On April 20th this year the oil rig Deepwater Horizon suffered an explosion that killed eleven people and has lead to thousands of tons of crude oil being released into gulf of Mexico. The oil has had a devastating effect on local wildlife including sea birds, fish and marine mammals as well as destroying fishing and tourism industries on the coasts where it has been washed ashore. Despite the massive publicity the disaster has created it can be viewed as simply one of a large list of ecological disasters caused by our dependence on fossil fuels, many of which receive little to none mainstream media attention.
Ecological and human disasters linked to the extraction and transportation of fossil fuels are nothing new. At the time of writing (17th June 2010) a suspected methane explosion at a coal mine in the Antioquia region of Columbia has killed at least sixteen people – with dozens thought to still be trapped underground with little hope of rescue, a disaster barely reported in the mainstream British press. Oil rig disasters have occurred regularly over the last 50 years such as the explosion on the North Sea rig Piper Alpha in 1988 which claimed 167 lives creating a fire that burned for three weeks or the Ixtoc Oil Platform that sunk in 1979 releasing 3.3 million barrels of oil into Mexico’s gulf coast. Ecological disasters such as the tanker Exxon Valdez that ran aground in 1988 releasing 250’000 barrels of oil devastating the biologically rich Alaskan coast have been synonymous with the extraction and transportation of crude oil well before the dangers of global warming were realised in full and accepted by society at large.
There are of course other long term and less reported ecological disasters as a product of the industry. Oil Spills in the Niger Delta over fifty years have released volumes of oil that dwarf the Deepwater Horizon leak – releasing an estimated 1.5 million tons of oil (as reported by WWF) into the region causing untold damage to human health, job prospects, communities and of course local ecosystems. Life expectancy in the effected rural regions has fallen to just over 40 years within two generations. Unlike victims in the Gulf of Mexico the individuals affected in the Niger Delta are unlikely to receive any compensation, despite the fact many of the oil operations in the region are being undertaken by large multinationals similar in size to BP – the company responsible for the disaster at Deepwater Horizon. In stark contrast BP have been publicly ordered to set aside at least $20 Billion as payment for potential damages caused in Louisiana and other neighbouring states affected by the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe.
As global demand for oil increases extracting oil from hard to reach areas that were previously either prohibitively expensive or carried too much risk to be worthwhile become increasingly viable. The Deepwater Horizon rig had already drilled to a greater depth than any offshore rig before it, and as demand pushes up prices increasingly risky oil drilling operations could be given the green light. This is not without issues, a major factor in BP’s inability to reduce the flow of oil from the broken well was the depth underwater at which the well had been sunk initially causing mechanical complications.
Currently pressure in terms of clean up, mitigation and fiscal compensation is firmly being applied to BP from the American government, but there’s a high chance we risk loosing sight of the real issue at stake – how exactly can society reduce its dependence on fossil fuels to mitigate against this kind of disaster for future generation? Not only does burning fossil fuels cause massive damage to the atmosphere contributing to global warming but it is clear there is potential for ecological damage along every step of the chain.
The ecological disaster caused by the explosion at Deepwater Horizon provides further argument and sway for those who have for years campaigned that a society that is sustainable both economically and environmentally would need to be based on green technologies.
Every day the Earth receives more energy from the sun than we obtain from burning fossil fuels in a year. Capturing a small percentage of that energy with renewable energy technologies such as solar and hydroelectric power stations could over time end world wide dependence on oil whilst maintaining our living standards. Of course new technology is not cheap, but as the Deepwater Horizon disaster has shown the extraction of fossil fuels from the natural environment can be exceedingly costly too.
Although the disaster at Deepwater Horizon may hardly be unprecedented in terms of ecological impact or loss of human life the publicity and political impact of the catastrophe has been felt across America. In terms of carbon emissions the USA is still the largest polluting nation on the planet and a major change in their attitude to fossil fuels consumption would be felt across the world, boosting green technology both sides of the Atlantic.
Obama has previously spoken of a new environmentally friendly America. An ecological disaster of this magnitude affecting so many Americans could provide a catalyst for something of a green revolution. The exact culpability of BP remains unclear pending investigation but one thing is certain: as long as the economies and industries of the Western world rely on fossil fuels these types of ecological disasters, reported or otherwise, are a risk we shall have to accept.
