevron may be liable to pay over 7 billion dollars. In an attempt to clear itself of any law-suits, Chevron spent around 40 million dollars to clean up part of its toxic waste delima. This did not fly well with the Ecuadorian government whenever it found out that this did not cover any of the third party claims, which consist of the 30,000 Ecuadorians suing Chevron in court now.
Chevwrong. Photograph. Chevwrong. Uprisingradio.org. Web. 27 Apr. 2011. <http://uprisingradio.org/home/?p=8074>.
Dear Hunter,
ReplyDeleteThis was shocking. I mean I just don't understand why companies feel they can do stuff like this.
The part about Chevron dumping oil-tainted water into the streams and rivers is appalling. That affected a lot of people, and Chevron only seems to care about the company instead of those people whose lives were affected. Shouldn't these types of companies know better by now?
Also, the part where it said they spent the 40 million dollars to clean up. They could have just saved all that money if they would have been smart and properly disposed of the tainted water in the first place.
This was a really good post. Thank you for posting it!
Bonobo
Dear Blogger,
ReplyDeleteI completely agreed with what you had to say about corporations in this particular blog. I have read all your other blogs, and this one stood out to me because of the truth inside of it. The statistics you through out there were magnificent. I will for sure keep coming back to read what else you have to say about corporations. You Rock!!
Dequeen