Who runs the degradation of the planet?
This madness of excessive oil disasters around the world is the responsibility of us all. Why? We have trusted that big oil will take care of our way of life and our modern life style and industry, but time to rethink that belief. Here are of few examples of why we need a new director of modern life.
Climate:
Saudis block call for warming report on June 11, 2010. Saudi Arabia a call by vulnerable island states at climate talks for a study into the impact of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) of global warming.
Why?
The appeal came from the Association of Small Island States (AOSIS), gathering low-lying islands in the Caribbean, Indian Ocean and the Pacific, which is lobbying hard for the UN climate arena not to abandon the 1.5 C target.
The goal is receding as emissions of greenhouse gases rise and political problems for tackling climate change multiply.
AOSIS, supported by the European Union (EU), Australia and New Zealand, called for a technical report on the cost of reaching the 1.5 C target and the consequences of breaching it.
But it was thwarted by Saudi Arabia, with support from Kuwait and Qatar, under the UN’s consensus rule,because they argue that action on carbon emissions control to decrease global warming will hurt their revenues as fossil-fuel consumers switch to cleaner energy
So what if small island states could disappear from sea level rise due to global temperature rise to be kept below 1.5 C.
Where was the US and other countries backing for this bill? Who did not support it were conspicuous by their absence.
Water
From the BP oil from the Gulf gusher, Exxon Valdez and the pipe breaking on the Alaska pipeline, BP has learned that they are so well insulated that no matter the size of the disaster their insurance picks up most of the tab. People forget and profits get better. People, nature and the environment are only around to help them increase profits.
BP got away with paying only 3% of the bill for the Exxon-Valdez mess. They had assured the people of Alaska and the state and federal agencies, they could contain all accidents, but never bought the equipment or trained people to operate containment equipment, because it would have cost them about 1 million to complete their end of the bargain. They saved their money instead. Is this why their logo is green?
Gulf of Mexico
They are required to have safety equipment the rubber skirts to contain oil and the ships to draw up the spillage on site, but had none and have never brought any in. People will forget.
Cut costs 1 bill while increase production off shore and took difference out of safety budget.
BP claims to be picking up the bill for this disaster, but their is a cap on how much they have to pay-75 million liability limit. Guess who will pay? People will forget.
Since the blackening blanket began spreading across the Gulf of Mexico, the cost of oil per barrel has risen by $2.5 dollars a barrel. BP made 4 million dollars a day before the crisis, now it makes 10 million per day. Why should they worry about containment. People forget and go back to work on those rigs.
BP has mastered making money iearned cheap to cheep out on safety and repair; it saves my bottom line. They are getting away with it again.
Land+ SEA Africa
Seismic tests over the past 50 years have shown that countries up the coast of East Africa have natural gas in abundance and suggest the presence of massive offshore oil deposits. Those finds have spurred oil explorers to start dropping more wells in East Africa, a region they say is an oil and gas bonanza just waiting to be tapped, one of the last great frontiers in the hunt for hydrocarbons.
“The question is not if any hydrocarbon deposits exist, but where they are.”
It doesn’t help that the region is so geologically complex with lots of fractures and offshore oil deposits likely deep underground. The countries with large potential deposits regularly go to war and unrest and leaders that cannot lead. Somalia remains a no-go zone, and Ethiopia’s eastern Ogaden region is beset by a violent rebel insurgency. And while Mozambique’s civil war may have ended in 1992, it has taken years for the country to recover.
The west African countries where big oil has set up shop have had their local way of life destroyed. The oil companies have polluted their waters and made may coastal areas and river banks uninhabitable from the trash and water pollution left behind.
Oil in Africa — from the Gulf of Guinea to northwestern Sudan — lies at the heart of questions of good governance and development, as oil prices and revenues soar but fail to bring better living standards for millions of poor.
There is no person or group powerful enough to regulate these amoral oil giants to hold them accountable for responsible care of the planet much less to demand they improve the quality of life everywhere they drill.
How long will we allow this arrogant blind greed to control and destroy our economy and world? Listen to what a life long biologist has to say as he flew over the Gulf of Mexico this weekend.
Resources
Excerpts courtesy of terradaily.com/Climate_Saudis
Excerpts courtesy of time.com/time
Excerpts courtesy of petroleumworld.com
Video courtesy of YOUTUBE.com
Video courtesy of youtube.com
Image 1. courtesy of greenprophet.com/dubai-money
Image 2. courtesy of cartype.com/bp
Image 3. courtesy of time.com and Steve Allen/Getty
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