Oil Rush

I admire reporters who go far off the beaten track to find their stories. That's why I'm impressed with Kelly Hearn's story, "Selling the Amazon for a Handful of Beads," posted on AlterNet this week. Hearn, who is also a correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor, investigates how international oil companies made deals with the Ecuadorian military for rights to 4.4 billion barrels of oil beneath the Amazon rain forests. The oil drilling in Ecuador's Oriente province has left in its wake poverty, environmental destruction and public health ills among the region's indigenous people, Hearn tells us. This story is a good example of advocacy journalism that backs up its opinions with strong documentation and powerful interviews.
http://www.alternet.org/story/30657/