My new book is now published and available here in Paperback and Kindle
This book provides a fresh perspective on the exponential rise in depression and suicide in modern western society. It’s an alternative book for alternative people who have tried conventional medicine or who aren’t interested in treating depression with allopathic options, and who are open to trying other options. Scientists have studied depression is in fact a normal response to a global environmental destruction, with growing scientific peer reviewed papers that confirm our degrading environment affects our mental health. There is an urgent need for humanity to reconnect with nature and change society to become more environmentally friendly. The author offers advice on how to manage depression better with nutritional advice and controversial health hacks, recommended lifestyle changes including learning the art of living after surviving grief, deep trauma, and loss.
The aim is to help the reader see their depression as a calling to look within, connect with their truer inner being and begin to nurture themselves spiritually, mentally and emotionally. Furthermore, this book invites the reader to consider their own place in human evolution and redefine their lost purpose to one that is more aligned to Ecology than to Western Materialism, to become self-empowered, not a victim of depression. We look at talk therapies and radical new alternative therapies for managing depression in a challenging world.
Contents-
Introduction
Poem-Faithful Black Dog
Chapter One- I am Not my Story
Poem-The Exiled Dissidents
Chapter Two-Corporate devolution vs Ecology
Poem-My Friend, My Shadow
Chapter Three-A Brief History of Depression
Poem-The Thief
Chapter Four- The Art of Living
Poem-The Heart’s Compass
Chapter Five- Gluten Free Living, Health the Gut, Heal the Mind
Poem-Patented Flower in a Planet Sized Laboratory
Chapter Six- Health Hacks to Avoid Inflammation and Depression
Poem-Beat Your Drum
Chapter Seven- A Look at Different Talk Therapies
Poem-Illusions of Polarities
Chapter Eight- The Therapeutic Benefits of Entheogens and CBD oil
Poem–Merging Galaxies
Chapter Nine- The Noosphere, Consciousness and Biosphere
Carlita is an independent environmental journalist and project developer who provides information overlooked by mainstream journalism funded by political agendas, since Carlita has worked closely with indigenous groups in Latin America for the last fifteen years.
Carlita is an environmental journalist, author, project developer, hypnotherapist and educator who wants to share her insights and experiences to benefit people living with autism, anxiety, trauma, severe depression and suicidal thoughts. Here she talks openly about her life and gives an ecological perspective in her up and coming book, ”Surviving Depression in a Depressing World, an ecological perspective”.
If you want to put your name on the email list to be notified when the book comes out, please email below at
thesilentecocide@gmail.com and to receive updates and learn more about the art of living in a depressing world!
First this year, the US Sanctions were on Gold in Venezuela, amid the financial and humanitarian crisis, where Venezuelans have been forced to flee the country for years without international help or intervention after financial and governmental collapse. Now, the US is stepping in, starting with sanctions on gold and this week, US sanctions are on oil and finally, de-recognition of Maduro as president and Trump’s coronation of Guaido as Venezuelan president – Al Capone redux .
This is a geopolitical tactical move that will also affect China, Venezuela has for decades been the largest exporter of oil even though it’s a small country in South America. One of the reasons the US has wanted to see its downfall in addition to co-opting its demise as with interfering with many Central and South American coops on a Machiavellian level, with the geopolitical strategies in place, US military base in Haiti, Mexican Gulf polluted and transformed into an industrial oil zone since the Mexican Gulf oil spill, US occupation of the oceans and Oil industry is present all the way down to Venezuela, possibly to hit China where it hurts cutting off China to Venezuelan Oil supplies will hit China very hard, as its biggest oil supplier has been Venezuela.
US control of Venezuela is intrinsic in the elite power games between the West and the East. The US wants to make sure China doesn’t overtake US power by 2025, which is predicted already by financial experts who say that China will become the global superpower if not soon at the latest by 2040 according to financial experts in Forbes, and the US will lose power since most of its finances has gone into military investments and it carries a huge debt in trillions. There are always years of geopolitical strategies involved in the crisis of any country, its not just by accident these things happen with planning and social engineering many decades and even a century in advance, hence predictive programming working so well.
Some people may be surprised to read that losing a pet such as a dog or a cat or even a bird or a hamster, can put someone into a state of severe grief, just as devastating if not more so than losing a person. This is because the bond with an animal and the unconditional love and joy that they show you and their dependence upon you, when in your company is a greater loss in many ways, compared to that of our partners, friends or family, who we don’t always agree with. There may be possible unresolved issues, people are more complicated, animals are not, they are pure hearted and show us the most unflawed form of unconditional love and joy that light up our hearts and souls.
Fortunately, animal sentience is becoming a part of new developments in animal rights laws, as scientists and human consciousness is recognizing that sentience and consciousness is not limited to the human being. Science is showing us that all living creatures and even plants, share sentience and consciousness. We are beginning to acknowledge that animals have just as much right as we do, to be identified as persons in the court of law, a recent record breaking, animal neglect case was won in the US state of Oregon, for a dog who was abused, dogs are sentient beings and should be classes as persons.
Dr Thomas White’s book and interview with me, discussed the implications that his research has uncovered, of how we currently treat dolphins; while his work focuses on ethics and how we need to re-evaluate our perception of dolphin intelligence. Humans continue to apply speciesism when observing other animals, negating the intelligence and emotions of other creatures, when we do not necessarily demonstrate balanced consciousness ourselves, since we are exploiting the planet and other species to ecocidal levels and we have yet to learn to live in harmony with other species and with Planet Earth, within the means of the Earth’s sustainable carrying capacity.
We are slowly changing our perception of dolphins due to the work of people such as Dr Thomas White and Ed Elsworth, we are beginning to acknowledge dolphins share similar traits of self awareness, complex social structures, complex language and thinking abilities in terms of past and future, the ability to choose to act in response to a situation and their reasoning abilities. This re-evaluation means we need to set new frontiers for the status of dolphins in terms of dolphins being ‘non-human persons’. A step forward to expanding our own consciousness and how we can learn from dolphins and how they live with one another.
Dr. White and other scientists and animal activists are making the case to recognize dolphins and other animal species as sentient creatures who deserve the same rights as people and after over 2500 scientific studies on this subject, more is being done to improve how we treat, class and recognize all animals as sentient beings and persons in their own right.
Yet, some people are still embarrassed by the overwhelming grief they feel for the loss of their pet, especially if others don’t react or treat their feelings as important which leads to disenfranchised grief. One of the best articles I read about losing a dog, was by Joe Yonan in The Washington Post- ´´ The fact that our pets are so dependent on us makes it all too easy to second-guess our decisions and descend into a pit of guilt. Shouldn’t I have known? Did I do everything I could? If I had just . . . what? Taken him to the vet sooner? Insisted he be hospitalized? What if I had been home? I might not have been able to save him, but at least in his last moments he would have known I was with him, and maybe that would have made it a little easier for him if not for me. Simply stated, many people (including pet owners) feel that grief over the death of a pet is not worthy of as much acknowledgement as the death of a person,”
A 2002 article in the journal Society & Animals that reviewed multiple studies on pet owners grief stated that “ it is just as devastating as the loss of a human significant other”.
