Are governments able to protect us, or are they part of the problem?
Though tragically plaguing the Gulf residents, the BP Oil spill is not necessarily a unique event. Surveys conducted by the UK’s Health and Safety Executive as well as statistics collected by the Wall Street Journal for areas such as Australia and the Gulf Coast, show a significant increase of safety incidents over the last year. The Wall Street Journal noted that “In Norway, companies had 37 oil and gas releases and ‘well incidents’ in 2009, according to the country's offshore regulator. That is up 48% from 2008 and is the highest level since 2003. Norway's rate of incidents per man-hour rose 42% in 2009, to its highest level since 2005.”(1)
The WSJ gave the American Petroleum Institute the opportunity to discount these apparent negative trends in rig safety, and while they denied there was any validity to these statistics, both sides have valid points. With an increase of drilling will invariably bring accidents. No technology is perfect and the oil rigs are a glistening example. However if deepwater drilling is so unsafe, what about the alternative, oil pipelines over land?
The nation of Nigeria is one born of struggle. Even in 2010, the country is largely poverty-stricken and without a meaningful infrastructure. It does not concern oil giants such as Shell and ExxonMobil that life expectancy in Nigeria hovers at around 40 years, despite supplying the U.S. with 40% of the imported oil it consumes.(2) Oil pipelines in such destabilized nations are a precarious endeavor. While the contracts to drill and deliver are reasonably easy to obtain, the ability to safely monitor the lines are pipe dreams. Oil companies must put up with the incredible losses to infrastructure due to sabotage and siphoning. According to the Guardian/UK, Shell admitted spilling (2) 14,000 tons of oil in 2009. The majority, said the company, was lost through two incidents – one in which the company claims that thieves damaged a wellhead at its Odidi field, and another where militants bombed the Trans Escravos pipeline.
Regardless of who is to blame for the incredible devastation countries like Nigeria endure, seemingly without end, a solution needs to be found. However with the U.S. and the world focusing on single companies such as BP and continuing to engage in sleight of hand politics about monitoring, Nigerians will remain a land ravaged by oil.
While the Deepwater Horizon oil explosion was a terrible event, several factors kept the effects to a minimum. A Time article by M. Grunwald (3) noted that the oil was a lighter composition, enabling better degradation coupled with the warm waters of the Gulf and the massive flow of the Mississippi kept the oil from contaminating much of the inlands.
Other catastrophic environmental disasters have preceded the Deepwater Horizon events that have nothing to do with oil. One such incident occurred in Bhopal, India in 1984, when a Union Carbide Pesticide plant exploded and released methyl isocynate which eventually killed 15,000 (4). Another more recently documented story is that of the Aral Sea (4) where one of the largest lakes on earth has been tapped dry, enabling salt, sand, and a fleet of rusting ships engage in endless toxic warfare.
The U.S. is not immune from its own pollutive decisions. According to Baykeeper, a San Franciscan watchdog group, abandoned decaying ships from the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet have released “More than 20 tons of heavy metals—including lead, zinc, copper and cadmium—have already fallen, blown or washed off the ships into the water, according to a MARAD-commissioned analysis.”(5) The U.S. government has recently agreed to remove the ships by 2017; but, the article continues, only after being sued in 2007. Exactly who is protecting our environment?
(1)Wall Street Journal
(2) Guardian.co.uk
(3)Time ("BP/Exaggerated?")
(4)Time (Top 10 disasters)
(5)Baykeeper
Photo 1: newsone.com
(2) Guardian.co.uk
(3)Time ("BP/Exaggerated?")
(4)Time (Top 10 disasters)
(5)Baykeeper
Photo 1: newsone.com
Photo 2: aquafornia.com
