Case Study:

Yasuni National Park, Ecuador

Global Citizenship

Yasuni National Park1. 10,000 km2 preserve in

Ecuador.

2. Perhaps the most biodiverse place in the world.

3. It did not freeze during the last ice age.

4. Trees galore!

5. The untouchable zone

The people of Yasuni 1. The Waorani, the Kichwa,

the Shuar, the Tagaeri and the Taromenane.

2. The Tagaeri and the Taromenane live in isolation deep in the forests of Yasuni.

3. Indigenous groups see themselves as protectors of the forest.

4. Indigenous people in rainforests bravely resist and fight for their culture and forest to be kept intact.

Oil in Yasuni1. The ITT (Ishpingo-

Tambococha-Tiputini) oil field: 900 million barrels of oil in the ground.

2. Highly polluting, heavy crude oil

3. Video: Oil Pollution in Ecuador (3 minutes).

Oil in Yasuni• Oil spills are common

• Video: Yasuni - Two Seconds of Life (3 minutes)

Saving Yasuni1. Ecuador’s economy relies on oil, so the government is always under pressure

to extract its large oil reserves;

2. Video: Yasuni - A gift to humanity (5 minutes);

3. Video: Keep Oil in the Soil (11 minutes);

4. Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa proposed that his government should be paid $3 billion not to drill in Yasuni: Read the Handout and then we’ll discuss.

For further reading:• New Internationalist article: ‘Toxic Blocks’:

http://www.newint.org/features/2008/07/01/oil-business/

ConsumerismWhat does this word mean to you?

In groups of 3, write your own definitions of:

1. Consume2. Consumerism

Consumerism• Consume: 1. To eat drink or ingest food or drink; 2. to buy

goods or services; 3. to use up a resource.• Consumerism:1. The protection or promotion of the interests

of consumers; 2. the preoccupation of society with acquiring consumer goods.

• Video: Cabbage Patch Kids Craze (2 minutes).

• Video: Black Friday Rush (1 minute).

• Video: Consumerism! The Musical (5 minutes).

Consumerism• Plastic Oceans Website: http://www.plasticoceans.net/

• Video: Kate Humble: Plastic Oceans (2.5 minutes)

Curtis Ebbesmeyer, an oceanographer....has tracked the build-up of plastics in the seas for more than 15 years and compares the trash vortex to a living entity: "It moves around like a big animal without a leash." When that animal comes close to land, as it does at the Hawaiian archipelago, the results are dramatic. "The garbage patch barfs, and you get a beach covered with this confetti of plastic“ (The Independent 2008).

Consumerism• Can consumers like us make small changes

to make big differences? – – Video: Roz Savage - Rowing through plastic (3 minutes)

Consumerism1. Factories are often relocated to economically poorer

countries to keep the costs of manufacturing down.

2. These factories may then pollute the environments of these countries.

3. Video: River Pollution in Dhaka, Bangladesh (2 minutes)4. Video: Pollution of Dhaka's Environment

5. What would you do if you opened a factory in Bangladesh?

ConsumerismLogging, ranching and industrial farming

• Logging sometimes includes felling trees that are hundreds of years old and will not come back;

• Ranching (raising animals for meat production) often takes up massive spaces of the rainforest so we can consume increasing amounts of meat (such as McDonalds burgers!!).

The Power of

the Consumer

Consumer Muscles• As consumers, we have the power to buy only products that are ethically produced,

or sustainably produced;

• We can buy fair trade produce (we will be covering fair trade in the weeks to come);

• We can consume less! This is good for the consumer too, as he/she can save money;

• We can simply not buy certain products that have negative impacts on peoples’ and animals’ environments;

• We can campaign and let retailers know that we will not buy their products unless they are ethically and sustainably produced.

Bibliography• Much of the information in this presentation is taken from the Yasuni Green Gold website:

http://www.yasunigreengold.org/about-yasuni.php • Slide 1 Photo: http://earthfirstnews.wordpress.com/tag/yasuni-national-park/ • Slide 2 photos: http://www.projectearth.net/Project/Details/1021 and

http://blogs.worldwatch.org/sustainableprosperity/to-drill-or-not-to-drill/ and http://knowingecuador.blogspot.co.uk/2009/06/national-protected-areas-and-national.html

• Slide 4: Yasuni Green Gold website: http://www.yasunigreengold.org/about-yasuni.html• Worldwatch website:

http://blogs.worldwatch.org/sustainableprosperity/to-drill-or-not-to-drill/• Slide 5 photos: http://www.groenfront.nl/english/ • Slides 6 and 8 photos: http://www.sosyasuni.org/en/index.php • The Independent 2008, on-line at: http://

www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/the-worlds-rubbish-dump-a-tip-that-stretches-from-hawaii-to-japan-778016.html