Clearing the Waters - Contrasting Facts to Oil Industry Fictions!
Tufted puffins like this one have been almost wiped out by oil spills around the globe.
When corporations and the government have a vested economic interest in the outcome of a particular initiative, the public must be wary of the "information" and "assertions of fact" made by their representatives. Here are some of the main arguments you will hear in support of allowing BC offshore oil and gas development and the realities that support the continuation of the current moratorium.
FICTION: New technologies now make offshore oil and gas development safe.
FACT: No matter how good the precautionary measures, oil spills happen. Even Environment Canada admits that oil spills are inevitable and only about 5% of an oil spill can be recovered using current technologies. There is unavoidable risk in all phases of oil development - in exploration, in drilling, and especially in transport. Every year, despite claims of "safe" development, millions upon millions of litres of oil are accidentally spilled or leaked into our oceans, damaging fish and marine ecosystems. Risk of accident is especially high on the BC coast due to high winds and earthquake hazards.
Oil spill!
Recent Major Oil Disasters: 1989-1996
While major oil disasters occur all too frighteningly often, it is important to realize that countless smaller spills, small blow-outs and leakages occur on a daily basis around the world and are equally deliterious.
March 1989: Exxon Valdez tanker, Alaska, USA - 42 million litres
January 1991: terminals and tankers in Kuwait - 907 million litres
April 1991: Haven tanker, Mediterranean Sea - 159 million litres
March 1992: oil well, Uzbekistan - 333 million litres
April 1992: Katina P, tanker, South Africa - 57 million litres
January 1993: Braer tanker, UK - 95 million litres
October 1994: pipeline, Usinsk, Russia- 116 million litres
October 1994: Thanassis A, tanker, Hong Kong - 41 million litres
February 1996: Sea Empress tanker, UK - 81 million litres
March 1996: unknown tanker, Gulf of Mexico - 40 million litres
FICTION: Local citizens will get jobs and become rich and local economies will boom.
FACT: It is the oil corporations that will get rich(er), not the local citizens. Research shows that most of the jobs created in the oil industry are only short term and filled by a specially skilled externally existing labour pool. As shown in the Terra Nova operation off the Newfoundland coast, the specialized longer-term jobs mostly go to workers from outside the development area, often foreigners. Existing local coastal fisheries and tourism-related jobs are put at risk.
FICTION: The contribution of burning fossil fuels to global warming and climate change are greatly exaggerated.
FACT: Virtually all scientists agree that our use of fossil fuels is the prime cause of recent dramatic climate change and that global warming has horrific consequences including droughts, fires and pest infestations like the pine beetle. At the current levels of fossil fuel use, atmospheric CO2 , the major contributing greenhouse gas released when fossil fuels are consumed, will double over the next 50 years causing an increase in Earth's average temperature of at least 2° C by the year 2100. Around the world, science-based efforts to combat global warming are increasing. Sadly, the BC Liberal government is moving in exactly the opposite direction. Development of wind, solar, tidal renewable energy sources is the viable alternative.
FICTION: Even if a massive oil spill occurs off BC's coast, wave action and natural organic breakdown rapidly occurs, things quickly regenerate and marine mammals, seabirds and fish stocks rebound.
FACT: Decades after a major oil spill marine ecosystems remain damaged and the populations of some species remain devastated. This is especially true in cold waters. Usually the greatest damage to life occurs where oil spills meet shore lines and inlets, destroying the complex and delicate balance of intertidal ecosystems. Thirteen years after the Exxon Valdez spill, significant pockets of oil still persist beneath the surface in tidal and sub-tidal sediments. Most of the oil leases off BC's west coast are within 100 kilometres of the shore, putting our coastal ecosystems at grave risk.
FICTION: Exploration effects are short lived and drilling effects are minimal.
FACT:Seismic testing involves the blasting of underwater airguns at a decibel that is known to blow up the air sacks of nearby fish, kill marine larvae, and alter the behavioural and migratory patterns of sea life, including whales. A single exploratory well dumps approximately 11,000 kilograms of toxic materials into the ocean, and a single production platform discharges over 90,000 metric tons of drilling fluid, rock and metal cuttings into the ocean. Chronic leaks and spillage are part and parcel of offshore drilling operations. What constitute "acceptable damage and risks" for the oil companies is worlds apart from what most British Columbians and local citizens are willing to accept.
High Risk to BC's Salmon
Seismic testing and oil and gas drilling in tic's coastal waters will have devastating negative affects on BC's marine life, including the fisheries upon which thousands of British Columbians depend for their livelihoods. For salmon populations already in decline, allowing oil and gas drilling off the coast-would be especially detrimental.
Chronic pollution and discharged toxics, potential massive oil spills, and an increase in water temperatures due to global warming all threaten BC salmon stocks. In Alaska, National Marine Fisheries Services biologists have warned that toxic compounds found in oil cause significant growth and reproductive failures in pink salmon even at levels of only one part per billion of crude oil.
The gas and oil's contribution to global warming, and the subsequent increase in water temperatures, pose the greatest threat to the Pacific Coast salmon. Higher water temperatures means lower ocean survival, lower in-stream survival and resulting catostrophic declines in salmon runs.
