BIG OIL LOSES
IN ECUADOR
While the BP oil spill is the most
famous recent fossil fuel disaster, the
contamination of the Ecuadorian Amazon
by oil extraction has caused massive
environmental contamination in the once
pristine jungle and health problems for
nearby Ecuadorians (see EW cover story,
8/13/2009).
A judge ruled Feb. 14 in a long running
lawsuit filed by Ecuadorian native
peoples and villagers that Chevron must
pay $8.6 billion in damages and cleanup
costs. A court-appointed expert had
recommended $27.3 billion, and the case
is expected to be appealed by both sides.
Pablo Fajardo, the lead attorney in the
case, which took place in an Ecuadorian
court, is a partner of Eugene-based
Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide
(ELAW). Fajardo issued a statement
saying he believes the “judgment affirms
what the plaintiffs have contended for the
past 18 years about Chevron’s intentional
and unlawful contamination of Ecuador’s
rainforest.”
He says, “The plaintiffs provided the
court with a great quantum of scientific
and documentary evidence that Chevron
deliberately and in violation of all
industry norms discharged billions of
gallons of toxic waste into the rainforest
and into the water supply relied on by
happening people
thousands of Ecuadorian citizens.”
Fajardo, a native Ecuadorian, put
himself through law school via a six-year
correspondence course and became the
lead attorney on the case soon after
getting his degree. He has been facing
Chevron’s well-funded team of attorneys
as well as tactics by the oil company such
as sending corporate spies to Ecuador to
attempt to discredit the attorneys and
Ecuadorian officials.
Fajardo came to Eugene through
ELAW to study English, and was a
keynote speaker at the UO’s Public
Interest Environmental Law Conference
in 2009. The public interest group, among
other things, “provided moral support for
a long difficult fight for justice,” ELAW
Executive Director Bern Johnson says.
Johnson says many ELAW partners
like Fajardo work alone on difficult cases.
When the partners were notified of the
victory through the ELAW network,
Fajardo not only received congratulations
from around the world, but his success is
also “a source of inspiration for others.”
— Camilla Mortensen
LIBRARY CUTS
HUNDREDS OF
MAGAZINES
The conservative National Review
made the cut, but the city canceled The
Village Voice. The Eugene Public Library
has cut almost half of its magazine and
newspaper subscriptions to save money.
The downtown library will lose about
46 percent of its subscriptions, while the
Bethel and Sheldon branch libraries will
lose about 20 percent. In all the city will
cancel about 248 subscriptions.
The cancellations will directly save
about $22,500 a year, plus an undisclosed
larger amount in staff-time savings spent
processing the materials. Library users
may be able to find some of the lost
content on the internet or in library
databases.
The library may be able to restore
some lost subscriptions through
increased donations. “However, the
Library does not accept donations
limited to a specific title, because the
choices involved in shaping and updating
the collection are made and managed in
a big-picture context,” Library Director
Connie Bennett said in an email.
Here’s a comparison of some of the
titles library officials chose to continue
versus cancel at the downtown branch.
Adventure Cyclist out; Car and Driver
in. Ms. magazine out; Bitch in. GQ out;
Esquire in. Canoe & Kayak out; Video
Librarian in. Guns & Ammo out;
Knitters in. The Onion out; MAD in.
Bon Appetit out; Cooking Light in.
Good Housekeeping out; Hip Mama in.
Sierra out; Teen Vogue in. Science News
out; The Skeptical Inquirer in. The
Journal of Light Construction is out;
ReadyMade is in. The complete list of
cuts and keeps is at http://scr.bi/gt4x9U
The branch libraries will also only
get the state’s largest newspaper, The
Oregonian, on Sundays.
The Eugene City Council cut the
library’s $11 million budget about 4.6
percent for this year, or $506,000. At
the same time, the council voted to
spend $740,000 on hiring seven more
police officers; $220,000 on removing
parking meters in part of downtown,
and millions of dollars on providing tax
exemptions for apartment developers
near the UO.
