Nathalie Kelley Instagram – [This video is an extract from the documentary “Apaguen los Mecheros, Enciendan la Vida”, made by @_angel_hernandezzz_ and available online at www.odinedoc.com] 🇪🇨 In the Ecuadorian Amazon there are 447 gas flares burning day and night in territories inhabited by indigenous and peasant communities, irremediably contaminating the environment and putting the health of thousands of people at serious risk. 🔥 Gas flares are devices used by oil companies to burn gasses derived from oil exploitation, such as carbon monoxide, which causes heart damage, carbon dioxide, which contributes to the greenhouse effect, butane, which is potentially lethal for children, and methane, which causes skin cancer. ☢️ In addition, gas flares cause acid rain, which translates into contamination of rivers, soil impoverishment, death of insects and microorganisms, diseases of plants and large vertebrates, and other imbalances in the ecosystem. ✊ In 2021, 9 girls won a ruling against the Ecuadorian state to extinguish all lighters near population centers. However, to this day the Ecuadorian state has not complied with the sentence, continuing to be complicit in this violation of human rights and the rights of nature and putting the interests of big business before the health of citizens. ⚡️ For the state to allow gas flaring is even more outrageous now, considering that the country is forced to impose planned blackouts in its major cities to face an energetic crisis while the same gas companies burn could be used as a source of energy. 🌎 The fight against lighters is not only a struggle of the Amazonian peoples, but of all of us, as they contribute substantially to global warming, and therefore to climate change. Join the fight by sharing this video and supporting @UDAPT, which supports the 9 plaintiff girls and all those affected by oil operations with legal, psychological, and medical advice.