Oil spill demonstrates the urgent need for energy reform
So, after the dramas of Copenhagen, Climategate and election promises, the UK news has shifted its focus away the environment to deficit, tax increases and spending cuts. It’s a shame because I see sustainability as something that could create jobs, reduce costs through improved efficiency and protect us against possible environmental disasters caused by climate change.
But then again, media interest has always been fickle and often bears very little relationship to reality. The recent BP oil spill is a case in point. The damaged well is leaking 20 thousand barrels of oil every day, about 3,000 tonnes. It is billed as an environmental disaster, with American politicians falling over themselves to stick the boot into BP and to bash the Brits. There is no doubt that the leak is causing damage to the environment but let’s put that figure of 20,000 into perspective: the USA consumes nearly 20 million barrels of oil each and every day, including 9 million barrels of petrol. That’s one thousand times what is being spilt in the Gulf. All this oil is burnt to release CO2. The oil BP is spilling into the sea will be gone in a few years, naturally degraded by microbes, the CO2 being released into the atmosphere every day by the American economy is driving climate change and will be in the atmosphere for a hundred years.
The US reaction to the disaster is also out of proportion when you look at Nigeria, whose 606 oil fields supply 40% of all the crude oil the United States imports and is also the world capital of oil pollution. According to a recent Guardian report, more oil is spilled from the Niger Delta's network of terminals, pipes, pumping stations and oil platforms every year than has been lost in the Gulf of Mexico so far. The figures are astounding but it gets no media attention. For 50 years people's livelihood and environments there have been damaged while oil companies act irresponsibility and with impunity but spills only get attention on US’s doorstep rather than faraway Africa.
The global outrage is also hypocritical as we all bear some responsibility. It is our collective demand for cheap oil that causes oil companies to cut corners, pay off officials and disregard local communities. As the satirical website Daily Mash helpfully pointed out, “Oil companies aren't pumping this stuff just so they can have it sitting around in buckets under their stairs”.
Until we can step back and address the root of the problem and look at sustainable alternatives, then problems like this will only continue. Current media interest in the spill makes this the perfect time for the US publicise a progressive green energy strategy. Instead it looks like they have decided to play the blame game and this will be just another missed opportunity.