He says Indians and Oil don't Mix" in his latest article, this one for Air America Radio's Ring of Fire. His brief tale of oil exports makes you want to cry, and drastically cut back on oil consumption. Which is exactly what needs to take place in protest of the exploitation of the earth's ecology, and indigenous peoples, as the corporatocracy seeks dominion over all of the earth's resources that, quite naturally, belong to the people.
Palast recaps various tale of exploitation of indigenous tribes for oil resources, that occurred not that long ago:
Then there are the Chugach Natives of Alaska. The Port of Valdez, Alaska, is arguably one of the most valuable pieces of real estate on Earth, the only earthquake-safe ice-free port in Alaska that could load oil from the giant North Slope field. In 1969, Exxon and British Petroleum companies took the land from the Chugach paid them one dollar. I kid you not.
Wally Hickel, the former Governor of Alaska, dismissed my suggestion that the Chugach deserved a bit more respect (and cash) for their property. "Land ownership comes in two ways, Mr. Palast." explained the governor and pipeline magnate, "Purchase or conquest. The fact that your granddaddy chased a caribou across the land doesn't make it yours." The Chugach had lived there for 3,000 years.
Palast goes on to rightly point out that no one would "dream" of drilling for oil on Bush family property in Texas, without offering due compensation. In other words, property rights were created for those who took property from Indigenous folks, and are now making a claim for rightful ownership. Property rights ultimately is a class issue, and no one knows this better than the people of New Orleans, my home town, where low income and middle income folks, in response to the collapse of the levees, were never adequately compensated for their losses, and have struggled and gone in debt, huge debts, to rebuild.
Speaking of Louisiana, one reason New Orleans is so vulnerable to flooding, is the collapse of our wetlands ecosystem, which used to be a natural barrier to hurricanes. This has occurred in no small measure because of the oil and gas industry,and the thousands of channels dug into the marsh, allowing salt water intrusion to occur. This kills vegetation and habitats, and is a direct result of our careless priorities, putting a non-renewable resource above the importance of a renewable resource.
Go over any bridge from New Orleans to Lake Charles after dark and this fact is brought home with the orange glow of gas vents painting the night sky a sickly hue, blotting out the stars, and creating a huge carbon footprint. Louisiana is America's second largest producer of natural gas, supplying more than one-quarter of the total U.S. production. Louisiana pioneered the techniques of offshore drilling and the oil companies ruined the protective barrier of the wetlands in the process.
Speaking of wetlands, because of its bays and sounds, Louisiana has the longest coastline (15,000 miles) of any state and 41 percent of the nation's wetland -- or it used to before the last three years of hurricanes, beginning with Katrina and ending with Ike.
But the Indians in Peru know all about this, as they struggle to protect their renewable resource, the rainforest, against the intrusion of global capitalism. In the meantime, companies like Chevron have already had their way in South America.
Take a look at this photo here, taken in the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador. It's from an investigation that I conducted for BBC TV, now in the film "Palast Investigates." I'm holding up a stinking, black glop of crude oil residue pulled from an abandoned Chevron-Texaco waste pit. A pipe runs from the toxic pit right into the water supply of Cofan Indians.
Chief Emergildo Criollo told me how oil company executives helicoptered into his remote village and, speaking in Spanish - which the Cofan didn't understand - "purchased" drilling rights with trinkets and cheese. The Natives had never seen cheese. ("The cheese smelled funny, so we threw it in the jungle.")
After drilling began, Criollo's son went swimming in his usual watering hole, came up vomiting blood, and died.
I asked Chevron about the wave of poisonings and deaths. According to an independent report, 1,401 deaths, mostly of children, mostly from cancers, can be traced to Chevron's toxic dumping.
Chevron's lawyer told me, "And it's the only case of cancer in the world? How many cases of children with cancer do you have in the States? ... They have to prove that it is our crude," which, he noted with glee, "is absolutely impossible."