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Whatever that means for offshore drilling in the U.S., the real victims of the global thirst for petroleum will be overseas - areas that, until the recent price rise, were too remote and forbidding to be worth drilling. Case in point: the vast, impenetrable western reaches of the Amazon. Touching parts of Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Columbia and Brazil, the western Amazon has remained relatively unscathed compared to the eastern stretches of the rainforest, which have been ravaged by logging. With few roads, the western Amazon has remained so undisturbed that there are still new indigenous tribes living somewhere inside the jungle...
According to a new report by Matt Finer of the green group Save America's Forests, however, the western Amazon could be on the brink of an energy bonanza - and that could be bad news for the rich array of plants and wildlife the forest supports. Finer points out that there are approximately 180 separate zones of development for oil and gas exploration in the western Pacific, run by at least 35 multinational energy companies. The area covers almost 700,000 sq. km. and it's growing fast. In 2003 Peru cut oil and gas royalties in an effort...
...projects represent a vital source of government revenue for impoverished nations like Peru or Bolivia, but they may come at a high environmental cost. The reason much of the western Amazon remains intact - quite unlike the rainforest to the east - is simply because there are still relatively few roads into the forest. But oil and gas projects will require new roads, and roads destroy forests and damage wildlife habitats. Roads also invite in the most formidable agent of ecological disruption: humans. That means an influx of hunters and loggers, along with the heavy equipment and personnel needed for oil exploration...
...transport all personnel and material to and from a site in Yasuni National Park in Ecuador. That move came at the behest of the Ecuadorian government, and it's representative of the sort of smart energy policies that South American governments will need to follow if the western Amazon isn't going to be sacrificed for oil. Just as important are the environmental impact assessments that can accurately gauge just how destructive a new oil or gas project might be, not just to the land that's being drilled, but also to adjacent areas - in Peru, 20 development zones overlap...
Ultimately, however, the global demand for oil and gas is so great that it is difficult to see any South American country passing up the potential revenue in favor of keeping the Amazon pristine. It's also a reminder that, as we fight over a little offshore drilling in the U.S., rising energy prices will impact far more vulnerable ecosystems overseas, from the Amazon in South America to the vast Arctic stretches of Siberia. For now, the best we might be able to expect - until alternative fuels make oil and gas unnecessary - is adherence to the best safety standards...