Chevron world's worst company for environment

A hand covered in crude from one of the hundreds of open toxic pits in the Ecuadorean Amazon | Photo: Reuters

The embarrassing award was delivered as global elites gather in Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum.

Environmental organizations Thursday awarded Chevron with the “Lifetime Achievement” award for dumping billions of gallons of toxic waste into streams and rivers in Northern Ecuador, in what is effectively one of the worst environmental disasters on the planet.

The Public Eye award, which was delivered as global elites gather in Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum, seeks to highlight the world’s worst corporations. This is the second time the host of environmental groups bestowed Chevron with the embarrassing award for negligent behavior in Ecuador.

Chevron refused to comply with the 2013 verdict from an Ecuadorean court which ordered the company to pay US$ 9.5 billion in damages and clean up costs for dumping billions of gallons of benzene-laden toxic waste into streams and rivers. Almost 30,000 people, most of them indigenous, are affected by the oil giant actions.

Health experts have confirmed high rates of childhood leukemia and other cancers in the area where Chevron operated. More than 2,000 people are estimated to have died from cancer with another 10,000 currently at risk of contracting cancer because of continued exposure to carcinogenic chemicals.

The organizers of the dubious prize say they have intentions to hand the “Lifetime Achievement” award to the responsible executives at Chevron’s headquarters in California.

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