A few weeks ago I had the great privilege of meeting Lou Dematteis, a former Reuters staff photographer who covered the wars that raged throughout Central America in the 1980s and first traveled to Ecuador's northern Amazon region in 1993.
What he found there was not a shooting war, but a war on the environment, a gut-wrenching clash between the "civilized" world's thirst for cheap oil and indigenous people's right to live in health and harmony with their native lands.
Lou's photos not only tell the story of the human and ecological cost of our oil addiction, but they've been invaluable visual documents helping to keep Chevron/Texaco, the culprit of this epic environmental catastrophe, from engaging in "pollute and run" business as usual.
Most importantly, these images highlight the power of local communities not only in fighting the corporate juggernaut that is fleecing the planet's resources for short term profits, but in calling attention to the systemic problems inherent in fossil fuel dependent economic models, and inspiring sustainable solutions for all.
Take a ride and see for yourself.
continued at Daily Kos....
