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beginning to become warmer. I could feel my jacket grow heavier with each step.

At one point, Ramos turned to me, and motioned me to proceed ahead of him.

"What?" I asked inquisitively.

"I want you to see something," he responded with his strong accent. "Beyond that grove."

I took up the direction he pointed me in, and eventually reached the grove, with the other two shadowing my steps behind me.

I came upon a sizable clearing, with a small stream running through it, but on either bank, I did not fail to notice the lack of vegetation. Turning to Ramos, I looked at him searchingly.

"All gone," he whispered quietly. "My hone was here."

"What happened," my voice quavered involuntarily, as I took in the scene.

"Poison!" Ramos' tone rose sharply to an angry pitch, but then it failed him; he only continued to look on mutinously at the clearing.

"The water is poisoned," said John in complacent tones. "Killed off the vegetation, and this entire clearing is affected. No fish, no animals either; if Ramos had remained here, he could have very well died of starvation."

"And this...this is going on everywhere?" my own voice cracked and died.

"It will only be worse," John said with resign. "The entire forest will die."

I could not utter a response, as my mind raced, contemplating the extent and impact of what oil and gas development would have.

Ramos looked at me with a hard gaze. His jaw was set, and anger pulsated in his neck.

"Help us," he rasped out. "Help us save our lives."

A cold shudder ran over me from the intensity, with which he spoke those words, and I remember them still with great vividness; thus, I implore you to join up and help keep oil and gas multinationals accountable...else what awaits us, is not beautiful, and the rainforest will remain all, but memory...

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