The Metamorphosis of the Amazon An Environmental History of Oil Extraction in Ecuador

About this book

The Metamorphosis of the Amazon sheds new light on the complex history of the Ecuadorian rainforest, revealing how oil development and its social and ecological repercussions triggered its metamorphosis. When international oil giants such as Shell and Texaco started to dig for oil in remote rainforest locations, a process was born that eventually altered the fabric of the Amazon forever. Oil infrastructure paved the way for a disastrous industrial and agricultural landscape polluted by the hazardous waste management of the oil industry. Adopting a unique approach, Maximilian Feichtner does not recount the established narrative of oil companies vs. suffering local communities, he instead centres the rainforest ecosystem itself – its rivers, animals, and climate conditions – and the often neglected actors of this history: the oilmen and their experiences as people affected by a pollution they perpetrated and witnessed.

Contents

1. Introduction: the oil-induced metamorphosis
2. Hidden treasures: the Ecuadorean Amazon before oil
3. A resource environment: prospecting and the conceptual metamorphosis
4. Oily roads: infrastructure and the material metamorphosis
5. Ghost acres: waste management and the toxic metamorphosis
6. A tough life: oil workers and the social metamorphosis
7. The legal aftermath: an open-ended conclusion

Customer Reviews

Biography

Maximilian Fritz Feichtner is an Independent Scholar and environmental consultant. He advises German state and federal government agencies on environmental and sustainability issues and climate change.