John Watson | Be a Seed for Change

In Tuesday’s Eye on the Amazon we told you about a dark love affair that’s long been going on between Chevron and Judge Kaplan; a scandalous kind of love that perverts justice and promotes persecution, enables human rights violations and compromises the health of entire communities in the Amazon. It’s a dirty ordeal perpetuated by Chevron’s ruthless efforts to protect itself from the $18 billion legal judgment it’s on the hook for. The company has engaged an army of relentless legal sharks – comprised of 60 law firms – and Judge Kaplan seems love-struck by his Big Oil partner as he thwarts justice in the case of Chevron’s desecration of the Amazon. But he’s just another tool in Chevron’s box.

Now we’re all for love here at Amazon Watch. In fact, it’s our love for the Amazon that motivates us daily to do everything we can to protect it and to support the rights of indigenous peoples there – the traditional stewards of the magnificent forest upon which we all depend. It’s why you support us. It’s this love that drives us, and it’s why we ask for your support.

We continue to fight for the clean kind of love and passion that flows through communities in the Amazon, like that which radiates from Servio Curipoma, an Ecuadorian farmer who came to seek justice at the Chevron shareholder meeting last May, calling for Chevron CEO John Watson to be fired. We stand for the love of people like Emergildo Criollo, a Cofán leader whose love for the children he lost to poisoning due of Chevron/Texaco’s willful negligence impels him to keep fighting against the company that destroyed his family. We stand for the love of the rainforest shown by the indigenous people who have lived in harmony with the Amazon for millennia. This is the kind of love story that gets us up in the morning, and that we ask you to be a part of.

In the face of scandal like the Chevron-Kaplan love affair, we need your help to keep writing this positive love story. Stand with us for the kind of love that celebrates life and a future we can all look forward to, that overpowers the dirty love between a massive corporation and a judge bent on shirking responsibility and continuing to put profits over people. We cannot allow them to hijack the ending of this story.

Please help us to continue our fight for these people and for the Amazon with your support. Will you make a contribution today so that we may keep fighting for justice in the Amazon?

You make this possible – together, we are powerful!

For the Amazon,

Branden Barber
Director of En

Send Chevron CEO John Watson a wake up call now!

RAN activists will be joining a large coalition of labor groups, community organizers, climate activists, and other environmentalists tomorrow at a protest outside of Chevron’s annual shareholder meeting. While protesters call out Chevron for putting profits ahead of people and planet outside, I’ll be going inside the meeting with people from communities impacted by Chevron operations from Nigeria to Brazil.
Two of the brave Ecuadoreans suing Chevron to clean up of its massive oil contamination in the Amazon — Luz Trinidad Andrea Cusangua and Robinson Yumbo — will travel to San Ramon, CA to take their calls for justice directly to the company.
Chevron needs to know that for every person like Luz and Robinson inside the meeting and for every protestor outside the meeting, there are thousands more who stand with us. Can you call Chevron CEO John Watson and ask him to take responsibility for his company’s oily mess in Ecuador?
We’ve set up a page that has everything you need to send a wake-up call to Watson: Phone number, sample call script, and a form so you can report back to us how the call went. Send Chevron’s CEO a wake up call now!
Even a large number of Chevron shareholders feel the company’s executive team has badly mismanaged the Ecuador lawsuit. One recently wrote: “Chevron’s actions are hurting shareholders as well as the indigenous people of the rainforest.” You can be sure Chevron shareholders will make their voices heard at the meeting, just as Luz and Robinson will be making their calls for justice in Ecuador loud and clear.
Chevron CEO John Watson needs to hear from you too.