by Jessica Corbett | Dec 10, 2025 | Amazon, Article, Climate Crisis, Economy and Inequality, Ecuador, Politics and Movements: International, Politics and Movements: US, Reprint
This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on Dec. 09, 2025. It is shared here under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.
A US advocacy group, American human rights lawyer Steven Donziger, and the group in Ecuador behind a historic legal battle against Chevron over its dumping of toxic waste in the Amazon rainforest are condemning the Ecuadorian government’s plans to pay the oil giant hundreds of millions of dollars due to an arbitration ruling.
In response to the legal fight in Ecuador that led to a $9.5 billion judgment against Chevron—which bought Texaco—the fossil fuel company turned to the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) system, suing the South American country in the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration. As part of the latter case, Ecuadorian Attorney General Diana Salazar Méndez’s office announced Monday that the government would pay the US company only around $220 million, rather than the over $3 billion Chevron sought.
While Chevron said in a statement that it was “pleased with the resolution of this matter” and claimed the decision “strengthened the rule of law globally,” and Salazar Méndez’s office celebrated the dramatically lower figure, and the Union of Peoples Affected by Chevron-Texaco (UDAPT)—the group that began the case against oil company in 1993—pushed back against the government’s framing of the reduction “as if it was a success and an economic achievement.”
“The reality is it is a defeat for justice,” UDAPT argued in a Tuesday statement. “For 32 years, UDAPT has documented pollution, environmental crime, and lives broken by Chevron, proving what should be obvious: Communities have not recovered, health has not been restored, clean water has not returned, and the territories that sustain life remain contaminated. A debt is not owed to Chevron. A debt is owed to the Amazonian families still waiting for
by Steve Brooks | Dec 6, 2025 | California, Climate, Climate Crisis, Drought, News Analysis, Prisons, Water
As droughts, extreme heat, and other climate disasters increasingly plague California, people throughout the state have been subject to water restrictions. For many Californians, this means emergency regulations like limitations on lawn watering. But one group of people has been forced to bear the brunt of the state’s water restrictions: those in prison. People in California prisons already…
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by Jon Queally | Nov 29, 2025 | alberta, Canada, Climate Crisis, First Nations, Indigenous Peoples, Mark Carney, News, Oil and Gas Drilling, Tar Sands
First Nations groups backed by environmental and conservationist allies in Canada are denouncing a pipeline and tanker infrastructure agreement announced Thursday between Liberal Prime Minister Mark Carney and Conservative Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, calling the deal a betrayal and promising to fight against its implementation tooth and nail. “We will use every tool in our toolbox to…
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by Derek Seidman | Nov 28, 2025 | AI, Authoritarianism, big tech, Billionaires, Climate Crisis, data centers, Donald Trump, Fascism, Fossil Fuels, News Analysis, Wall Street
Billionaire executives have long been lauded by the corporate media as unfettered heroes advancing human progress. But the first year of Donald Trump’s second presidential term should dispel any notion that wealthy CEOs will save us from the twin crises of creeping authoritarianism and intensifying global climate chaos. Today, many of these supposed icons have wasted little time groveling to…
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by Truthout | Nov 25, 2025 | Climate Change, Climate Crisis, News, Polar Vortex, Thanksgiving, Weather
A weather phenomenon known as a polar vortex is likely to hit a large swath of North America this week and into next, potentially disrupting travel for millions of people during the Thanksgiving holiday. A polar vortex happens when air in the Arctic is destabilized, often by intruding warming air currents, and moves extreme cold air southward. The type of polar vortex this current system…
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by Sophie Hurwitz | Nov 25, 2025 | Climate Crisis, Endangered Species Act, Extinction, News Analysis, Oil and Gas Drilling, Trump Administration, Wildlife
For more than 50 years, the Endangered Species Act has saved thousands of animals and plants from threats like poaching, habitat loss, and pollution. It brought bald eagles back from the brink of extinction, reestablished grizzly bear populations on public lands, and safeguarded the redwood forests that play host to dozens of vulnerable animals. In total, it has prevented the extinction of 99…
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