Development, The Environment and Ecuador's Oil Patch: The Context and Nuances of the Case Against Texaco (Aspects OF THIRD WORLD DEVELOPMENT IN THE EARLY 21ST Century) (Report‪)‬

INTRODUCTION it was not until the prelude of the class action lawsuit initiated in 1993 by 30,000 residents of Ecuador's Amazonian region, or Oriente, that ecological concerns emerged as a nationally recognized problem associated with the extractive sector--in this case, the oil industry. This piece will trace the problematization of environmental issues vis-a-vis conceptualizations of development in Ecuador since the discovery of oil there nearly a century ago. Themes of sustainability and ecological concerns remain at a nascent stage within the country's framework of development and security. The central problem in the country's oil patch is not the horrendous level of pollution produced by any single company, but the systemic logic of petroleum extraction in the region that continues to result in massive ecocide. Still prevalent in the petro-fields is the Modernist conception of development that features the false notion of 'man's conquest of nature.' That pernicious tendency is exacerbated by populist politics that have spelled a tyranny of the majority that is deaf to local pleas to halt environmental destruction in the Oriente.