Dear Everyone,
This is to let you know that in light of the RGS decision to
convene a conference on issues of environmental degredation and
multinationals in the South, I have been in touch with Dr.
Cristobal Bonifaz, an Ecuadorian social scientist and chemist, now basd in
Amherst, USA, who has done alot of work on this theme. His own
work is on the environmental degredation caused by Texaco's activities
in the Ecuadorian Amazonian region, where the companies have been pumping
oil out, resulting in pollution of the water drawn into the oil
extraction
area. By US law, this water has to be reinjected back into the ground,
whereas in Ecuador this is not being done. Dr. Bonifaz has just filed a
court case in New York against Texaco on the grounds that the same
standards should be applied in Ecuador, the US (and Nigeria?), and
is waiting to hear whether the court will hear the case.
In this light, he is willing and interested to come to London to talk
and I have written to John Hemming at RGS-IBG to suggest his name (with a
copy
of the letter going to Tim Unwin, as Secretary). So I await a reply.
Sarah Radcliffe,
Department of Geography,
University of Cambridge,
Downing Place,
Cambridge CB2 3EN Tel. 01223-333383
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|