“Careful with the plants, careful with the trees, careful with the animals,” her grandfather would repeat. Traveling to the southern region of Colombia as a young child, Paula García remembers being taught by her elders about the deep interconnectedness between humans and the natural world. During visits, her family would echo the teachings of their ancestors, perspectives that García still carries with her today. As early as the 1920s, United States-based oil and gas companies like ExxonMobil began exploring and exploiting Colombian oil, starting with ExxonMobil’s acquisition of the Tropical Oil Company of Colombia in 1920. The subsequent decades brought expansion, commercialization and ultimately a boom of oil production in the Huila region, where García’s family lives. Communities there were often not aware of the contracts or projects until troves of equipment and staff would arrive on their land. “The land is bleeding,” her grandfather said. García’s grandfather is among hundreds of thousands of Colombians who had no choice in whether ExxonMobil or other oil companies should be welcomed in their country decades ago. Who had no choice in whether health threats like water pollution and lung disease would become permanent fixtures in their lives Learning about this history from her grandfather was García’s first encounter with the oil industry. As a young adult, García went to school and earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the Universidad Javeriana in Colombia. But as she sat in lecture halls and libraries, García found the lessons her family taught her about the natural world echoing in her mind - she knew she had to be closer to nature. García took volunteer jobs as a park ranger during her summer vacations in Colombia, serving in stations from the Pacific Coast to the Amazonas. She spent extended time with her tierra madre and the people who live deeply interwoven with the natural world around them. For... |