Peru Declares an Environmental Emergency in the Amazon

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After years of negligence by oil and gas companies and a dearth of regulations designed to hold them to account, the Peruvian government has declared an environmental emergency in a remote section of its northern Amazon forest. Local activists claim that seven years ago the health ministry detected destructive levels of barium, lead, chrome and other petroleum-linked compounds in the blood of the local Achuar and Kishwar people, The Guardian reports, but until recently there has been virtually no government resistance to the problem.

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Post tags: Amazon, Amazon Watch, Corrientes river basin, environmental destruction, environmental emergency, environmental law, environmental news, forest, health ministry, Pastaza Valley, peru, Pluspetrol

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