William Langewiesche, the lyricist of disaster, has the cover story of the May Vanity Fair with "Jungle Law," on Chevron’s trial in Ecuador. It’s a $6 billion tale of blood, oil and the persistence of Ecuadorean peasants that’s finally getting the telling it deserves.
Langewiesche, author of the definitive Ground Zero tale, "American Ground," and the best page-turners in Atlantic Monthly, hauls the Chevron-Ecuador environmental destruction story out of the he-said/they-said backwater and into full-blown literature.
Excerpt:
"[Chevron] denies that the judge is fair, denies that the plaintiffs have legitimate complaints, denies that their soil and water samples are meaningful, denies that the methods the company used to extract oil in the past were substandard, denies that it contaminated the forest, denies that the forest is contaminated, denies that there is a link between the drinking water and high rates of cancer, leukemia, birth defects, and skin disease, denies that unusual health problems have been demonstrated—and, for added measure, denies that it bears responsibility for any environmental damage that might after all be found to exist. If Chevron can convince the court of the validity of even a few of those points, it will win the case and leave town."
That’s what, until recently, most people thought would happen in Ecuador. But, as Langewiesche so gorgeously explains, the tide may be shifting.