I went through this after loosing my ten year old dog Poppy who died due to heart failure in 2015. When I expressed my grief though, I was very surprised by the very open expressive sympathy that friends showed me. Unlike my other dogs, Poppy and I had a deeply profound bond. Many of my friends have said how devastated they were after loosing their furry family members and how long it took them to get over the loss. I have friends that went into the pits of despair with grief and to the edge of a breakdown just as one would with loosing a dearly loved spouse, close friend or family member and they were struggling to move forward. It’s nothing to be ashamed of, feeling this way about the loss of a dog or a cat or your closest best friend, who spent more time sharing moments of unconditional love and joy with you than any human friend or family member has.
A dog or a cat or any animal you deeply bond with, whatever it may be, is there for you and loves you unconditionally, you have a daily routine with that animal, you do everything together and they end up being more of a part of your life than some people could ever be and you get a sense they know exactly how you feel most of the time too. It is especially hard for a person living alone to lose such a valuable companion.
When you love something or someone deeply, you have an equal amount of fear in losing the object of your love. My biggest fear in the world was losing my dog Poppy, she brought me so much happiness and joy over the last ten years, more than any amount of fortune or relationship could have given me. We had so many treasured adventures and moments together travelling and our connection was so profound we could read one another’s thoughts, I would just think ‘walkies’ and she would appear ready for me to put her harness on, she read my mind very clearly, all of the time. My only real deep fear was her dying, this I was afraid of for a few years before she actually passed over the rainbow bridge, on the positive side it made me cherish our moments together and live completely in the moment with her. Poppy to me, was the closest I have ever been to having a true soul mate in the body of an animal. She was a person and stood greater in her energy, spirit and wisdom than any human person I have met in my life. She gave me the best reason to be alive every day. Losing her has been the worst and most tragic experience of my entire life until I lost my husband a few years later, I’d still give anything to just feel her body in my arms and her big beating heart and be able to gaze into her soulful eyes.
Though, since having lived the reality of my greatest fear and going through this deep emotional loss, something surprisingly strange has happened after loosing Poppy, she has somehow helped return a fragment of myself, I lost after my early youth, an old emotional and spiritual part of myself that was always able to laugh in the face of adversity, but after sometime I lost that part of me, and got worn down. Maybe, her angelic presence in the other realms allows her to bring gifts of healing for me, she is a very powerful being for me, somehow a lost part of my prior self, when I was very young, returned only after her passing and she has also been a reason for me to rescue other abandoned cats and dogs or to discover some information that could help other homeless or abandoned pets in need.
After the lengthy and fragile initial stages of processing grief and loss, it helps a little to change ones perspective, I know this as someone that has lived with severe depression, you learn how to manage it via practising different perspectives, if possible. Despite being isolated physically, I am drawing towards a feeling of something intangible on a soulful level, the soul somehow grows stronger when baring so much pain and loss, it is not easy to put into words.
There are moments where I feel that everything for my spirit will be okay because Poppy’s soul is quite powerful and she has shown me that our deepest fears when lived out, end up providing us with gifts afterwards as they dissolve after surviving them somehow, on different levels. I just cannot put into words how in awe I am of the incredible number of insights my Poppy still teaches me each day from across the realms beyond life and death. I grieve for the loss of her abundant love, joyful spirit and physical presence while her soul is just so strong and bright. it permeates by illuminating my life in so many subtle ways with the ultimate gift of true unconditional love, she is still with me in spirit.
The best thing we can do while we are grieving the loss of our furry or feathered friends, is to realize they found us and taught us unconditional love and to be grateful for the time we had with them. There is a proverb about a boy who lost his dog and apparently after his dog died, he said that the reason dogs have shorter lives than people, is because they already know how to love unconditionally and be joyful all the time, so they don’t need to spend much time here in this realm, whereas people are still learning how to love so that is why we live a while longer.
by Carlita Shaw -this article has been updated since 2015
Ecologist, Author
Poco sabía, que fui testigo involuntario del comienzo de una larga resistencia para las comunidades nacionales de la Amazonía Ecuatoriana. En 2012, en mi cuarto día de mi estadía de tres semanas, en las profundidades de la Amazonía Ecuatoriana, la tranquilidad del bosque fue interrumpida por un helicóptero militar no invitado que aterrizó en el territorio Shiwiar de Jusuintsa alrededor del 21 de agosto. Se suponía que debían pedir permiso a la comunidad de Shiwiar para hacer esto, pero no lo hicieron. Mi corazón comenzó a acelerarse mientras caminábamos hacia estos invitados no invitados. Solo había una cosa en la que podía pensar, “Petroleum”, por qué estaban entrometiéndose en el territorio de Shiwiar sin previo aviso. Compartí mis preocupaciones con la comunidad, fuimos a hablar con los oficiales que dijeron que simplemente estaban mapeando el área, ya que nunca había sido mapeado oficialmente. Les pregunté si era por el petróleo, negaron que lo fuera.
En Octubre de 2012, recibí algunas noticias de última hora desde uno de mis amigos de Shiwiar. Veronica Shiran, gerente de la estación de radio Shiwiar, para todo el norte de Ecuador en la región de Pastaza, me contó lo que se acaba de anunciar a su comunidad hace unas semanas, dijo, “qué significa esto para Shiwiar y para los demás. Las comunidades indígenas del Amazonas están más allá de sus peores pesadillas ‘‘.
El 23 de Octubre de 2018, en la conferencia de Hidrocarburos, en Ecuador, la compañía petrolera PetroAmazonias planea aumentar su producción y extracción de petróleo en la selva amazónica a 700,000 barriles por día hasta el año 2021. Este mes, los ministros del gobierno Ecuatoriano declararon que iban a ingresar a los bloques petroleros 85, 86 y 87. Durante la reunión del sector minero y petrolero se indicó que los bloques petroleros 85 y 86, Carlos Pérez, ministro de Energía y Recursos Naturales No Renovables, declararon ”que no habría problemas para ingresar y profundice en estos bloques porque no hay comunidades indígenas presentes allí y por lo tanto, el impacto sería mínimo”.
El Presidente ecuatoriano, Lenin Moreno, culpas a la situación económica que heredó del predecesor Rafael Correa ya que la deuda acumulada del país era de casi $42 mil millones, sin incluir otros pasivos por valor de $ 8 mil millones. Una herencia con préstamos Estado Unidenses sobre actividades petroleras que afectan la caída de los precios del petróleo, la corrupción en el sector financiero y petrolero del gobierno y las consecuencias devastadoras del terremoto de Abril de 2016.
Sin embargo, la declaración que Carlos Pérez hizo acerca de que los bloques 86 y 87 están desocupados, es una mentira inconveniente. Como está claro, hay tres territorios ancestrales indígenas con comunidades activas afectadas por esta propuesta.
Personalmente, he trabajado con el Shiwiar desde 2011 y envié muchos voluntarios al territorio de Shiwiar. También me quedé con el Shiwiar y tuve que volar en un pequeño avión apache durante una hora y media, solo para llegar a este increíble hotspot de biodiversidad en las profundidades del Amazonas.
