We have arrived in the Oriente. This morning we flew out of Quito's high mountain climate down into the heat and humidity of one of Ecuador's largest oil towns, Largo Agrio. Signs of oil development are virtually every where and already I feel I have seen so much.

It is 2:30pm we have just been taken to the site of an old oil well. We clamber down a forested slope just yards away and Robinson, one of our guides, opens up the ground with a large stick. Just inches below the surface Robinson pulls up soil soaked in oil. I grab a clump of earth and move it between my finger tips, I drop the dirt, in my hands is left a dark oily residue. This oil is left over from the Texaco era and the spill that has left in these soils an oily sheen probably occurred close to twenty years ago. Texaco, a U.S. oil company, basically started up the oil development in Ecuador but left behind what many say is the worst oil disaster in the world. One lawyer we talked to a couple of weeks ago called it South America's Chernobyl, with more than 30 times the amount of oil having been spilled in Ecuador then was spilled in the Exxon Valdez disaster. Only meters from us is the Rio Tye where we just saw people bathing and swimming. When it rains, where is this oil drenched soil taken?

We get back in our van and continue to make our way to comunidad Guanta, a colonist community. I look out my window to take in the views of the forest and notice we have been following small pipelines for quite sometime. We pass another oil pump and then a truck used for transporting crude. Soon we stop at the gate of one of Petroecuador's (Ecuador's national oil company) pumping stations. Making our way to the edge of the pumping station we see a burst of flame rising among some of the tree tops. The flames are coming from large smoke stacks that burn the gas from the large nearby oil pit. The pits are unlined and the water is a dark, thick, oily, black. This is not an old pit. This is not from the Texaco era. These practices are being used now. Jose, a thirty year old Quichua activist who is acting as our main guide, tells me not only will this oil seep into the ground but when it rains the oily waste water will flow over the pits where it can more easily run across the land.

Around 4:30pm we arrive in cumunidad Guata and talk with a family of six colonists who have been affected by oil development. The mother and grandmother have developed a skin fungus, which the mother says doctors say is caused by bathing in contaminated water. Only 50 meters away is an oil well and they tell us it's spills have contaminated the water they depend on for drinking, cooking, and bathing. This family has "no esperanza" or no hope for any good to come of oil development. Oil has not helped them, they only farm and do not work for the oil company and you can tell they are tired of the problems oil has caused for them.

You have to start asking yourself when you spend a day like today. Have I ever seen anything like this at home?

Yesterday we interviewed the Deputy Chief of Mission and an economists at the U.S. Embassy in Quito. The government of Ecuador they claimed has done a poor job of responsibly managing its energy sector and making sure safe and appropriate practices are used. I do not doubt this, everyone in Ecuador talks about the corruption this country faces and it has been way too easy for companies to pay their way out of the problems they have caused. Yet I start to question what responsibility the U.S. has in making sure it's own companies use ethical practices. I would say we could have and should do much more. Always we leave such interviews with more questions and the issues become more complex. Who is at fault for what has resulted in this public and ecological health emergency? Is it the U.S. companies, Ecuador, the U.S. government, or those of us who lead lifestyles dependent on oil? I know there is no fully correct answer to these questions, but I think the point is we need to question because all too often we don't. Start at home. Start questioning why we are relying on a natural resource for our energy needs that has (and continues to) result in the violation of human's right to clean air, land, and water. A resource that is resulting in the extinction of plants and animals that are dependent on healthy intact ecosystems for a home and is largely responsible for our current global warming crisis. Then start to act.