Rumble In The Jungle  

Grist has a look at the activists who won this year's Goldman Environmental Prize, for taking on Chevron over oil pollution in the Ecuadorian Amazon rainforest (Vanity Fair had a good article outlining the background to this case a while back).

Think changing the world is impossible? Think again. From a polio-stricken musician who's spreading the word about clean water in his native Mozambique to a pair of Ecuadorian activists taking on Big Oil, this year's seven Goldman Prize winners prove that a little heart and a lot of sweat can make a big difference.

I attended the Goldman Prize presentation last night, and it was, per usual, a spectacular celebration of uncommonly dedicated individuals working to make this world a better place. The stories of their struggles and triumphs wetted every eye in the house, and they serve as a beacon of inspiration to all who care about the future of planet Earth.

Unless you are Chevron.

This morning, Chevron ran a full-page ad in the San Francisco Chronicle attacking one of the recipients, Pablo Fajarado. "Mr. Fajarado is a front man for a group of Ecuadorian and American trail lawyers pursuing a claim against Chevron."

No! Not trial lawyers! Chevron would prefer that anyone bringing suit against them be represented by fishmongers, not trial lawyers. Or something.

I've met those trial lawyers -- and they are, as you might expect, incredibly overworked and underpaid individuals doing this work not for love of lucre but desire for justice. And, if I may project some of my own feelings at this very moment, righteous anger against asshole oil companies.

The rest of the ad is unforgivable character assassination and innuendo.

Some things the Chevron ad neglected to mention: shortly after beginning his work, Mr. Fajarado's brother was brutally murdered, and the case has never been resolved. Luis Yanza, a co-worker and co-recipient of the Goldman Prize, has a young daughter, and an attempt was made to kidnap her when she was 9 years old. Fajarado's and Lanza's office have been burglarized, and both the U.N. and the InterAmerican Commission on Human Rights have intervened to try to stop a systematic pattern of intimidation against the plaintiffs and their legal team.

Four Americans working on the documentary Sweet Crude, about the impact of the petroleum industry on the economy and environment of the Niger Delta, were arrested in Nigeria this weekend and are still being detained. A Nigerian man accompanying them was also seized. Nigeria is Africa's largest oil exporter and the fourth-largest exporter to the United States, and its petroleum industry is infamous for pollution, injustice, and corruption.