Varios reclamos serios deben ser destacados aquí. En primer lugar, Carlos Pérez y el gobierno Ecuatoriano están ignorando el hecho obvio de que estos territorios están ocupados por tres comunidades importantes, Shiwiar, Sapora y Achuar.
En segundo lugar, no han podido consultar legalmente a las comunidades indígenas ante todo, antes de cualquier propuesta pública o conferencia de cualquier actividad industrial. Los grupos indígenas en Ecuador han sido reconocidos en las Naciones Unidas, donde existe un acuerdo, no vinculante, que brinda a los grupos indígenas la oportunidad de defender sus vidas, sus tierras y su cultura. A lo largo de la Declaración, se garantiza el derecho a un proceso de “Consentimiento libre, previo e informado” para los pueblos indígenas cuando se enfrentan a decisiones, proyectos o leyes de corporaciones o gobiernos que puedan afectar a su población y / o territorio. El Artículo 57, punto 7 de la Constitución de Ecuador de 2008 garantiza una consulta libre, previa e informada, dentro de un plazo razonable; sin embargo, esto no requiere consentimiento (y no es vinculante). El Artículo 82, se refiere explícitamente a la consulta ambiental, en el caso de una decisión estatal que podría afectar el medio ambiente, y especifica información amplia y oportuna para los afectados. Sin embargo, incluso si hay una mayoría que se opone al proyecto en cuestión, todavía puede llevarse a cabo con la condición de que se minimice el impacto en los afectados y en el ecosistema.
En cuarto lugar, Ecuador reescribió su Constitución en 2007-2008 y fue ratificado por referéndum por el pueblo de Ecuador en Septiembre de 2008. La nueva Constitución Ecuatoriana incluye un Capítulo de los Derechos para la Naturaleza. En lugar de tratar a la naturaleza como una propiedad bajo la ley, los artículos de Derechos para Naturaleza, reconocen que la naturaleza en todas sus formas de vida tiene el derecho de existir, persistir, mantener y regenerar sus ciclos vitales, y la gente: tiene la autoridad legal para hacer cumplir estos derechos y el nombre de los ecosistemas. El propio ecosistema puede ser nombrado como el victima.
Finalmente, el Acuerdo de Escazú fue adoptado el 4 de Marzo de 2018, en San José, Costa Rica, por representantes de 24 países, incluido Ecuador. El tratado implementa el Principio 10 de la Declaración de Río, adoptado en la Cumbre de la Tierra en 1992, al establecer salvaguardas para Derechos de acceso a la información, participación pública y acceso a la justicia en materia ambiental. El acuerdo también impone obligaciones específicas para proteger de las amenazas y ataques a las personas que defienden los derechos humanos relacionados con el medio ambiente, para investigar y castigar cualquier agresión contra estas personas y para garantizar sus derechos a la vida e integridad personal, así como los derechos a Libertad de reunión pacífica, movimiento, expresión y asociación.
“Todas las personas tienen derecho a un ambiente limpio y saludable, asegurándose de que todas las voces puedan escucharse cuando sea el momento de tomar decisiones importantes que nos afectan a todos”, Erika Guevara Rosas, Directora de Amnistía Internacional para las Américas.
El video anterior es una conferencia de prensa programada el 23 de octubre, 2018 para que las nacionalidades indígenas de los territorios Ecuatorianos del Amazonas rechacen la XI Ronda del petróleo y las declaraciones de Carlos Pérez del ministerio de hidrocarburos.
Los presidentes de 7 nacionalidades de Pastaza y Morona Santiago con los presidentes de Confeniae, Conaie, expresaron su rechazo rotundo de la licitación de bloques petroleros en la Amazonía sur-central.
Edison Gualinga portavoz de la comunidad Shiwiar
Nosotros, los Shiwiar, tenemos el deber de poder transponer esta manifestación de público de manera progresiva, estamos aquí con nuestros colegas y comunidades unidas, los Achuar, Confeniae, Conaie y los representantes Sapara. Hemos planeado presentar nuestra asamblea al gobierno Ecuatoriano. Entendemos que el gobierno está negociando para poder hacer lo que es la nueva compañía petrolera en los territorios del sudeste de las Amazonas. Entendemos que quieren hacerlo en los bloques de petróleo 86 y 87, lo que significa que el territorio Sapora y Shiwiar se verán afectados directamente. Por lo tanto, por este dolor, no somos un sacrificio y estamos profundamente preocupados. Hemos estado resistiendo esta explotación durante mucho tiempo, pero ahora ha llegado a un punto crítico. Al sur, en esta provincia de Pastaza, contamos con catorce comunidades y 4 asociaciones, las comunidades de los nacionales de Shiwiar y Sapara.
Nuestra demostración es clara, compañeros, nosotros, el Shiwiar de Ecuador, lucharemos cuando ingrese petróleo para evitar comunidades fragmentadas y sitios forestales después de que las compañías petroleras los hayan impactado. La nacionalidad Shiwiar de Ecuador nunca permitirá la entrada de petróleo, ¿por qué? Debido a que vivimos en la naturaleza, dependemos de la naturaleza, porque ningún ser humano es independiente de la naturaleza, lo sabemos muy bien porque cada vez que han estado perforando causaron la contaminación devastadora de siete compañías misioneras de algunos superestados extranjeros, lo que hace que sean irreversibles Contaminación ambiental.
La nacionalidad Shiwiar de Ecuador, cuenta con doscientas treinta y ocho mil hectáreas donde nunca podríamos permitir, enteria de estas petroleras. También trabajamos en programas de conservación para proteger y preservar el medio ambiente. Nos reunimos a principios de este año, del 20 al 21 de julio de 2018 para 14 comunidades y 4 asociados, y creamos soluciones.
Rechazamos ninguna consulta previa de nuestra nacionalidad y territorio en 2012 y cualquier otra consulta previa o solicitud de que esto se reconozca en el futuro.
Rechazamos rotundamente la nueva ronda de petróleo en el sureste que pretende registrarse en el gobierno nacional sobre nuestro territorio ancestral sin consulta previa con nosotros, el pueblo Shiwiar.
El Shiwiar de Ecuador no acepta y rechaza categóricamente que Petroamazonias no tiene una consulta previa con nuestro pueblo, porque toda la consulta fundamentada es transparente y suficiente. Hasta ahora todo refleja solo corrupción. ¿Dónde una vez fuimos consultados o informados antes de cualquier actividad y cuándo han recibido consultas nuestras comunidades o asociaciones? Rechazamos esta falta de respeto por nuestra comunidad y nuestra asociación, por no buscar una consulta previa con nosotros. Los hombres Shiwiar, las mujeres Shiwiar, los niños, las niñas Shiwiar, las personas Shiwiar quisieran que las compañías petroleras respeten nuestro territorio, porque sin este territorio no podemos vivir.
No permitimos que las compañías petroleras ingresen y le digo a Carlos Pérez del ministerio, no vamos a dar un paso atrás para que las compañías petroleras puedan ingresar, siempre continuaremos esta lucha porque tenemos los derechos para proteger nuestro territorio. No es un territorio que exista con el único propósito de explotaciones petroleras o minerales. Es una gran universidad de naturaleza y vida para esta comunidad, tenemos nuestros propios derechos en nuestros territorios, los mismos derechos para la educación y la salud y siete aspectos más, por lo tanto, con respecto a los derechos para elegir esta forma de vida.
