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Summer 2010: oil spills and their environmental impact
by
CAN ERİMTAN*
by
CAN ERİMTAN*
Ever since the days of Prime Minister Adnan Menderes, private possession of one’s own vehicle has been the Turkish version of the American dream. Now in the 21st-century, erstwhile peripheral nations like India and China have also fallen prey to the marketing ploy of freedom on four wheels. India’s Tata and China’s BYD might one day crowd many roads across the world. Even though BYD is championing a hybrid motor, arguably decreasing the reliance on fossil fuels, the short-term result will nevertheless be an ever-increasing demand for fossil fuels and a subsequent rise in greenhouse gases. But fossil fuels are not a commodity available in perpetuity, and if we are to believe Dr. M. King Hubbert, who in 1969 predicted a peak in the rate of global oil extraction around the year 2000, we have already passed into the era of decreasing underground stocks of crude oil. This realization has led to the search for alternative sources of crude. The two most extreme examples that spring to mind are Canada’s Tar Sands and deep offshore oil drilling.
In rural Alberta (Canada), deposits of hydrocarbon-laced sandstone known as Tar Sands are currently being developed for export to the US. But extracting oil from these Tar Sands is neither easy nor is it clean. In Mother Jones, Dave Gilson reported that “for every barrel of oil produced from the tar sands, another two of toxic waste are left behind.” The United States imports roughly 20 percent of its foreign oil from Canada and about half of that comes from Tar Sands. Whereas the environmental impact on rural Alberta has already led to many angry locals and action groups, offshore drilling has recently also become subject to worldwide popular disapproval in view of BP’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill that started on April 20.
Over the past months, this gushing oil well, 1,500 meters below the water’s surface, has occupied the global television set. BP, which had unsuccessfully tried to halt the flow over and again, last month, on July 15, successfully capped the well, stemming the flow. This has now led to a return of public apathy. BP has since been ruthlessly manipulating the media coverage of the spill and its aftermath -- using Photoshop to improve pictures of the Gulf and spreading rumors that the oil had already dissipated naturally or that it was in the process of being consumed by bacteria that reacted favorably to the type of dispersant used to break down the oil. But in contrast, the Associated Press reported recently that a “22-mile-long invisible mist of oil is meandering far below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico.” Monty Graham, a scientist at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab in Alabama, declared that “we absolutely should be concerned that this material is drifting around for who knows how long. They say months … but more likely we’ll be able to track this stuff for years.”
Keeping in mind that Alaska is still heavily polluted as a result of the Exxon-Valdez spill back in 1989, who knows what the future will hold for the Gulf of Mexico. At the same time, we should not lose sight of the Niger Delta either. The Niger Delta has suffered oil spills and consequent environmental damage for the past 40 to 50 years. The Guardian’s environment editor, John Vidal, states unequivocally that “more oil is spilled from the Delta’s network of terminals, pipes, pumping stations and oil platforms every year than has been lost in the Gulf of Mexico.” But, the Niger delta supplies 40 percent of all the crude imports of the United States, while up to 90 percent of Nigeria’s gross domestic product (GDP) relies on its hydrocarbon wealth. As a result, the global television set remains silent and the world oblivious.
*Dr. Can Erimtan is an independent scholar residing in İstanbul, with a wide interest in the politics, history and culture of the Balkans and the wider Middle East. His publications include the book “Ottomans Looking West?” as well as numerous scholarly articles.
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