In the past decade, a number of oil spills triggered by humans and natural disasters both have changed the face of Latin America. Flooding healthy natural landscapes with tens of thousands of barrels of crude oil, these disasters leave already vulnerable ecosystems and people exponentially more so, with crippling damages and risks that strip communities of their livelihoods, health and natural resources and cause irreversible damage to biodiversity and nature.
What are the real long- and short-term consequences of oil spills? What are the best ways to mitigate their toxic impacts? How do we prevent them from happening in the first place? In this GLF Live on 29 June at 14:00 GMT, we’ll bring together a Peruvian marine conservationist, a Brazilian journalist and a UN special rapporteur on toxics and human rights to discuss what should be done to lessen the ecological toll of oil spills in Latin America now and in the future.