Mind the gulf – from oil-bound past to low-carbon future
Posted by Colin Butfield, head of campaigns on 18/06/10 00:00 AM
The Gulf of Mexico oil spill affects us all, whether we realise it or not. As well as being an environmental disaster for the immediate gulf area, there are serious implications for the wider world. And it affects many of WWF’s own campaigns, in ways you might not have expected... 
When news of the Deepwater Horizon oil leak first broke, even those of us who’d warned of the risks of deepwater drilling, and other consequences of the insatiable demand for oil, hadn’t realised it would have the global impact it’s had.
As someone who’d worked briefly in that area I worried about the damage to seabirds, manatees and the fishing and tourism industries. But I figured they’d cap the leak quickly. After all, this was the Gulf of Mexico, with its huge and well-established oil infrastructure and relatively calm seas.
I knew the damage would be serious in such an important ecosystem – but I admit I didn’t think it would be this bad.
It’s already had an impact on a massive range of WWF’s work, in all kinds of seemingly unconnected areas. From aviation to the beleaguered bluefin tuna. From electric cars to pensions and investments. And from the Arctic Ocean to the Canadian Boreal Forest.
The issues go way beyond the behaviour of particular oil companies.
Oil supply
The root of the Deepwater leak lies in the world’s addiction to oil. We use oil for almost everything. Not just to fuel our cars and planes, but to make plastic, and even grow our food – most artificial fertilisers and pesticides rely heavily on fossil fuels. And the world is now using up most of the easy-to-reach oil.
That means oil companies are taking greater and greater risks to supply our addiction – from deepwater drilling to the devastating Canadian tar sands and oil shales, and even drilling in the vulnerable, pristine Arctic.
But the financial risks are also higher – threatening ordinary pensioners and investment holders, whether or not they realise it. That’s why WWF has been actively persuading investors in BP and Shell to make their voices and votes heard.
The chances of damaging mistakes are greater too – imagine the chaos if a similar spill happened in the Arctic. That’s why we’ve spent so long lobbying in all Arctic countries to try to establish a moratorium on drilling there.
And of course there’s the fact that burning more oil only increases carbon emissions and pushes the world ever closer to runaway climate change.
Oil demand
As any economist will tell you, supply is only one side of the equation. We all use oil in vast quantities so there’s big money to be made from supplying it. It’s an integral part of our lives and we shouldn’t kid ourselves we’re going to suddenly give it up completely. But the Deepwater leak has shown that carrying on as normal won’t work either.
That’s why WWF has been exploring ways we can all use less oil, and what the forward-looking alternatives are.
- Cut unnecessary flights. It doesn’t mean an end to all foreign holidays. But we can’t continue to expand aviation in a world threatened by climate change and reliant on risky oil. We’re looking for smart ways of doing this. A huge number of business flights (for hour-long meetings in Brussels, for example) can be avoided by using video-conferencing, and many others can be replaced by train trips. We’ve found that 90% of UK government flights are within the UK, so there’s huge potential to cut. Our 1 in 5 Challenge is all about helping businesses cut unnecessary flying.
- Don’t expand airports. We successfully campaigned to prevent a third runway at Heathrow, but it should become a blanket ban in the UK. Adding capacity is a sure way to increase air traffic – which flies in the face of the carbon emissions targets in the UK’s Climate Change Act.
- Drive less, in lower-carbon vehicles. Electric cars look like they could be the solution, as long as the electricity is produced from renewable sources like wind and tidal – and not by building new unabated coal power stations like Kingsnorth. Not only would this be much less damaging for the climate, it would also drastically reduce our reliance on oil.
- Insulate our homes better. If we’re going to use renewable energy to replace oil we also need to ensure we’re not wasting huge amounts of it by letting it leak out of poorly insulated houses. Our high-profile Great British Refurb campaign has been persuading the government to step up its support for green, energy-saving home improvements.
Surprising risks from gulf oil spill...
Here are just a couple of examples of unexpected links thrown up by this disaster – reminding us of the complex inter-connections in our environment.
Two of WWF’s existing campaigns, neither of them directly focused on the Gulf, have been particularly affected...
Pensions
Most pension companies are huge investors in oil and gas projects. We’ve been working for several years to get the law changed so that oil companies must disclose the true environmental and financial risks of ‘difficult’ oil exploration and extraction in places like Canada’s tar sands and the Arctic.
The BP spill – and subsequent drop in share price – has catapulted this issue into front-page news around the world. The risks can’t be ignored any longer.
Bluefin tuna
An endangered species that’s been overfished for decades but is still underprotected. We’ve been warning that EU fishing quotas of bluefin are set way too high, and the species is being fished far too aggressively by high-tech, high-capacity fleets.
Now, to top it all, the Deepwater pipeline is spilling oil towards one of the bluefin’s key spawning grounds in the Gulf of Mexico.
It just reinforces the point WWF has been making for years – you can’t fish or hunt an animal to the point of near extinction on the assumption that nothing else will go wrong to threaten its survival.
For a species barely clinging onto existence, it only takes the odd nudge like Deepwater to push it past the point of no return.
We’re all connected to our natural environment
I’m proud to work at an organisation whose mission is to create a future where people live in harmony with nature. But in our daily lives it’s easy to feel very removed from the natural world. More than half the world’s population lives in cities, and we’re mostly distanced from the process of obtaining food, fuel, water or shelter.
The Deepwater leak snaps us back to reality. It reminds us that our lives and lifestyles are totally dependent on what the natural world provides. From the air we breathe to the food we eat and the fuel we burn.
It’s just not realistic to keep drawing on finite natural resources without considering the consequences. And like it or not, our generation is at a make-or-break point in history. It’s our job to find new ways that work for us and nature.
I think we’ve got a good chance of succeeding. But if Deepwater isn’t to be a preview of things to come, it has to become a catalyst for that change.
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