El mapa anterior muestra claramente que los reclamos de Carlos Pérez están desocupados y, por lo tanto, causarían un impacto mínimo, de hecho, están ocupados por los Achuar, Shiwiar, Sapora y Kichwa.
Nema Grefa portavoz de la nacionalidad y asociación Sapora.
Soy el presidente y representante de la nacionalidad Sapora, y rechazamos la perforación del bloque 86, 87, porque este territorio nos pertenece, no pertenece al gobierno. Nos sentimos profundamente afectados si el territorio Saparo es ingresado por las compañías petroleras, y así el territorio Shiwiar se ve directamente afectado. Como resultado, hemos unificado todas las nacionalidades y rechazamos la explotación de estos territorios. Al igual que las nacionalidades de los nativos americanos en los Estados Unidos, estamos organizados para que nuestros territorios no se ingresen. En este caso, queremos recordar al gobierno que nuestra nacionalidad Sapora tiene un patrimonio, por lo tanto, el gobierno debe respetarlo.
Después de reconocer esto, también deben respetar todos los territorios indígenas.
Rechazamos como nacionalidad que si quieren entrar, o si nos abren fuego, nos levantamos aquí para decirles, la razón misma por la que ignoraron la consulta previa con nosotros o con el Shiwiar, para esto tenemos razón, una lanza, con esta lanza, continuaremos resistiendo. Nuestra nacionalidad Sapora quiere que el gobierno y el ministro señor Carlos Pérez respeten nuestro territorio porque vivimos con la naturaleza. El ministro dice que nadie vive en este territorio, pero hay cinco comunidades que viven en este territorio, es nuestro territorio y la biodiversidad tiene un valor de preservación para el futuro del planeta, no para que lo utilicen es como un mercado al que convertir. dinero. Por eso tengo una amenaza, que ellos la entiendan es nuestro territorio. Siempre piensan que pueden explotar nuestro territorio sin limitaciones, si permitimos que continúe, lo que sucede es que no habrá más biodiversidad o jungla para el futuro del planeta. Es nuestra responsabilidad protegerlo y proteger nuestro territorio.
Gracias a todos los periodistas que están aquí, en este momento es un trabajo fundamental que las personas de la región Amazónica y el mundo necesitan para conocer esta realidad. La Confederación de Nacionalidades Indígenas del Ecuador representa y apoya a nuestra gente, apoyando esta moción, apoyando esta voz que tienen estas personas y sus derechos humanos. Hasta que se respeten los derechos de nuestras nacionalidades. Nuestra historia ancestral nos dice que hemos muerto al ser ignorados y que hemos muerto al ser discriminados, esto es lo que soportaron nuestros padres y antepasados, ahora esta es la misma historia para nosotros, y más de 525 años de lucha continuamos con ella.
Hoy apoyamos la nacionalidad Sapara y las nacionalidades Shiwiar que hacen que estos bloques 86 y 87 se conozcan claramente como sus territorios. Cuando el ministro de Hidrocarburos, Carlos Pérez declaró que no hay indígenas en estos territorios, que no hay comunidades, ¿qué decepcion? Claramente, los territorios de nuestra gente comunal están en estos bloques y están profundamente afectados. La nacionalidad Shiwiar, si no también hasta la nacionalidad Kichwa en este caso, CONAIE está apoyando a estas comunidades. Estamos atentos a los derechos de nuestras nacionalidades y comunidades que crees que puedes comprarnos y quitarnos. Recuerde que nuestro trabajo es defender la cosmovisión y la visión del mundo de las personas de las nacionalidades. Somos los guardianes de CONAIE, por lo que estas solicitudes y nuestros territorios permanecen protegidos. No puedes simplemente entrar en ellos, debes respetar y reconocer los derechos de las nacionalidades de los pueblos. Muchas gracias.
Julián, Portavoz de la Nacionalidad Achuar del Ecuador.
Donde estamos está en Morona Santiago. Gracias a todas las nacionalidades que se han unido hoy aquí, Nema Grefa, Andrés Tapia, Edison Gualinga, Shiwiar y otros que nos apoyan. La nacionalidad Achuar quisiera rechazar el bloque 86 que está afectando a nuestros y amenazando con dañar los territorios de las comunidades Shiwiar y Saparo y también no solo está afectando a sus territorios, sino también a nuestro territorio Achuar. Esto se debe a que nuestras comunidades están contiguas a la nacionalidad Shiwiar. Por lo tanto, decimos no a las compañías petroleras, madereras y mineras que no pueden ingresar, por lo tanto, en aras de la preservación de nuestras nacionalidades y territorios unidos, los Achuar son bienvenidos si desean ayudarnos a preservar el bosque y a nosotros mismos, luego bienvenidos, Seamos amables con las anclas del bosque de nuestros antepasados, que viven en estos territorios. Las compañías petroleras no tienen ningún negocio para el desarrollo aquí en el Amazonas, simplemente han dejado la contaminación en la naturaleza en todas partes, esta es la razón por la que rechazamos su presencia. Entonces, por lo tanto, continuaremos apoyando estas nacionalidades, que son entendidas por las compañías petroleras. Por lo tanto, el presidente, Lenin Moreno, tiene que entender, tienen que respetar las decisiones de las nacionalidades, también el ministro Carlos Pérez, de hidrocarburos, tiene que entender esto, porque vivimos con nuestros propios planes de vida. Con nuestra propia cosmovisión en nuestros territorios, cumpliendo con nuestros planes de vida, que es el proyecto profundo de cada nacionalidad. Así ha sido siempre como estamos unidos aquí, unidos por las nacionalidades para defender este territorio. Gracias
Andrés Tapia portavoz de CONFENIAE
El ministro de hidrocarburos, Carlos Pérez, quien hizo una declaración sobre los bloques petroleros 86 y 87, dijo que el impacto en estos bloques sería mínimo porque no hay comunidades allí. Rechazamos esta afirmación, hecha sin fundamento, conocemos la dinámica de las comunidades. En este caso, ¿qué comunidades están presentes en estos bloques?
Bueno, para comenzar, el territorio Shiwiar está en el Bloque 86, que consta de cuatro comunidades, también Juinitsa, y el territorio Sapara, el territorio nacional Achuar en el bloque 85, y en el bloque 87, y la comunidad Jaco Jaco que es Kichwa. Por lo tanto, la declaración de Pérez es una declaración que no tiene fundamento y, lógicamente, solo se hace por el interés obvio de las empresas petroleras que buscan explotar estos bloques petroleros. El otro lado de nuestra falta de acuerdo, del estado de la realidad de la vida es de las nacionalidades, en nuestras comunidades, cada uno de nosotros tiene planes de vida y planes de manera fluida. Nuestras culturas nuestras existen, que consiste en personas, comunidades, familiares, familias, hombres y mujeres. Hay territorios de las áreas mejor conservadas de bosque lluvioso y puntos calientes de biodiversidad con nuestras nacionalidades que actúan como guardianes del bosque y las preservan, Achuar, Shiwiar, Sappora y Kichwa tienen nuestros propios planes para mantener la conservación. Esto es lo que deseamos expresar por la lucha de nuestras nacionalidades cuando enfrentamos la explotación.
