Bye bye rain forest

[spinski]

It looks as if the conquest for black gold will end up destroying the lungs of the planet... 

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Amazon rainforest threatened by new wave of oil and gas exploration
With over 35 multinational companies racing to tap into oil and gas reserves situated in peak biodiversity spots, conservationists urge an environmental impact assessment
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/aug/13/conservation.forests
http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0812-oil_amazon.html

[geoff]

This is, unfortunately, one of the expected official responses to peak oil. It is one of the reasons I had a secret hope that no-one in upper management would ever find out about it.   

I don't think we will ever see an official response to PO that involves the three R's. They will always go for the big industry, big dollar, business as usual solution, as that is the real vote winner. This will inevitably lead to the destruction of more and more of the environment. I don't see how we are ever going to avoid it. The majority still have the entrenched view that they are entitled to the lifestyles they lead, and that it is non-negotiable, and decisions will be made that pander to that majority. While ever there is a thread of hope that BAU can continue these people will cling to it.

Majority is not always people either. It will often be money. Our wonderful government got a majority of voters on side with a decarbonation fund for research into low carbon energy. Where did the majority of that funding go? To the coal industry, which has the majority of the wealth invested in the electricity industry here. We will see more and more such "solutions" as things get worse.

[Raos]

Absolutely sickening.  It's one thing (though still miserable) to pursue development like this when ignorant of the real cost, but it's inexcusable (to be far too polite about it) when we know just how destructive this is.

[Mike]

Odd that the forest is in jeopardy because new inventions of drilling. We have the technology to extract oil, gas, etc on a wide scale with a small foot print on the land. Making spider like wells that reach many kms away, lowering the impact on the surface. Given you still need roads the foot print is rather minor.

In fact allot of the drilling I do is in protected areas.

[geoff]

Mike, is that drilling for initial exploration/assaying, or for resource extraction? Would there be any difference between the footprints of the two types of drilling?

[Raos]

I expect such techniques are rather more expensive than more destructive methods.  Outside of strong (and strongly enforced) environmental regulation making the minimization of impact a non-negotiable necessity, I wouldn't be surprised if those methods were used less often than they could be.