Drilling Controversy
There has been extensive controversy over the construction of "oil" roads by Texaco for the exploitation and production of petroleum within the park. Famous scientists including Jane Goodall, E.O. Wilson, and Stuart Pimm have protested against this construction.
Since June 2007, the Ecuadorian government has been promoting the YasunÃ-ITT Initiative, a proposal that seeks to leave the Ishpingo-Tiputini-Tambococha (ITT) oil fields untapped under the core of Yasuni National Park in exchange for compensation from the international community for lost revenue. The government will receive, in turn, an international compensation fund equivalent to at least of 50% of the profits that it would receive were it to exploit the reserves.
Actor Leonardo DiCaprio, Edward Norton, global ecologist, writer, filmmaker and activist Dr. Michael Charles Tobias, and former Vice President of the United States Al Gore are supporting the Ecuadorian government. Some of the donors thus far have included other countries, such as Turkey, Chile, Colombia, Georgia, Australia, Spain and Belgium.
Read more about this topic: Yasuni National Park
Famous quotes containing the words drilling and/or controversy:
“Don’t spend your time in drilling soldiers, who may turn out hirelings after all, but give to undrilled peasantry a country to fight for.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“And therefore, as when there is a controversy in an account, the parties must by their own accord, set up for right Reason, the Reason of some Arbitrator, or Judge, to whose sentence, they will both stand, or their controversy must either come to blows, or be undecided, for want of a right Reason constituted by Nature; so is it also in all debates of what kind soever.”
—Thomas Hobbes (1579–1688)