En segundo lugar, queremos expresar nuestro total apoyo a las nacionalidades en Pastaza para estos tres nacionales especiales, Shiwiar, Sappara y Achuar, quienes en este momento están dando su rara aparición en la prensa para hacer este llamado. Las 7 nacionalidades de Pastaza y las 10 organizaciones de Pastaza y Morona Santiago, el 23 de Octubre en Quito, en las afueras del hotel Marriott, junto con los presidentes de Confeniae, Conaie expresaron su rechazo rotundo a la licitación de los bloques petroleros en el sureste Amazonas. Ahora los presidentes dicen, ¿cuáles son las soluciones que podemos construir para el congreso Kichwa y Pastaza? Apropiadamente, la nacionalidad Kichwa desea mantener su territorio libre de contaminación ambiental. La forma en que nuestras 7 nacionalidades están en Pastaza es muy enfática en que esta exploración no se realice.
–
– Finalmente, hablemos con el gobierno de Lenin Moreno, lo que sabemos que el ministro no va a rechazar en nuestra solicitación, nos dirigimos al presidente republicano y queremos saber qué tipo de actividad, prospector, socialización, es muy claro. No se nos dio un proceso de consulta previa, no se conoce ningún tipo de socialización con nuestras comunidades, o no se ha realizado una consulta previa con estas comunidades afectadas, en esta área, y como resultado de esto, están directamente indignados. Si continuamos con nuestra denuncia nacional e internacional, como la semana pasada cuando presentamos esta carta abierta al público. Entonces, hagámoslo y tomemos medidas a nivel internacional y nacional. No más concesiones para empresas petroleras y mineras en el Amazonas. Continuaremos defendiendo nuestros territorios. Gracias
El valor ecológico de la Selva Amazónica.
La dependencia global del petróleo nos hace a todos responsables de hacer algo para proteger el Amazonas, ya que la dependencia mundial del petróleo es una de las principales causas de su rápida destrucción, lo que significa que las decisiones para sus medidas de conservación recaen en la comunidad internacional. No solo con el gobierno ecuatoriano o con los otros países que ocupa el Amazonas. Las selvas tropicales son la base de más de 5,000 productos de hierbas medicinales, curas para el cáncer y fuentes populares de alimentos, muebles y ropa.
En términos de tiempo, la selva tropical del Amazonas tardó 3.500 millones de años en evolucionar y convertirse en la maravilla del mundo de la biodiversidad rica en especies. Si se destruye, entonces desaparece para siempre, nada puede replicar o reemplazar eso, menos otros 3,500 millones de años libres de humanos. La parte occidental de la cuenca del Amazonas es uno de los puntos calientes de biodiversidad más ricos del mundo; El nivel de biodiversidad en la Amazonía Ecuatoriana es especialmente sorprendente. Para ponerlo en perspectiva, el parque nacional Yasuní contiene alrededor de 600 especies de aves y 170 especies de mamíferos, 1,100 especies de árboles en un área de un cuarto de kilómetro cuadrado, y eso es más especies que en todos los EE. UU. Y Canadá combinados. La mayoría de las personas no se dan cuenta de que gran parte del carbono liberado cuando se destruye una selva tropical se encuentra en el suelo de turba debajo de los árboles, no solo en los árboles sino en la mayor parte de los suelos de turba debajo de los cuales se almacenan miles de toneladas de carbono. Por eso, son invaluables sumideros de carbono, debajo de los árboles, y esto es clave para ayudar a regular el clima. Esto significa que cuando se produce la deforestación, todo el carbono que previamente estaba encerrado en el suelo de turba debajo de la selva tropical se libera a la atmósfera.
El Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica establece que la Amazonia contiene más del 50 por ciento de las especies de plantas y animales del mundo. No debemos descontar el valor de sus secretos no descubiertos para la ciencia médica y para la humanidad, ya que las personas están descubriendo curas a base de plantas para el cáncer que provienen de las plantas de la selva, hay más de 60,000 especies de plantas en la Amazonía y solo el 3 por ciento ha Estudiado para propiedades medicinales. Muchos de nuestros alimentos provienen de la selva tropical junto con otros materiales importantes. Existen miles de especies de plantas y animales aún por descubrir, pero los estamos destruyendo a un ritmo que es más rápido de lo que los estamos descubriendo. Por lo tanto, la opinión y las acciones de todos son relevantes y juegan un papel importante en la defensa de este ecosistema clave, ya que su devastación será la devastación de todos nosotros si no intervenimos para defender lo que queda de la selva amazónica.
Si desea publicar partes de este artículo en otro lugar donde haga referencia al enlace de la fuente a esta página y a este artículo, también puedo proporcionar Transcripciones en español. Gracias
The alternative energy industry, especially the solar industry has grown exponentially since 2010 into being worth £170 billion pounds globally. This industry is now contributing to economic development. Utility companies have been threatened by the growth of the alternative energy industry and this has escalated into trade and policy conflicts in countless examples globally, with serious economic and political consequences. Countries have been developing the use of protectionist policies to encourage domestic manufacturing for alternative energy opening opportunities for foreign entry into domestic markets. However, not all countries are well positioned to become competitive exporters or importers of the same green technologies due to high taxes, but if industrial policies can help create competitive domestic manufacturers, there may be direct domestic economic benefits. Opening the global market entrants can lead to more competition in the sector, and encourage further technological innovation. (Lewis, 2014).
The Renaissance of Alternative Technologies
While most people think of Solar and Wind as the main alternative technologies, we are living in an exciting time with regards to alternative energy systems, yet we have not seen these technologies being delivered onto the public market as quickly as we would like to see considering the environmental problems that many are concerned about and part of the reason is because fossil fuel markets are very powerful with a great deal of financial and political power to impede the development of other alternative energy infrastructures. The original Water Fuel Cell was invented by Stanley Meyers back in the 1980s, he was poisoned in 1998 at a restaurant, probably by oil barons. A few years before Stanley was murdered he gave a presentation on his water fuel cells, in the presentation, Meyer describes a molecular, chemical and electrical level of how water can be used as fuel — not just as a gas, but for domestic and industrial electrical generation. Meyers was also the holder of 40 patents. This year Honda have launched their first water fuel cell car to be available on the public market in March 2016 The water fuel cell car will be made available to the public, and there are pilot studies of solar powered roads being tested and solar cars that are powerful enough to travel over 3000 kms on solar energy that will be available on the public market in the near future.
