Amazon delegation visits indigenous Louisiana fishermen impacted by BP oil disaster

On June 17, a good size group of folks came to The Bloom Collective’s screening of Crude: The Real Price of Oil. The expose of Chevron/Texaco’s infamous Ecuadorian “Amazon Chernobyl” broke viewers’ hearts as they watched newborn babies squirming in anguish due to skin rashes caused by oil contaminated soil and water; women who lost husbands to the carcinogens bringing their children in for cancer treatments; and villagers dipping drinking water from streams sparkling with rainbow oil slicks on the surface.

In a bold act of solidarity, a delegation from the Amazon visited the Gulf Coast. Amazon Watch reported, “Indigenous and community leaders . . . visited Native American communities and other residents of the oil-afflicted Louisiana Gulf Coast to witness the impacts of BP’s oil spill and offerlessons from their long struggle . . . the Ecuadorian delegation to the Gulf Coast toured the oil-choked coastal marshlands, initiated a summit of oil-impacted indigenous communities, and released a report with ten lessons to help communities demand accountability and cleanup, and prepare for the long-term impacts of living with oil contamination.”

Watch Al Jazeera’s video broadcast:

We here in Michigan should watch and learn. With Indiana recently granting BP the right to dump 54 percent more ammonia and 35 percent more sludge into Lake Michigan each day, our beaches are potentially the next site of yet another man-made environmental catastrophe.

You can borrow “Crude: The Real Price of Oil” from The Bloom Collective.