Environmental Impact
Environmental Impact:
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Description:
For many environmetal focused NGOs, such as WWF, Greenpeace etc. the immediate or long-term environmental impact is a highly controversal topic, addressing same to O&G operating companies, governments and the public.
Often, the cause and effect relationship is not obvious - especially when it comes to long-term effects.
The environmental impact as a result of oil production can be rooted in different activities.
- during seismic exploration: impact on surrounding animal life
- during drilling phase: oil spills, flaring of oil based fluid from drilling, noise, building of industry heavy infrastructure (incl. roads, villages etc.)
- during production: oil spills (leaking pipelines), releasing fumes, subsidence (lowering of the ground due to compaction) pot. leading to mass slides on continental shelfes
- during mining phase (oil sands): open mine pits (implying clearing of previous soil cover, e.g. forests)
- during refining: air pollution and waste water http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_refinery#Safety_and_environmental_concerns , extensive use of chemicals
All of these are of utmost concern in the discussion of whether or not to extend exploration/production rights e.g. into ecologically sensitive areas such as the Arctic.
Enablers:
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Inhibitors:
- NGOs with an environmental agenda
Paradigms:
xxxx
Experts:
- General facts & quantities of oil spills http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/OCEAN_PLANET/HTML/peril_oil_pollution.html
- WWF http://www.panda.org/what_we_do/where_we_work/arctic/what_we_do/oil_gas/
- Greenpeace http://www.greenpeace.org/canada/en/campaigns/greatbear/threats/offshore-oil-and-gas-developme
Timing:
Various incidents of Oil Spills
- Exxon Valdez Tanker Spill: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exxon_Valdez
- various others: http://library.thinkquest.org/CR0215471/oil_spills.htm