No, you argue, I'm chained to my desk in this bleak cubicle in a soulless corporation, but the excuse is invalid. In fact, the excuse that you are wheelchair bound is equally invalid, because now a campaign to save a South American wilderness requires nothing more from you than a couple of mouseclicks, the completion of an information form, and a final mouseclick sendoff.
The campaign, called Yasuni Green Gold, aims to save not only one of the last pristine jungles on the planet, but the people who inhabit it. This wilderness, known as the Yusani region of Ecuador, and located in the Orellana Province, is currently facing the threat of oil development and extraction.
What the Yasuni campaign boils down to is this: with sufficient economic incentive, or sufficient political pressure - whichever comes first - the government of Ecuador is willing to forgo oil exploration and extraction.
Oil extraction, particularly in wilderness areas, leads to deforestation and desertification, the extinction of species, contamination of water and soil, and a huge carbon footprint for companies who further refine the crude oil into usable product.
Referring only to the human species, oil extraction introduces a lot of toxins that lead to cancer, birth defects and neurological damage. On the social scale, the sudden wealth and then gradual descent into poverty again, once all the native traditions have been destroyed, leads to high levels of alcoholism, suicide, prostitution and sexually transmitted diseases.
Politically, oil extraction in remote regions among indigenous peoples inevitably leads to violence and conflict. The term most often used is ‘asymmetrical warfare'; the end result is always the same. Oil wins and the natives lose.
In fact, the campaign has already begun. In late 2007, regional and multinational oil companies started militarizing Orellana Province via Ecuador's military. More than 23 protestors ended up in prison, among them Orellana's Governor, Guadalupe Llori, who remains there and is described by many as a prisoner of conscience.
In 2008, drilling was allowed in The Ishpingo Tambococha Tiputini (ITT) in the southern part of Yasuni Park up to, but not including, an area designated the "untouchable zone". The region hasn't seen any economic benefit as a result, and one native - Penti Baihua of the Huaorani tribe - says that drilling has polluted the water, soil and air, driven away the animals and brought a host of diseases that sicken and even kill his people.
In the meantime, Anita Rivas, the province's mayor, is urging UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown to sign up for the Yasuni campaign as a way to demonstrate its commitment to reversing climate change. The same plea is being sent to all Western governments.
Ecuador's President Rafael Correa in December of last year repudiated the nation's national debt, calling it immoral, and hopes - via the Yasuni campaign - to recoup at least 50 percent of the revenues the country would have been entitled to for oil extraction. Correa targets this amount at $350 million a year for the next decade.
If you happen to live in the United Kingdom, your MP can be instrumental in putting political pressure on the UK government to act. You can also ask your MP to sign an Early Day Motion - a parliamentary petition - to support the Green Gold campaign. Or you can donate a few bucks on your own. Even in difficult economic times, $5 to save a square meter of rainforest isn't an insupportable cost, and will go a long way toward defeating an oil-based economy that has already led to significant climate change.
Related Reading:
Planting Trees and Managing Soils to Sequester Carbon
Canada's Great Bear Rainforest
Image Credit:
BackpackPhotography
Yasuni Green Gold
Xinhuanews.net
