I have been so wrong. The undying spill in the Gulf of Mexico has a long way to go before it’s even close to the worst environmental disaster in human history.
[M]ore 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, the site of a major ecological catastrophe caused by oil that has poured from a leak triggered by the explosion that wrecked BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig last month.
That disaster, which claimed the lives of 11 rig workers, has made headlines round the world. By contrast, little information has emerged about the damage inflicted on the Niger delta. Yet the destruction there provides us with a far more accurate picture of the price we have to pay for drilling oil today.
On 1 May this year a ruptured ExxonMobil pipeline in the state of Akwa Ibom spilled more than a million gallons into the delta over seven days before the leak was stopped. Local people demonstrated against the company but say they were attacked by security guards. Community leaders are now demanding $1bn in compensation for the illness and loss of livelihood they suffered. Few expect they will succeed. In the meantime, thick balls of tar are being washed up along the coast.
Later in the article:
The scale of the pollution is mind-boggling. The government’s national oil spill detection and response agency (Nosdra) says that between 1976 and 1996 alone, more than 2.4m barrels contaminated the environment. “Oil spills and the dumping of oil into waterways has been extensive, often poisoning drinking water and destroying vegetation. These incidents have become common due to the lack of laws and enforcement measures within the existing political regime,” said a spokesman for Nosdra.
The sense of outrage is widespread. “There are more than 300 spills, major and minor, a year,” said Bassey. “It happens all the year round. The whole environment is devastated. The latest revelations highlight the massive difference in the response to oil spills. In Nigeria, both companies and government have come to treat an extraordinary level of oil spills as the norm.”
In short, BP is doing to America what oil companies do so naturally to Africa. The spill, then, represents a kind increased entanglement (or interpenetration) of First and Third Worlds that’s consistent with (or results from) neoliberal dismantling of state functions in the social sphere.
(This post owes everything to Christopher Meyer.)
democrap liberals who halt drilling on our coasts prefer to posion africa in order to get oil for their private jets and limosines
“Sometimes communities do not give us access to clean up the pollution because they can make more money from compensation”
Amazing.
ok. good start. now can you compose a full well written non dramatized article on this? eh? uh? print it
Good Morning Charles,
I read that piece yesterday. While I have been to Nigeria (Jos, Kano and Maiduguri in the hinterland), I have yet to visit the Niger River Delta. I am extremely reluctant to do so. But after reading pieces in the New Yorker and Der Speigel, Nigeria is one polluted country. Arguably, the worst on earth. The South Eastern area is one big cesspool. That, coupled with an armed insurrectionist movement, Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta makes for extremely hazardous conditions for the locals. Rarely mentioned as well are the thousands killed during the past dozen years or so. The people are usually killed in ensuing explosions when trying to extract oil/fuel from ruptured lines. It is a ghastly situation there. And, at this point renders it worse than the Gulf spill. However, there is still calamity in the Gulf. Great misfortune in both cases. Alas, it’s just a question of degree.
On the bright side, it’s nowhere near the worst oil spill in world history. Over 500 million gallons spilled in Kuwait in ’91.
And in 1980 Mexico spilled over 100 million gallons when an oil well exploded with the well remaining open spilling over 30,000 gallons a day for a year.
Wait, that last one sounds kinda familiar. We’re fucked.
@ Charles,
Yes but the Gulf spill is really affecting people. The Nigerian one is just affecting Africans.
(just kidding, that’s really horrible. Thanks for the informative article)
@1,
Actually dumbass, liberals want us to get off oil entirely but it’s you conservatives that won’t let us set minimum standards on fuel efficiency and encourage renewable energy. BTW, I bet you’d find that the vast majority of private jets and limo’s belong to asshole conservatives.
6 whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
The comments on that article were pretty depressing. People point out that there’s criminal pipeline tapping operations that can cause ruptures and explosions. Because these operations are carried out by certain Nigerians, they reason, clearly any or all Nigerians deserve to suffer for them. I get no sense that they could regard Africans as human individuals.
Well, you’re right about the increased entanglement of first- and third-world problems. Again, though, the Gulf will recover. It will take a while, and not every life form there will survive, but it WILL recover. Now that we’re increasingly beginning to shit where we eat, perhaps we’ll start growing wise.
WTF is the jab at liberals at the end of the article? Liberals want to go after BP and protect the environment (e.g. cut oil consumption), conservatives are the ones who are trying to cap BP’s liability and encourage more drilling. It’s the conservatives who sound just like the corrupt politicians in Africa. Don’t let any facts get in the way of your agenda there buddy.