At Chevron’s Tiger Woods World Challenge, Environmental Groups Scold CEO Watson From On High

Banner Blares From Circling Airplane:

Clean Up Toxic Mess In Ecuador

Two leading U.S.-based environmental groups are taking their fight over Chevron's oil catastrophe in Ecuador directly to CEO John S. Watson by sending an airplane to fly over the weekend rounds of the Tiger Woods-hosted Chevron World Challenge golf tournament in California.

A banner trailing the plane said: "Chevron CEO Watson: Clean Up Your Toxic Mess In Ecuador". The environmental groups Rainforest Action Network (RAN) and Amazon Watch sponsored the banner.

"Chevron has spent the last 18 years waging unprecedented public relations and legal campaigns to avoid dealing with the environmental and public health catastrophe it left in the Amazon rainforest," said Ginger Cassady, a RAN campaign official.

"Today we're challenging Chevron to clean more than its public image and repair the toxic legacy it left in Ecuador."

An Ecuador court earlier this year found Chevron liable for dumping billions of toxic waste into the Amazon rainforest, decimating indigenous groups and causing an outbreak of cancer and other oil-related diseases in an area roughly the size of Rhode Island.

Chevron operated in Ecuador from 1964 to 1992 under the Texaco brand.

"We want Mr. Watson and his golfing friends to know that we hold him accountable for the refusal of the company to take responsibility for the world's worst oil-related disaster," said Karen Hinton, the U.S. spokesperson for dozens of rainforest communities suing Chevron in Ecuador.

The public scolding of Watson by RAN and Amazon Watch comes on the heels of damning statements from another group of Latin Americans -- government officials in Brazil, home to one of the most highly-prized offshore oil fields in the world. After Chevron spilled an estimated 110,000 gallons of pure crude into the Atlantic Ocean offshore the state of Rio, Brazilian officials were outraged by Chevron executives there who initially lied about the origin of the spill, low-balled the number of barrels released into the ocean and told regulators the damage was contained when it wasn’t. See here.

The Brazilians are threatening to fine Chevron for up to $145 million and imprison some of its executives over their efforts to cover up the extent of the spill.

To make matters even worse for Watson, his company was named last week the “most toxic” energy company of 2011 by AlterNet, a prestigious U.S.-based online magazine that closely tracks environmental issues. See here and here.

Chevron's enormous Ecuador liability is of special concern to Watson because he is the person ultimately responsible for the failure of Chevron to abide by an Ecuador court order that the company pay for a clean-up. He also has faced accusations the he suffers from a conflict of interest for failing to properly vet Texaco for the Ecuador liability when Chevron bought its rival in 2001.

If the judgment in Ecuador is upheld on appeal, the Ecuadorians will lawfully attempt to seize Chevron's assets in countries around the world where it operates. Chevron sold off its assets in Ecuador several years ago in an effort to evade its legal responsibilities in the South American nation, said Hinton.

Aside from Woods, those playing in the invitation-only golf tournament include luminaries such as former Masters champion Zach Johnson and Matt Kuchar, the leading money winner on the PGA tour in 2010.

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Wood’s Private Life Questioned, But His Public Choices Raise Real Questions

For the first time in Tiger Woods' career his private life is being closely scrutinized and his unwillingness to discuss what happened in his home criticized. Much ink has been used to debate what impact this scandal is having on his corporate partners, specifically Chevron, who entered into a five-year contract with the Tiger Woods' Foundation last year and had expected him to attend its golf tournament this week.

But, greater attention should be paid to Tiger's willingness enter into a relationship with Chevron itself, and the impact its had with the oil giant has had on the countries and people suffering from Chevron's abuse of the environment and human life across the globe.

This moment of media chaos may be the perfect time for Woods to reassess his relationship with this particular multinational for about 18 billion good reasons. That's the number of gallons of toxic waste that Texaco, now Chevron, intentionally dumped into the Ecuadorian rainforest from 1964 to 1990, contaminating the food and water supplies of the indigenous groups and farmer communities living there. Texaco built over 900 gigantic, unlined oil pits to store toxic waste permanently. The pits continue to seep into the groundwater and leech into the rivers and streams used by the 200,000 people living in the region.

This humanitarian crisis created by Woods' partner decimated the pristine rainforest in the Ecuadorian Amazon, one of the most bio diverse regions on earth and continues to contaminate to this day.

Kerry Kennedy, human rights activist and daughter of Robert F. Kennedy, recently visited the area and called it "Chevron's Chernobyl." [See http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kerry-kennedy/chevron-and-cultural-geno_b_346257.html]

Experts estimate over 1,000 people have died from cancer, and thousands more suffer from respiratory illnesses, skin disease and other medical problems. Women living near the oil sites are 2.5 times as likely to have spontaneous abortions than women in other parts of Ecuador and incidents of childhood leukemia are three times higher than the national average. Children are born with deformities and, upon bathing in the contaminated water, develop painful skin rashes over their entire bodies.

Yet Chevron refuses to take responsibility for the deliberate contamination of the region designed to maximize profit at the time of its operation.

Chevron has a long history of human rights abuse across the globe and has shown no remorse for the Toxic legacy it inherited in Ecuador. EarthRights International has called on Woods to no longer partner with Chevron as a result of the company's criminal environmental practices and human rights abuses abroad. [See http://www.metro.us/us/article/2009/12/02/05/3635-82/index.xml]

Looks like Tiger's relationship with Chevron may actually be the most harmful one for the mega-athlete's reputation. At a time when Tiger might need to do a bit of rehab on his public image, he should be cutting ties with an oil-giant that is embroiled in a rising tide of human rights problems around the globe. If Chevron insists on continuing to do business in a way that violates the environmental integrity of the communities in which it operates around the world, than Tiger should insist that his foundation disassociate itself with the oil company in every way.

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