The Biggest Oil Spill on Earth

One of the best known and extreme cases of oil exploitation in the rainforest is in Ecuador, where the U.S. oil giant, Texaco (later Chevron-Texaco), seriously degraded an ecosystem over a 30-year period. In 2001 a class-action lawsuit was brought against Chevron) for dumping 18 billion gallons of toxic wastewater in the Amazon. In April 2008 an Ecuadorian court-appointed expert set damages against Chevron at between $7 billion and $16 billion, one of the world’s largest ever compensation payouts, dwarfing the damages resulting from the Exxon Valdez disaster.
Speaking on this topic are two people who have had close personal experience in the Amazon rainforest.
Lou Dematteis is co-author of Crude Reflections: Oil, Ruin and Resistance in the Amazon Rainforest, a photographic book that chronicles the human and environmental impact of Texaco’s oil drilling in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Dematteis will present a slide show of photos from the book.

Steve Harms is Senior Pastor at Peace Lutheran Church in Danville. In 2003 he traveled with two other clergy and a union leader to the Amazon, where they saw many open, toxic waste sites, "remediated sites", and the pipeline itself.

Suggested donation: $12 - $20 General, $5 Students (No one turned away for lack of funds)
Wheel chair accessible
A book sale and signing will follow the presentation.

For more information: Mt. Diablo Peace & Justice Center, 925-933-7850, http://www.mtdpc.org/