Alaskan Oil Debate:

It is well documented that the world has an unnatural dependency on oil, one which could well result in changing the face of the planet. The imminent exhaustion of the worlds supplies have been postponed by the discovery of new oil reserves and extraction techniques, but the rates of which the reserves are being found against the rate that they are being used up is causing huge environmental and economic problems.

This is being exacerbated by the fact that the globe is now using 94,000,000 barrels of oil a day, an unfathomable amount. The IEA predict that this level of production will only be sustainable for another 10-15 years, and after that the production would decrease due to a lack of reserves.

Not only are the levels consumption terrible, but also the distribution is. The USA consumes 25% of all the worlds’ oil productions, with Europe using 20% and Japan 8%. However, the main issue is with distribution of resources, as the countries that use the most don’t have the resources themselves. This is shown by statistics such as the Persian Gulf nations having 64% of the resources, and North America just 8% of all the resources. Europe has just one tenth the amount of oil in reserve as it uses, having just 2% of the reserves in the world. This doesn’t take into account countries with rapidly increasing demands, such as Brazil, Argentina, India and China. These newly industrialising countries are trying to develop their economies by developing industries which are highly reliant on fossil fuels, resulting in a greatly increased demand. Currently, India uses just one barrel of oil per person per day. In comparison to the USA, at 41, this is very low. However, the figure for India is constantly increasing, highlighting the major issues that could arise in the future.

To understand why the oil in Alaska should not be exploited we have to look at all the environmental effects it could have. First of all there is the disruption and destruction of natural habitats, something Alaska has vast swathes of. Next, transporting it becomes an issue. It could be by pipeline, but to make it across to another part of the USA it would have to travel either by sea (bad for the sea’s habitats) or across Canada, causing further environmental disruption. Every year approximately 3,000,000 tonnes of oil enters the sea because of a multitude of reasons, be it spillages or tankers flushing their tanks. Cleaning up after these spills can take months or even years, depending on the severity. Finally, there are the issues with the general transportation in that it burns fossil fuels and therefore releases CO₂ into the atmosphere, causing further global warming.

Recent developments in the Middle East have resulted in a drastic rise in oil prices, meaning that Alaska is in a prime place to be exploited for its oil. The government are estimating that there is a 50% chance that 10.1 billion barrels of oil are available in the area (1.5 million acres), suggesting that it is one of the last large underdeveloped onshore oil reserves, although the extraction will come at the costs many environmentalists want to avoid.

The US government have put forward the case for developing the area in that they would only develop 2000 acres of the plain. It would produce 235,000-735,000 jobs, boost the economy and boost the environment (as Caribou population increases have shown). However, these would be overshadowed by the possibility of irreversible environmental damage through spillages and the disruption caused by pumping it from the ground.

All in all, it should be a last resort, as there figures which state that 50% of the oil still remains in existing oil reserves – it just hasn’t been removed yet. It would also be much more environmentally friendly to develop internet technologies, to prevent businesses having to travel in the first place.