Al Gore Campaign Contributor Occidental Petroleum Reportedly Caused Hepatitis B Infection That Threatens to Wipe Out Amazon Tribe

This is a good story to quote as a counter the next time someone spouts off about how Al Gore loves the environment and is a green warrior. It is being reported that hepatitis B threatens to destroy an Amazon tribe pushing it closer and closer to extinction.

The Candoshi people in Peru's northern Amazon jungle are close to extinction from a hepatitis B infection that has gone unchecked since 2000, tribal leaders and health officials say.

The locals believe that Occidental Petroleum is responsible for the disease.

Gianina Lucana, a Candoshi nurse working for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), said 80 people have died from hepatitis B since 2000 in her region.

She said the disease broke out in the 1990s, when Occidental Petroleum Corporation was granted exploration rights in her jungle region.

Why is this story relevant to Al Gore? Well, Al Gore made some of his fortune off of various transactions with Occidental Petroleum. From The Buying of the President 2000:

For example, in the Democratic Party, Vice President Al Gore has had a longtime relationship with Occidental Petroleum that has been enormously beneficial to the company. Occidental’s late chairman, the controversial Armand Hammer, liked to say that he had Gore’s father, Sen. Albert Gore Sr., “in my back pocket.” When the elder Gore left the Senate in 1970, Hammer hired him for $500,000 a year. Personally and professionally, the vice president has profited from Occidental largesse. To this day, he still draws $20,000 a year from a land deal in Tennessee brokered between his father and Hammer, which cumulatively has amounted to more than $300,000. The personal relationship between young Gore and Hammer was very close throughout the 1980s, including trips on Hammer’s private jet and constant campaign contributions.

Source: The Center for Public Integrity ; ABC Australia