EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Ecuadorean lawyer Pablo Fajardo went from battling oil companies in his Amazonian hometown to rubbing elbows Saturday with the world’s musical elite – an admittedly strange trip that he hoped would bring attention to his environmental struggle.
Fajardo, a peasant farmer turned lawyer, is the lead attorney of in a $6 billion lawsuit against Chevron Corp. for allegedly failing to clean up billions of gallons of toxic wastewater from oil development in Ecuador’s Amazon region.
His environmental activism earned him a guest pass to the Live Earth concert at Giants Stadium, where he was escorted around by Trudie Styler, the wife of a musician that until just recently Fajardo had never heard of: Sting.
“It is a little strange. I never thought I’d be at a place like this,” said Fajardo, speaking in Spanish translated by an American lawyer, Steven Donzinger, who’s been working on the case.
During his short trip to the states _ Fajardo arrived Friday and leaves Tuesday _ he’ll also meet former vice president and climate change activist Al Gore, who helped bring about the Live Earth concerts.
The shows are designed to draw attention to the issue of global warming _ a warming of the earth’s temperatures that many scientists believe is due to the burning of fossil fuels such as coal and oil and is leading to a rise in ocean levels and glacier melting.
The 24-hour musical extravaganza has featured more than a hundred musical artists including Kanye West, Madonna, Linkin Park, Bon Jovi and John Mayer.
Fajardo hoped that the concerts, held at venues around the world including London, Sydney and Tokyo, would allow more people to learn about the environmental problems connected with oil drilling in Ecuador.
“I live in the affected zone … I know the reality. I know that people are dying because of what Chevron did,” said Fajardo, 34. “And the most unjust thing would be to sit there and do nothing.”
After trying for years to have their case heard in a U.S. federal court, the plaintiffs shifted their legal battle to a makeshift courtroom in an Ecuadorean jungle town called Lago Agrio, which means “sour lake.”
In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs charge that Texaco dumped more than 18 billion gallons of oil wastewater into the rain forest, and failed to properly clean it up. They also allege that cancer rates are elevated in the area due to the oil contamination.
San Roman, Calif.-based Chevron has said that Texaco, which ended its Ecuadorean operations in 1992, followed all local environmental laws in a $40 million cleanup that began in 1995. The company also says there is no proof that oil contamination caused the cancers.
