Oil drilling is threatening an irreplaceable world of plant and animal life only found in one place on earth, the rainforest. The rainforest is home to over half of the plant and animal species in the world as well as numerous indigenous groups yet rainforests cover only two percent of the Earth's surface and are shrinking everyday. Surprisingly, the small country of Ecuador has the highest rate of deforestation in South America.
Both the numbers of countries and oil companies participating in new exploration activities have tripled in recent years. This global expansion of petroleum exploration is rapidly increasing the rate of rainforest destruction. Although the rainforest sounds like a faraway place, we are contributing to this destruction everyday. The United States companies, Maxus, ARCO, Occidental, Orix, and Mobil are currently operating in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Texaco is no longer in operation in the amazon, but they left a horrible mess behind. Oil exploration destroys the forest via deforestation, the discharge of toxic waist, and spills, all of which are harmful to flora and fauna as well as indigenous groups living in the amazon.
Oil exploration requires the clearing of thousands of hectors of rainforest for helicopter landing sites and drilling sites, as well as roads which bring colonization into areas which otherwise would not be colonized. Poor colonists travel to the Amazon from Ecuador's highland and coastal regions seeking land to feed their families. They use roads built by the oil industry to enter previously inaccessible rainforest. They contribute to rainforest destruction by clearing the forest to farm. The layer of topsoil in the amazon is very thin and not suitable for this type of farming.
Oil drilling produces toxic wastes that are discharged on land, into streams and eventually end up in the ocean. As a result of the large area polluted by oil drilling, numerous species are effected. When a well is in operation, ninety five percent of the extracted gas is burned and highly toxic waist water is dumped into pits which eventually ends up in the rivers and kills and injurs wildlife, including the Amazon River Dolphin. Even the most "ecologically sound" production processes generate a barrel of liquid toxic waste for each barrel of oil produced.
Oil spills, which occur frequently, are detrimental to the rainforest. Amazon oil is pumped through a pipeline that can rupture for days before it is even noticed. Spills and broken pipelines kill plant and animal life as well as contaminate streams and rivers.
Indigenous people throughout the Amazon are finding oil extraction to be one of the largest threats to their land, health and culture. Among other impacts, contact with outsiders, such as oil companies and colonists, causes widespread disease. The indigenous people are exposed to diseases that they have never before come in contact with. These ancient cultures are facing inevitable extinction as oil companies exploit the land they have inhabited for thousands of years. In the Ecuadorian Amazon alone there are nine indigenous groups, the Quichua, Shuar, Achuar , Cofan, Siona, Secoya, Shiwiar, Zaparo and Huaorani .
As far as the Ecuadorian government is concerned these nine groups have no rights to the land on which they live. Ecuadorian law states that all subsurface rights belong to the government even in protected areas and reserves. Furthermore, indigenous people who live on the land being drilled have no share in the revenue.
In Ecuador oil drilling is the governments number one priority. Ecuador produces more oil than it needs for domestic consumption and consequently it is one of the country's leading exports. Oil revenues provide for half of the country's export earnings. Any new drilling for oil is not intended to meet local demand but is intended for export overseas, most likely to Japan and the United States. Ecuador's dependence on oil revenue has slowed Ecuador's environmental enforcement, which in turn has caused harm to indigenous tribes living in the Amazon region and to the environment.
Oil drilling is clearly destroying the rainforest and the people who live in there. It must be stopped. Instead of drilling, Oil companies need to invest in renewable sources of energy that give the world a clear alternative to environmentally and culturally destructive fossil fuels. They need to clean up the mess that they have made in the amazon and destroy the roads they have built to stop people from colonizing areas which are otherwise inaccessible.
There are ways to make a profit from the amazon without destroying it, such as Ecotourism and the Tagua Nut . While they can not produce as much short-term profit as oil, they do preserve the rainforest.
Useful Links
Rainforest Action Network Visit this site to see what you can do
Yachana LodgeThis place is beautiful. Its mentioned in the ecotourism section.