Honda have launched the water fuel cell car in March, 2016 and this system has been demonstrated to also be able to support a domestic household with all the power it needs. However, the current lack of infrastructure worldwide to support Hydrogen fuel cell technology will need to be worked on by alternative energy supporters. What this actually means is the politicians and oil company CEOs and shareholders will not take kindly to the water fuel cell car, that can also provide domestic power to the home to finally become available to the public market, therefore they will make it difficult for hydrogen processing plants and water fuel cell stations to emerge as part of this supportive infrastructure while those that hold the oil monopoly cards also hold places of political decision making that stop the emergence of alternative emission free solutions that are also solutions as alternatives to consuming oil, stopping ecocide and the current mechanisms behind war. (O’Callaghan, 2014) Think about the economical implications this would have on the current oligarchy monopoly on grid electricity power companies and oil stakeholders, when oil companies presently rake in 100,000 dollars per hour in profits. An astronomical amount of fortune that the world powers will defend with severe vehemence to protect a lucrative income, even if it will cost us the destructive to the Planet.
Justin Hall-Tipping’s innovation, nanotechnology will put an end to nuclear and coal power stations, turning a window into a power station to produce all your power needs or send others energy if they need it.
Other technological breakthroughs include developments in Nanotechnology. The entrepreneur, Justin Hall-Tipping, sought out the world’s leading nanotechnology scientists to harness the electron and create energy through nanotechnology, now they have a company called Nanoholdings, which consists of team of scientists, investors and innovators working at the cutting-edge of nanotechnology to develop solutions to the world’s growing energy problems. Working in partnership with the world’s best universities, they have developed products and companies that will revolutionize the way we use and generate energy. The days of the coal or nuclear power stations are numbered as nanotechnologies are developing. Imagine you live in a building that has very large windows, you can use each window much like a solar panel, simply by using a thin plastic film with energy harnessing systems, embedded inside the film as fine or finer than a human hair, the plastic sheet can be stuck onto the window panes of a house or office building to use the light and heat energy beaming in through the window. This becomes a powerhouse using nanotechnology to convert light energy from the sun to power up the building for heat or to cool or generate electricity and if it is not required there, it can then be sent to someone else who needs it more. (Hall-Tipping, 2011).
Photo: Courtesy of Solar Pulse 2
This year, a Solar powered plane flew from Hawaii across the Pacific Ocean to California after flying around the world (Associated Press, 2016) The Plane called Solar Impulse 2 completed its world circumnavigated with 17,000 solar cells in the wing and tail; during the day the cells on the wing supply the motors with energy and charge lithium batteries, which power the plane at night (Ingber, 2015).
In Santiago, Chile is opening the world’s first Solar and Wind powered train, in 2018, (Holder, 2016). Such innovations will have a large impact on societies and are perceived as major threats to the utility industries which are part of a politically powerful global monopoly, usually investor owned utilities that politicians and lobby agencies have stakeholds in, these are the political and financial constraints that hold back humanity becoming 100 per cent sustainable, it’s not because we lack technologies or are hindered by technological developments, on the contrary, we have plenty of options, the obstacles are political and usually protect well established corporate interests. (Sierra Club, 2014).
More and more Free Energy devices are emerging all over the world, Countries like India and China are not going along with the repression of Free Energy. While, in America, the privately owned Patent Office is reported to have already managed to suppress some 44,000 American free-energy patents.
Meanwhile, since Tesla’s work was repressed, scientists and inventors have been creating alternative energy systems for 180 years. Inventions that defy the theories of physics that humanity adopted as laws, Paramahamsa Tewari is Chief Project Engineer of the Kaiga Project, Karwar, India, he and many other alternative energy scientists have already disproved the mainstream beliefs of the laws of physics.
He states “It has been hitherto believed in physics that the total electric charge in the Universe is a constant quantity, and if additional charge appears in some region, it is only at the expense of the charge deficit in some other regions. It is a basic law that electric charge is conserved and cannot be destroyed or created. Precise experiments on a Space Power Generator (SPG) which has been now further developed to demonstrate the commercial viability of the newly discovered phenomenon of space power generation however, totally violate the existing law of conservation of charge, by generating output electrical power much in excess of the input electrical power. Since electric charge is a form of basic energy, the law of conservation of energy will need to be enlarged to incorporate in it the dynamics of absolute vacuum which in a state of rotationgenerates a fundamental field to produce electrical charge and energy” -Paramahamsa Tewari, (Naik, 2002).
Conflicts with Solar vs Utilities (Fossil Fuels & the Oil-garch)
We will focus mainly on the conflicts between utilities and solar power which are being slowed down by political and corporate conflict of interests. Despite this, there is a positive outlook for the booming Solar Photovoltaics industry which in 2015, exceeded the nuclear power energy production. In the UK almost 90% of our energy comes from fossil fuels. Together, projects to cut Carbon Emissions such as Power Down and Power Up with the goal to eliminate all emissions from our energy system. Renewable energy provides a primary energy supply before conversion losses of around 1,160 TWh per year, allowing us to meet 100% of a final energy demand of 770 TWh per year (665 TWh per year, not including ambient heat for use in heat pumps) using only ‘zero carbon’ energy sources. Wind energy plays a central role, providing around half of the primary energy supply (581 TWh per year). (Center for Alternative Energy, 2014). The rest is generated using various renewable sources of energy, the UK could step up and follow Germany’s and China’s example, by installing more solar and wind, it would also benefit greatly from utilizing wave power. Despite the above project initiatives no one wants to take note of the fact that Governments and banks gain around 33 trillion in profit, a year from trading carbon and taxing emissions. Pushing the Global Warming Agenda is a profitable business and an excuse to keep using geoengineering which is poisoning ecosystems globally and unnecessarily blocking out the sun, is this really to cool the planet or is it another excuse to discourage solar energy?
The system of taxing and trading carbon does not remedy the root of the problem, while the emphasis is on carbon emissions in the public arena instead of consumption of Oil, the root cause to these critical environmental problems are blatantly ignored, it is the consumption of oil which is causing ecocide and influencing ecocide and ecosystem collapse of the planet.
Global oil consumption is the highest it has ever been in human history, in 2010 the world oil consumption was at a rate of 87 million barrels of oil per day,(Rapier, 2014), in six years of profitable wars for the global elite this has currently increased to 97 million barrels of oil a day, this year 2016. (EIA 2015), That is almost a 100 million barrels per day drained from the Earth. Despite this, we already have exciting fossil fuel alternatives appearing in vehicles, so there really is no need for us to rely so heavily on oil anymore. In the U.S. utilities have attempted to slow the growth of distributed generation (DG) solar by reversing policy support, and they have greater financial and political resources than the fledging solar industry. Energy companies with power and resources have attempted various strategies to slow the growth of DG solar, the result vary by strategy type and also depends on the policies in various US States.
Niche organizations can somewhat overcome the political power of regime organizations through various options, to form coalitions with political parties that support the niche technologies, or gain support from countervailing industrial organizations, and form coalitions with social movements to mobilize political protests and petitions. The political opportunity structure (in this case the party in control of the state government), affects the pattern of niche-regime strategies and interactions. Utility industries such as electricity exercise a strong influence on the development of Solar Technology.
Motivation for support for Solar Technology is in the policy arena reflecting the need to find solutions to environmental sustainability issues in ways that create jobs and enhance competitiveness. When powerful industrial regimes attempt to defend their business-as-usual models, political consensus for this justification for Solar can break down. What are the political strategies available to niche organizations and their coalitions? Some strategies implemented by the fossil industries are that the utilities continue to create obstacles for the Solar Technology market favored by consumers, who have the right to choose to support the transition of technologies for the environment. The utilities are conveniently ignoring the environmental benefits of Solar technologies and the avoided costs in new non-solar generation and transmission.
