Pulborough environmentalist in David and Goliath battle over pollution

Nicola Peel is supporting a group of children - aged from seven to 14 - in fighting an oil company accused of contaminating local villages.

The children are demanding the government stop all gas flares which are said to cause widespread pollution.

Nicola is in the Ecuadorian Amazon researching the effects of the oil industry on the environment and indigenous people.

She accompanied the nine children who handed in a legal demand to the courts to stop the oil company’s activities.

Local lawyer Pablo Fajardo will represent the children when the case goes to trial this week (February 27) and Nicola will be there to help the children get their voices heard.

She said: “We must speak out about the climate emergency we are experiencing and challenge the oil companies and governments who are allowing this to continue.

“These young children are those who are most affected. They have amazed me with their knowledge and have been speaking eloquently about how unfair the flares are and the serious effects on health in their families.”

She said the gas flares were ‘an explosion waiting to happen’ and that the impacts on the local people were devastating producing one of the highest cancer rates in the world, especially among children, respiratory problems, severe headaches and skin complaints.

She said that the contamination of the air also meant that rain and agricultural crops were also affected having a huge impact on biodiversity.

Thousands of insects also die every night in the flares attracted by the light.

Nicola has been working in the Amazon for decades to help find solutions to the destruction and damage of the environment.