OIL
OVERVIEW
The oil industry has a less than stellar environmental record in general, but it becomes even worse in tropical
rainforest regions, which often contain rich deposits of petroleum. The most notorious examples of rainforest havoc
caused by oil firms are Shell Oil in Nigeria and Texaco in Ecuador. Both companies have degraded the local environment
and affected local and indigenous people by their activities. The Texaco operation in Ecuador was responsible for
spilling some 17 million gallons of oil into the biologically rich tributaries of the upper Amazon while Shell
Oil sometimes lent cooperation to the former oppressive military dictatorship in Nigeria in the suppression and
harassment of local people.
ACTION
The proper action to take to make the oil industry more sustainable is a difficult one; engineers worldwide are
paid millions of dollars to do so. The simplest, most reliable solution would be to prohibit oil extraction in
the tropical rainforest. However, this is unreasonable considering the number of tropical countries that rely on
their oil reserves for developing their economies and the importance of oil in today's fossil fuel driven economy.
The basic steps should be to reduce pollution produced by extraction methods and to minimize the occurrence of
spills. Perhaps this can be accomplished by developing more durable pipelines for oil transport and adopting oil
reinjection techniques used in the United States. The limitation of oil roads and settlements is also important
in reducing deforestation. Shell Oil in Gabon has taken steps to prevent its operations in Gamba from drawing masses
into shantytown unemployment by restricting access - through costly airline flights - to the oil fields.
Alternatively, new energy sources, like the oil extracted from palms, can be developed. Palm oil is considered
by a many to be a possible alternative to petroleum, but much more ecologically sound because palm oil plantations
can be planted on formerly forested lands that now lay fallow. Some have suggested that 2 billion hectares (5 billion
acres) of palm with renewable yield of 25 barrels of palm oil per hectare (10 barrels per acre) could satisfy the
world's fuel needs.
BP: Moving Ahead
Ethanol based fuels also offer great potential for the future. An 85%
corn ethanol and 10% unleaded gasoline blend outperforms conventional gasoline and reduces gas emissions by 35-46%
while reducing energy use by 50-60%. Several US senators have pushed for wider distribution of such fuels since
they could be produced domestically, reducing the hassle and danger of Middle-East politics and supporting national
agriculture. Additionally, stalks and waste fibers from crops like corn and sugar could be collected for conversion
into ethanol for mixing with gasoline rather than burned as is the usual practice.
Like the U.S. push for ethanol, the government of Sao Paulo, Brazil is pushing for lower pollution vehicles and
is planning to renew the Proalcool project, a national alcohol power project that emerged in the 1970s in response
to skyrocketing oil prices. The fuel - hydrated alcohol derived from sugar cane - powers more than two million
of Brazil's cars today. At the peak production in 1987-1988, nearly 80% of the cars produced in Brazil were alcohol-powered.
The fuel produces no benzene or sulfur emissions, and very little carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide. 35% of its
emissions are oxygen.
Good old-fashioned oil conservation is effective in reducing demand for oil products. After the first OPEC embargo
in 1973, the United States realized the importance of oil efficiency and initiated policies to do away with wasteful
practices. By 1985, the U.S. was 25% more oil efficient and 32% more oil efficient than in 1973. Of course the
U.S. was upstaged by the Japanese who in the same period improved their energy efficiency by 31% and their oil
efficiency by 51%. Today the importance of oil to the economy continues to diminish. Petroleum's share of energy
use in making electricity has declined almost 90% since 1977. Despite the booming American economy of 1998, carbon
dioxide emissions remained almost flat in the United States, while world emissions fell 0.5%. This suggests that
the belief of many experts that economic and carbon dioxide emissions move in tandem is a fallacy.
The Petroleum Revolution
DEVELOP NEW TECHNOLOGY
The developed world can develop seek alternative methods to oil exploration, by developing new means through technology
that rely less on processes that are so ecologically damaging. For example, compressed natural gas is a cleaner-burning
fuel than gasoline and is already used in some cars. Additionally, oil companies have vast stores of natural gas.
Even more environmentally sound than natural gas are electric cars (zero emission) cars which are mandated to make
up a certain percentage of the new cars produced in some states of the U.S. These cars will produce very little
pollution and will probably not primarily rely on fossil fuels for power. It is likely that in a few years, the
technology for these cars will be improved dramatically making them comparable in terms of performance and price
to conventional gasoline-powered automobiles. We must continue to develop such new technologies that depend less
on the burning of fossil fuels and improve the products enough so they can compete with the existing models. Already
cars powered by hybrid fuel cells, though not independent of fossil fuels, are entering the market and the big
automakers in Detroit and Japan are pumping hundreds of millions into improving fuel cell technology. Within a
generation fuel cells may be lighting our homes and heating our swimming pools.
Further sources of renewable energy are largely unexploited, but government research spending on renewables was
only US $878 million (1995), compared to the more US $5 billion spent on research for nuclear power. The government
can help by financing research and providing tax breaks to firms developing renewable energy sources. In addition,
the government can curb the use of fossil fuels by reducing subsidies to the oil and gas industry and imposing
higher taxes on heavy polluters.
Hydroelectric projects have proven to have devastating effects on the local environment, so alternative ways of
generating electricity could be developed. For example, further work on solar panels could make the direct harvesting
of solar energy an economic practice. It would become advantageous for countries with large expanses of desert
like those in the Sahara to produce energy not only for their own people, but also for export, bringing in much
needed foreign cash. Some desert ecosystems would suffer, but if properly managed, the long term effects would
be less drastic than large scale hydroelectric projects in the tropical rainforests. Wind power (up 26% in 1997),
electricity generated by tidal change, and geothermal heat also offer potential as future sources of energy.
Returning Carbon Dioxide
to the Earth?
Admittedly there are many challenges facing such sustainable use of tropical
rainforests. Clearly, in arriving at a solution many issues must be addressed including the resolution of conflicting
claims to land considered to be in the public domain; barriers to markets; the assurance of sustainable development
without over-exploitation in the face of growing demand for forest products; the best way to use forests; and the
consideration of many other factors.
Almost none of these economic possibilities can become realities if the rainforests are completely stripped. Useful
products cannot be harvested from species that no longer exist, just like ecotourists will not visit the vast stretches
of wasteland that were once lush forest. Thus some of the primary rainforests must be salvaged for sustainable
development to be at all successful.