In implementing the city’s library
cuts, the library prioritized keeping all
three branches open for the same
schedule of hours. — Alan Pittman
A Filipino born in Manila, Sam Roderick Roxas-Chua was
adopted by a Chinese family that moved to Los Angeles
when he was 11. “I went to Catholic school until fifth
grade,” he says. “but my grandma taught me Buddhist
prayers.” In his late teens, he felt a calling to be a priest,
but a pastor told him that his homosexuality meant that
he could never enter heaven. After moving to Seattle to
finish college, he discovered the Dalai Lama on TV at 3
am: “He was saying, ‘You’re OK, no matter who you are,
or how bad you are.’ I’ve practiced Tibetan Buddhism
since 1999.” Roxas-Chua met his partner, John Simpson,
in Seattle, and in 2002 joined him in Eugene. When his
mother died in 2005, he joined a bereavement support
group at Sacred Heart. “It normalized the confusion, the
loss,” says Roxas-Chua, who trained as a volunteer to
facilitate support groups and to give hospice patient
care. Since 2008, he has made audio and video recordings
of hospice patients telling their life stories. “Being aware
of impermanence teaches you how to live,” says Roxas-
Chua, who has opened a ceramics studio since taking his
first class at Clayspace in 2009. See his Wish People and
other works in clay at wonderlandcraftstudio.com
FEBRUARY 17, 2011
EUGENE WEEKLY
Get inspired to live lighter and reduce
your carbon footprint with easy solutions
you can do at home. Deep Green, a
documentary film created by UO alumnus
Matt Briggs to address the growing
problem of man-made climate change,
will be shown at 6 pm Thursday, Feb. 24,
at the Hult Center.
The film gives examples of how
groups in Oregon, as well as international
groups, are already using advanced
energy saving techniques, and how the
public could be using the same practices
to conserve energy and reduce its carbon
footprint. It gives the public realistic and
reasonable solutions to help reduce
energy waste from electronics and other
products such as light bulbs that are in
alignment with many of Eugene’s climate
and energy goals.
“We tried to make this a broad
introduction for everybody, I think kids
12 and up; men and women; people who
are both technically and scientifically
together, and people who don’t have that
bone in their body can all kind of get it,”
Briggs says.
Briggs says that “people who have
money can do it on their own, and for
those people who have no money at all,
there are programs” to help finance
energy efficient modifications to their
homes.
The filmmaker hopes that this film
will act as a conversation starter for
people to get interested in the energy-
efficiency of their city.
In the lobby outside of the Soreng
Theater will be numerous discussion
tables available after the film for people
to get in on the conversation about
Eugene’s goals as a city. People can
WAR
BY PAUL NEEVEL
SAM RODERICK ROXAS-CHUA
8
DEEP GREEN
THE MOVIE
DEAD
In Afghanistan
• 1,468 U.S. troops killed* (1,464)
• 10,308 U.S. troops wounded in action
(10,264)
• 709 U.S. contractors killed (709)
• $377.9 billion cost of war ($375.9 billion)
• $107.5 MILLION COST TO E UGENE TAXPAYERS
($106.9 million)
In Iraq
• 4,421 U.S. troops killed (4,421)
• 31,938 U.S. troops wounded in action
(31,938)
• 185 U.S. military suicides (updates NA)
• 1,521 U.S. contractors killed (1,521)
• 108,864 to 1.2 million civilians killed*
(108,782)
• $774.2 billion cost of war ($773.0 billion)
• $220.2 million cost to Eugene
taxpayers ($219.8 million)
Through Feb. 14,, 2011; sources: icasualties.org; defense.gov, U.S.
Dept. of Labor
* highest estimate; source: iraqbodycount.org; based on con-
firmed media reports; other groups calculate Iraqi civilian deaths
as high as 655,000 (Lancet survey, 2006) to 1.2 million (Opinion
Research Business survey, 2008)
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