Despite this attempts to gain monopoly control over solar energy, such as the legislative effort in the Washington State and Iowa, have been unsuccessful. (Hess, 2015). However, there are some specific dimensions to the issue that make the analysis of the U.S. cases interesting. For example in the USA, the Koch-brothers-funded front groups like American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) make it hard for home owners to convert to solar because of the punishing rates they endorse when people attempt to do so, which make the possibility of Solar powered states like Nevada and Arizona lag behind many others, the same situation with Florida, one of the warmest state in the USA, because the Solar market again has been hemmed out with similar techniques by Investor owned fossil fuel companies that have wealth and substantial political power as a result.
Key policies that have spurred a rooftop solar revolution elsewhere in America are absent or actually illegal in Florida. Another example where utilities have the power to prevent a mandate in Florida for electricity from renewable power. Worse, the state’s restrictive monopoly utility law forbids anyone but the power companies from buying and selling electricity. Landlords cannot sell power from solar panels to tenants. Popular solar leasing programs like those offered by SolarCity and Sunrun are outlawed. Rooftop solar is limited to those who can afford the upfront expense; as a result, fewer than 9,000 Florida homes have panels installed. (Dickenson, 2016). The USA produces around 25 gigawatts of solar energy and is concern with China and Germany becoming leaders in alternative energy produced by wind and solar, China this year has overtaken Germany as the world’s leading solar energy producer with an installed capacity of over 43.2 gigawatts (GW) according to the latest statistics from the National Energy Administration (NEA).
Germany produces about 38.4 gigawatts. (Lindon, 2016). The phenomenon with Solar technology is that nanotechnology is developing rapidly that it has elevated the Solar industry so fast as new ways to trap more of the sun’s energy into more powerful cells and convert it into more electricity per cell.
Lobbying should be illegal since it erodes democracy, but Lobbying is a legal form of bribery where corporations can funnel millions to politicians, to influence their decisions and make them rewrite environmental laws to suit the access needs of fossil fuel companies. The utilities companies funnel millions or billions of dollars though lobbying agencies, a lobbying agency serves as a legal way to bribe or influence the decisions of politicians, so basically a corporation with enough power and money can buy one politician or a whole party to help the company get the outcome they want, (Sierra Club, 2014). Arizona Public Service disclosed to the PUC that its parent corporation had spent $3.7 million on the solar battle that year. (Hess, 2015) They spent $3.5 billion lobbying in the USA . A group of 167 organizations with almost $3.5 billion of disclosed lobbying spend in the USA, are also engaged in lobbying and public affairs activity in the UK.
Research by Who’s Lobbying in the UK has identified at least 167 organizations with disclosed lobbying activity in both the UK and USA. In the U.S. the utility industry spent over $21 million in lobbying campaign donations in 2014 in comparison with the roughly $2 million spent by the entire sector of renewable energy industries (Center for Responsive Politics, 2015). Yet, even with these Goliath advantages, the utilities have not always ended policy support for DG solar and contained its rapid growth (Hess, 2015)
When Tony Blair was in power, he was deeply involved with Egypt and Israel’s gas industry as an energy advisor, it was recently revealed that they are involved with plundering Gaza’s gas ocean-based reserves, which Israel is planning on selling to Egypt. The Labour Party, received up to 2.5 million pounds in lobbying donations in less than a year, from energy giants. (Ahmed, 2015) In the USA these 167 organizations have a combined disclosure of $3,499,731,804 total amount spent on lobbying and lobbying firms hired. (Sierra Club, 2014). The UK lobbying system is less transparent and will not disclose the amount of money spent by corporations on politicians (Whose Lobbying, 2012). In the UK almost 90% of our energy comes from fossil fuels. Together, projects to cut Carbon Emissions such as Power Down and Power Up with the goal to eliminate all emissions from our energy system. (CAE, 2014)
While the governments focus on cutting carbon emissions, the focus needs to be on cutting oil consumption in order to cut emissions. Global oil consumption is the highest it has ever been in human history, in 2010 the world oil consumption was at a rate of 87 million barrels of oil per day, (Rapier, 2014) which has currently increased to 97 million barrels of oil a day this year 2016. (EIA 2015), That is almost a 100 million barrels per day drained from the Earth. Despite this, we already have exciting fossil fuel alternatives appearing in vehicles, so there really is no need for us to rely so heavily on oil anymore. British Shell Petroleum, which is just one of dozens of different oil companies, makes a net profit of about one hundred million pounds an hour. (Mann, 2015). This is one of the reasons why there is so much resistance to developing infrastructures for water fuel cell and solar vehicles.
Summary
It is not surprising that geopolitical-economic conflicts have emerged when the foundation of wealth was built on the fossil fuel industry. While the Oil-garchy will continue different strategies to try to keep things as they are and in some cases, the incentives for conflict may overpower the incentives for cooperation, efforts for continuing to take a collaborative approach to work with major trading partners or coalitions may defuse tensions that lead to feuds before the World Trade Organization or other controlled institutions, (Lewis, 2015).
This battle has been paralleled with the famous story of David and Golliath, instead this battle is between fledgling alternative energy technologies and the Oil-garch giants. Where there is a will, there is a way. There are more of us than there are of the global elite despite the power they claim to yield and as increasing demand for Solar innovations spreads and as technology is rapidly accelerating along with other nanotechnological innovations for Free Energy, the build up may be to the explosive variety of alternatives flooding the market which will have the effect of collapsing the current system because it already cannot control the diversity of new technologies. During global collapse of ecosystems and the unfolding environmental crisis, we must embrace a change from the current energy monopoly which is causing ecocide for a transition to an ecologically sustainable and transparent economy, we are witnessing this transition albeit a warlike one, the diversity of innovations, in response to the environmental crisis is overwhelming, alternative energy will prevail with persistence, demand and growing awareness.
Hess, D. (September, 2015). The politics of niche-regime conflicts: Distributed solar energy in the United States . Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions .Elsevier. 19 (2016) 42–50
Last year marked a record breaking year for the amount of oil extracted globally, between 98,000 and 100,000 barrels of oil are taken from the Earth per day. All the manufactured wars on terrorism provide the rich with as much cheap oil as they can control across the globe. As oil makes oil barons and their political stakeholders millions in profit per year, there is very little consideration given to environmental consequences or health risks when there are grand scale oil spills.
Forty miles off the Louisiana coastline, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig sank on the 22nd of April 2010 and caused one of the largest scale oil spills in the US, stretching over 1,100 square miles, while BP oil made several unsuccessful attempts to cap and plug the blown hole. Over 2.5 million gallons a day were pouring out into the Gulf ocean causing ecocide until the well was capped on July 15, 2010. No one ever investigated why it had to take almost three months to plug and the devastation of sea life still hasn’t quite recovered 6 years on let alone the fishing economy, thousands of people lost work and property value. When there are large scale oil spills like this where toxic dispersants are also used afterwards, the toxicity in the water can cause outbreaks of flesh-eating bacteria Vibrio vulnificus which causes dangerous infections, it does not reflect well on the oil companies and government departments responsible for ensuring public safety and addressing serious public health concerns and this has been a regular problem with outbreaks in the Gulf of Mexico since the oil spill. Records kept by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that the number of cases of Vibriosis nearly doubled between 2008 and 2012 – rising from 588 to 1,111.
