Join the Iconoclasts—and hang out with me.
Thank you for checking out my Substack. This is a new adventure for me and I am so excited to invite you to be by my side on this journey.
I have spent the last 28 years as a lawyer and activist fighting Chevron and the fossil industry on behalf of Indigenous peoples over the destruction of the Amazon and our larger planet. We won an epic environmental legal case unprecedented in history. Chevron locked me up for almost 3 years and tried to silence me; instead the Indigenous communities and their lawyers are stronger. Now it’s time to come together to build our movement for environmental justice to the highest possible level.
Why Subscribe
Your subscription will support my writing, journalism, commentary and advocacy as a human rights lawyer and Earth Defender. My goal is to use this space to build possibility for everyone — lawyers, activists, and concerned citizens — to learn and act to help save our world from crisis.
I have traveled from my home in New York to the Amazon of Ecuador more than 250 times to lead one of the most important environmental justice campaigns in history: the battle to hold Chevron accountable for its “Amazon Chernobyl” disaster in Ecuador. I have used every possible ounce of my being to amplify the voices of people dying from the impacts of what might be the world’s most horrific environmental crime — the deliberate dumping by Chevron of billions of gallons of cancer-causing oil waste into rivers and streams relied on by entire communities for their drinking water, bathing and fishing. After an eight-year trial, our team won a $9.5 billion pollution judgement in Ecuador against Chevron in 2011 — a judgement affirmed by six appellate courts and 28 appellate judges, including the entire Supreme Courts of Ecuador and Canada. The company then launched a “Demonize Donziger” campaign to target me with 60 law firms and 2,000 lawyers. Chevron vowed never to pay what it owes to the people it poisoned in Ecuador despite losing in court. The company later financed a private criminal prosecution of me for misdemeanor “contempt” after I refused to turn over my confidential attorney-client communications to the company without appellate review. I spent close to 1,000 days in house arrest in Manhattan in the nation’s first corporate prosecution in a case condemned by the United Nations as a violation of international law. I have never been given a jury or allowed to present a full defense.
I am also an experienced journalist. For years I covered wars in Central America, including in Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala. I have witnessed the aftermath of atrocious human rights crimes. While in law school, I traveled to Iraq with lawyers and doctors to document the impact on civilians of the U.S. bombing in the first Gulf War — a report that became an official document of the United Nations covered in hundreds of media outlets. I have written for The Nation, Tikkun, The Atlanta Constitution, The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Christian Science Monitor, and many other newspapers. I have been quoted in almost every major newspaper and broadcast network in the United States on various issues. I am also editor of the book The Real War On Crime (HarperPerennial) that dissects criminal justice issues in the United States and explains in the depth how the profit-motive drives crime policy in our country.
No matter what Chevron and the U.S. judiciary throw at me, I will not turn my back on my clients in Ecuador nor on the larger battle for human rights and judicial accountability around the world. My background in law, human rights, journalism, climate, and frontline litigation provides a broad perspective that will inform my point of view. My role is to prove information and perspective connected to empowerment and action for all people. It’s also about hanging out together so we can create a community and sense of belonging. I particularly welcome into this community all people of passion, purpose, the defenders of our Earth, the people who take climate seriously, activists, change-makers, composters, and anybody like me who the industry has told they are iconoclasts, misfits, renegades, rebels, weirdos, climate criminals or any marginalizing term for doing what you know is right. Come hang out here and you will be welcome. I am convinced our side has the power to prevail.
What You Will Get
Subscribers will gain access to a weekly article or story that will report news or give my perspective on key issues related to climate, human rights, and the law; and a podcast where we engage with some of the leading frontline Earth Defenders, climate innovators, thinkers and artists in the United States and around the world. Paid subscribers will have access to the above plus premium content and early access to the podcast. Founding members will have access to periodic Zoom events where I will answer questions.
We all need community now more than ever. I would be so grateful if you could join me in creating this space.
Become a Subscriber
For just $8 a month, or $96 annually, you will receive all of my writings and podcasts and allow me to continue advocating for human rights. Your support will be directed to the Donziger Defense Fund which pays legal fees for me to defend against Chevron’s attacks. The defense fund also pays some of the household expenses of me and my family after Chevron orchestrated my disbarment such that I can no longer earn an income in my profession.
Praise for Steven Donziger
“Steven is a true hero of the environmental movement.”
- Rex Weyler, Founder of Greenpeace
“Imagine if instead of a movie telling my story, I'd gone to jail. That's essentially what has happened to Steve Donziger. And, since this litigation started in 1993, Chevron has not paid a cent or performed any cleanup. So far the only people who have paid for Chevron's alleged behavior are Donziger and those affected by the contamination — the poor and indigenous Ecuadorians who continue to live every day with the pollution's effects.”
- Erin Brockovich, Environmental Activist
“Steven Donziger performed a major service for all of us by exposing the shocking activities of Chevron.”
- Noam Chomsky
“Steven is deeply sensitized to the suffering of our people. He is beloved by communities throughout the Amazon region who have watched his unrelenting efforts to pour energy and resources into the campaign of the affected indigenous and farmer communities for remediation of the environmental disaster. His sense of humor and historical perspective makes working with him easy, even with the tragedy with which we suffer every day.”
- Luis Yanza, Ecuadorian community leader and the recipient of the Goldman Environmental Prize
“Steven Donziger has taken on one of the largest and most important fights for corporate accountability in history on behalf of Indigenous and rainforest communities. His ability to stare down one of the most vicious corporate attacks ever serves as an inspiration to untold numbers of people around the world.”
- Paul Paz y Mino, Associate Director, Amazon Watch
“According to Chevron, Steven Donziger is probably the world’s most dangerous man. He came up with a legal and economic model for holding multinational polluters accountable for the harm they cause to the earth and its inhabitants. Internal Chevron documents openly talk of wanting to destroy him. At great personal risk and cost, Steven faced down the most powerful interests on the globe.”
- Richard Friedman, Trial Lawyer and President of Inner Circle of Advocates
Steven Donziger “successfully sued oil giant Chevron on behalf of 30,000 Indigenous people for deliberately discharging 16 billion gallons of toxic waste in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Yet Chevron has not paid a dime and instead turned Donziger into the one doing time. Let's do our best to help Steven Donziger and thousands of Chevron's victims.”
- Michael Moore, Filmmaker
