In Ecuador, a court has upheld a ruling ordering the oil giant Chevron to pay $18 billion for polluting Ecuador’s rain forest since the 1970s. Amazonian residents won the judgment last year after a long-running case seeking damages for Chevron’s dumping of billions of gallons of toxic oil waste. The initial ruling called on Chevron to pay $8.6 billion, but then rose to more than double that amount after Chevron failed to apologize. In a statement, Chevron called the new ruling “illegitimate” and “[un]enforceable in any court that observes the rule of law.” Chevron has filed challenges in international and U.S. courts to block the ruling from being enforced. Meanwhile, a group representing the plaintiffs, the Amazon Defense Coalition, said: “The decision is based on overwhelming scientific evidence presented at trial that proved Chevron deliberately dumped billions of gallons of toxic waste that poisoned the water supply of the Amazon rainforest, decimating indigenous groups and causing an outbreak of cancers and other diseases that continue to threaten thousands of innocent lives. Chevron now has an opportunity to show the world…that it respects the laws and courts of other countries.”