Satellite Image for reuse, public domain, Wikipedia images.
Then on January the 19th, 1991, the worlds largest oil spill occurred, over 380-520 million gallons of oil were released into the Arabian Gulf/Kuwait, Persian Gulf by Iraqi military who opened the valves of the oil pipes to try and prevent the US marines from landing to start war and claim control of the pipeline, this resulted in the largest oil spill in the last few decades and complete ecocide of the Persian Gulf ocean with over 4 inches of oil slick resting just on the surface spread out over a distance of 4000 square miles.
Then there was the Exxon Valdez supertanker which collided with a reef just off the Alaskan coast on march the 4th, in 1989 causing over 11 million gallons of crude into Prince William Sound and killing thousands of seabirds, marine mammals and ocean life.
These are just a few, in total there have been ten major oil spills globally since 1989, not including hundreds of smaller ones. Before 1989 the last major spills there were ten more large scale spills stretching back to 1979, which would mean writing a very long list according to the first map, there have been 4,500,000 over just 50 years, that doesn’t include statistics of smaller scale spills especially in developing countries in South America where much of these spills happen in the Amazon rain forest which stretches over Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador and Peru, these countries are areas where such spills are not even noticed by the media, yet this is where thousands of oil spills have occurred over the last few decades decimating one of the most bio- diverse areas of forest in the world. Texaco-Chevron started drilling in 1963. Chevron saved money by intentionally by-passing environmental risk protocols which would have been normal legal procedure in the USA. In the process they destroyed the area of the Ecuadorian rain forest affecting five indigenous tribes and polluting their ancestral land and rivers with billions of gallons of oil and waste water over a number of years, waste that went into the Amazon Rivers and land surface, instead of pumping it back underground. These methods are deemed sub-standard and toxic to human and environmental health around the world.
Photo by Caroline Bennett, (public domain for reuse courtesy of Rain forest Network on Flickr).
As a result during 1993, indigenous Ecuadorians took Texaco-Chevron to court over environmental and health damages after they had become victims of an on-going long-endured oil disaster, the likes of which had never been seen before: Compensation and environmental restoration still has not been received despite 18 years of legal battles with the people of Ecuador – some 30,000 indigenous people and mestizo (mixed ancestry) settlers.
Photo copyright of author Carlita Shaw, 2012, Ecuadorian Amazon.
The Ecuadorian plaintiffs accused Texaco-Chevron, of dumping 18 billion gallons of toxic waste water and spilling about 17 million gallons of crude oil into the rain forest during its operations in Ecuador from 1964 to 1990. These illegal actions contaminated the soil, groundwater, rivers and streams in the area and this is still causing cancer, horrible congenital defects and abortions among the indigenous population, it was called the rain forest Chernobyl. Another reason why oil spills are so commonplace in Ecuador is that they are carried out on purpose because there are insurance claims available and money for “cleaning up the spill”. Also official statistics of world oil spills do not truly account for the sheer scale of true spills unaccounted for in developing countries where some governments have hidden them if they were not too noticeable by outsiders.
Most people are unaware that Petroleum contains traces of Uranium according to the Geological Survey Professional Paper 356 B, Uranium and Other Trace Elements in Petroleum and Rock Asphalts by Kenneth G. Bell published in 1960, investigations were done in testing the crude oil uranium content at Table Mountain in Utah, USA and at Temple Mountain, Utah, scientists reported uranium contents of 32,000; 30,000; 50,000; and 67,000 ppb (parts per billion) for samples of crude oil extracted from sand stones in the region. This is one example, uranium content in this area was higher than in most crude oils, the concentration of which depends on the geology of where the drilling and extraction is. However, the point is, when there is an oil rig drilling daily or when you have a gas station even where you are filling up your car, oil still leaks into the ground and over time uranium deposits accumulate contaminating the soil and water table, this in turn builds up to radiation levels that can potentially cause environmental and health risks. So with this in mind and taking another look at the USA map below showing over 3000 oil spills, it’s a serious human health and environmental health problem and cancer in those areas but it is never ever talked about in the media or by politicians.
There have been over 3000 oil and gas spills in the USA since 2010. Google map layers, public domain.
The Solution
The alternative to cars running on oil are the current new market of water based hydrogen fuel cell cars, there are several to choose from, one made by Genepax in 2011 could run on seawater and green tea even before Fukushima happened. Another two Japanese cars have been launched by Honda and Toyota, and the Honda car can travel 400 miles before needing 3 minute charging at stations and can provide power from the fuel cell for a domestic house also, possibly based on Stanley Meyers original designs before he died. General Motors and Mercedes-Benz are expected to enter the market in 2017. Ford, Nissan and Volkswagen also are developing electric-drive cars fueled by hydrogen gas. South Korean automaker Hyundai has also produced a hydrogen fuel cell car. In 2014, members of the Pakistani parliament, scientists, and students alike watched in awe as Waqar Ahmad, a Pakistani engineer, successfully demonstrated a hydrogen fuel cell powered car in Islamabad. With just one liter of water, Ahmad claims that a 1000 cc car could cover a distance of 40 km, or a motorbike could travel 150 km.
Solar powered vehicle on display, (courtesy of Flickr, image for reuse by J.Ross 2008)
If you live in a country where there is lots of sun, you might consider instead a solar powered car, some of which can run for thousands of miles. Even more innovative is a solar powered road. Five years ago Scott Brusaw from California, USA, gave a talk with Ted Talks, presenting the ‘Solar Roadway Project’, which is a project where ‘green’ Engineers have been working to produce solar-powered roads and cars that could even provide power for homes and businesses and eventually villages and towns. The Australian world Solar Challenge is a competition that takes place yearly and recently was won by a Dutch Solar company named Eindhoven, which has built a solar-powered vehicle called ‘Stella’ and which is designed for families and traveled over 3000 miles across Australia without any problems.
The alternatives are already here, that is not the issue, the problem is the need for people to campaign to politicians (the most influential of which are stakeholders in oil and gas reserves), for the infrastructure to be built in order to support clean vehicle alternatives. This is even more reason for people to campaign and push for alternative infrastructures to be put in place for cleaner energy cars that have been made available to the public; the only reason they are not being used by everyone is because there is pressure by politicians and oil companies to repress recharging stations being built in every single town or city globally. There is a global systematic pressure from oil stakeholders in politics to prevent these alternatives but if local communities start campaigning and pressuring for stronger infrastructures this will help empower people to choose for themselves and make the transition from oil to cleaner alternatives easier.
El mapa anterior muestra claramente que los reclamos de Carlos Pérez están desocupados y, por lo tanto, causarían un impacto mínimo, de hecho, están ocupados por los Achuar, Shiwiar, Sapora y Kichwa.
