The Niger Delta as a Cautionary Tale for Environmental Sacrifice Zones Worldwide
The Niger River Delta may present a particularly painful history of the so-called "resource curse." But there are more and more places in the world that are being sacrificed to appease our demand for natural resources. Therefore, the Niger River Delta story presents a cautionary tale for the growing list of environmental sacrifice zones worldwide.
We are much too quickly, however, reaching the limit of what our planet can handle. It is now time we find a way to reduce our continued exploitation of nature.
If what has happened in the Niger Delta is not enough, we can look at what is happening in the Alberta Tar Sands, the Bakken Oil Fields of North Dakota, and the other fracking zones in the United States. For examples of environmental sacrifice zones around the world, take a look at the Environmental Justice Atlas (external link). Oil fueled the American Century, but the data and the climate science suggest that the current rate at which we are burning hydrocarbons is no longer sustainable. We must curb our carbon emissions. And the sooner the better.
Around the world, more and more movements are protesting extraction with the rallying cry of "keep it in the ground." This week, even the first family of Big Oil in the United States has joined the clamor to say,
There is no sane rationale for companies to continue to explore for new sources of hydrocarbons. The science and intent enunciated by the Paris agreement cannot be more clear: far from finding additional sources of fossil fuels, we must keep most of the already discovered reserves in the ground if there is any hope for human and natural ecosystems to survive and thrive in the decades ahead.
Rockefeller Family Fund statement explaining their divestment from fossil fuels despite being one of the first founding families of the Oil Industry
March 23, 2016
Sources Cited
Backman, Melvin. "One of Oil's Founding Families is Divesting from Fossil Fuels, and Slamming ExxonMobil in the Process." 23 March 2016. Quartz media. qz.com. Web. 25 March 2016.
