I want Avatar director James Cameron to mention real-life Ecuador struggle against Chevron at Oscars

Avatar's director James Cameron has said that he wants to use the success of his latest movie to direct people's attention to real environmental problems in the world. Yesterday on the San Francisco Chronicle website, Becky Tarbotton of the Rainforest Action Network pleaded with him to help spread the word about Chevron's crimes in Ecuador. She has had this brilliant idea of Cameron mentioning Ecuadorians' fight against Chevron during his Oscars' acceptance speech. Wouldn't that be wonderful?!

You can read more here: http://itsgettinghotinhere.org/2010/02/23/james-cameron-the-oscars-and-the-real-life-avatar/

In the mean time, help spread the word and tweet, post on your facebook page or own blog: I want Avatar director James Cameron to mention real-life Ecuador struggle against #Chevron at #Oscars:http://bit.ly/aOwuNI #realavatar

Stories of the victims

Rosana Sisalima with her granddaughter, San Carlos on November 24, 2004

The Chevron Pit is featuring stories about people who have been affected by the oil contamination left behind by Texaco in the Ecuadorian rainforest. These stories are incredibly sad and disturbing. I hope you will read them and pass them along to others who care about how our oil companies treat people and their environment in countries where they explore for oil.

Here's the link:
http://thechevronpit.blogspot.com/2010/02/texaco-throws-dirt-on-oil-pit-after_18.html

Finally Chevron Speaks Truth With Freudian Slip

Ricardo Reis Veiga (Managing Counsel, Chevron Latin America)

Chevron’s Managing Counsel for Latin America finally speaks truth about what Texaco did and did not do in Ecuador. Chevron bought Texaco in 2001 and, with the purchase, acquired a potential $27 billion liability resulting from an oil contamination lawsuit filed by indigenous groups in Ecuador. Texaco has admitted to dumping over 18 billion gallons of oil and toxic water into the rainforest from 1964 to 1990. Check out this blog: http://livinnthebigtime.blogspot.com/2010/02/chevrons-8-steps-ricardo-reis-veiga.html

Chevron's General Counsel reduced to taking out company's trash

Hewitt Pate

If I’m understanding this interesting blog at The Chevron Pit correctly, it means having Chevron’s General Counsel Hewitt Pate roll out a public charge that the court-appointed expert in the contamination lawsuit against Chevron is corrupt is like making President Obama take out his own trash every morning. Speaking of trash, Pate’s announcement stinks to high heaven. Read more here: http://www.thechevronpit.blogspot.com/com

Here we go again

Chevron is at it again-trying to stall the lawsuit. Now it is about Richard Cabrera- the court appointed economist who assessed the damages in Ecuador at 27 billion dollars. Chevron once said Cabrera wasn’t qualified to do the assessment. Now it’s saying he is qualified because he owns a company that does oil cleanup work.

This is not Chevron’s first attempt to exclude Cabrera, but so far the court has rejected Chevron’s motion every time. The oil giant ignores the fact that Cabrera did disclose to the court that he owned the company before he was even appointed as Special Master. Chevron had nothing against Cabrera and accepted him as the court-appointed expert with no objections at the beginning of the lawsuit. Besides, Cabrera would be banned from doing any cleanup work connected to the lawsuit anyway because of his role as Special Master.

Now, as Chevron grows more desperate, it tries to disqualify anyone who has anything to do with the lawsuit.
For more details, visit this site:

itsgettinghotinhere.org/2010/02/09/chevron-lies-people-die/

What Chevron’s money can buy…

I just read another story about Chevron using its power and money to influence people’s perception of the oil giant and to hide the unpleasant truths like Chevron’s toxic waste pits leaking oil into Ecuadorian rainforest.

Last month Chevron had the Rainforest Action Network activists kicked out of the Houston Marathon expo because they wanted to spread the message about Chevron’s crimes in Ecuador.

Now Chevron decided that RAN’s ads in the Washington Post and the New York Times do not go with Chevron’s made up, innocent image and the company’s legal team wanted the ads pulled. The New York Times did not give in but The Washington Post did.

RAN's ad from The New York Times and The Washington Post

Three points — One, I don’t think this move will bring any good to Chevron because there’s a new ad that RAN hopes the Washington Times will run, and it’s even better than the first one.

RAN's second ad

Two, this story will probably get more attention than the ads would, and three- again we see that Chevron will stop at nothing to evade responsibility.

Chevron just wants to silence anyone who dares to say anything that had not been approved by Chevron’s PR people.

To read the whole story, go here:

http://understory.ran.org/2010/02/01/chevrons-free-speech-v-ran/