BP Gulf Oil Spill-The Good Side

As with all things, there is a little bad,however good-there is a little good,however bad.

Oil spills of this magnitude are not a new thing.In fact,the fuel in your tank possibly comes from an area such as Nigeria,Ecuador or Peru where Oil companies don't have nearly the public scrutiny as is the case with the Deepsea Horizon Oilspill disaster. Or the fuel in the bus you caught today;perhaps it came from Trafigura, a major

oil broker which saw fit to dump its toxic waste from a questionable at-sea desalting operation around the Abidjan area.Did you see the Crude movie,about how Chevron subsidiary Texaco wilfully polluted an area the size of the State of Delaware,and,refusing to accept responsibility,are the respondents in a $US27billion lawsuit,the worlds largest.

Infamously,Alberta Canadas highly controversial and heavily ecologically destructive #Tarsands projects have polarised Canadians and people internationally.Venezuela has its own Tarsands project under development in the highly eco-sensitive indigenous peoples Orinoco River region.Statoil,owned by the clean green Norwegian Government,exploits deposits in Africa and Canada with not quite the care taken in their home North Sea operations.In Zimbabwe and other African countries there are the blood diamond mines.In Madagascar there is Huge allocation of native forest logging. Jaguarete of Brazil has logging operations in Paraguay which create farmland by destroying uncontacted peoples & rare wildlife habitat.

Last year,in ostensibly 1st world capitalist Australia, a Thai company called PTTEP hosted a devastating explosion on their #Montara well platform, triggering an eerily similar catastrophe to Deepwater Horizon-a catastrophe which took 3 long months to contain,and polluted 24,000 square kilometres of remote pristine North West Australian waters. The issues this catastrophe brought to light (lack of effective governance, lack of compliance monitoring, and the failure of extractive exploratory/process licensing to ensure adequate technological safeguards are in place PRIOR to the disaster) are compounded by a drawn out inquiry,still incomplete, and,forgotten, the apparent complete absence of any but the most cursory cleanup efforts. The pollution reached some areas of Indonesia. The Federal Australian Government has, apparently ignoring this ill managed disaster, last week granted further licenses,in the inshore Margaret River area. BP Deepwater Horizon 's Gulf Oilspill magnifies the issues which the world has not quite grasped;the magnitude of the human suffering and ecovandalism, whether intentional or accidental, one thousand fold.On the doorstep of the worlds media powerhouse, about as in your face as it could get. This is GOOD.In the first few days of the spill, Arnold Schwarznegger withdrew all offshore extractive licenses.President Obama reversed his stance and policies on offshore drilling,perhaps sparing the populous US East Coast and remote Alaskan Bering Sea a similar catastrophic event. BP,and the oil industry are under the glare of the spotlight as they would never have wished for,but not in a good

way.

One year ago tomorrow,in Peru,indigenous protesters,supported by indigenous organisation AIDESEP,were massacred by Police while protesting against the exploration of their indigenous areas,lands which they have had custodianship.The exploration was consented to by the non, and many say anti-indigenous,pro extractive Peruvian government of President Pinera.This deeply disturbing incident is one of the better publicised arbitrary use of state power to brutally enforce the short term commercial gain of foreign extractives,over the interests of local,and particularly indigenous people.Not to mention the flora,fauna and ecosystems whose living components have no direct voice in the often corrupt consultative processes. These extractive operators are not solely to blame,nor are the governments whose political tenure is seen to be strengthened by "sound economic performance.There are current mining issues in Papua New Guinea,Guinea, Kazakhstan, and I am just informed'our suspicions are confirmed for war torn Darfur,Sudan.

• As businesses,communities and individuals we use these polluting fossil fuels and lubricants in ways which are difficult to completely do away with, easier though to use less of. The pollution is as much about our immediate environment, but moreso, about sustainable equitable partnerships, between all parties,human cultural or ecological.We must ensure that those aspects within our capability to address,are addressed.
• As authorities and governments responsible to communities for oversight of extractive operations,distribution and monitoring,more can and should be done in the countries which have the greatest wealth,but much can be done in those countries lacking economic scale.Because control is with the consumer,the consumer countries and authorities are best positioned to implement a chain of responsibility regime which ensures sustainability and Fair Pay without humanrights violation, using worlds best practice technology and implementation,with effective disaster mitigation in place(or readily available) prior to commencement.
• As companies, Extractive Process Operators,especially mining oil gas and logging Contractors and chain solutions providers must better co-ordinate their work and technologies to ensure that the practices of the past stay in the past,that there is a future for extractives, oh,and the rest of us.