Oil Addiction Hastens Desert Planet Earth

Posted on July 30, 2008
Filed Under Sustainable Business |

A new report from WWF-UK warns that efforts to extract so-called “unconventional oil” from shales and sands in Canada and Colorado will produce a far heavier carbon footprint than existing oil recovery systems - thus hastening, in the effort to gain the last drop of oil, the dangers of climate change.

Tar sand and shale extraction increases emissions as much as eightfold, while also destroying vast areas of forest. Scientists have predicted that, if fully exploited, the emissions from these oil sources could accelerate climate change to levels that would threaten a mass species extinction.

The Environmental News Network, analyzing the report, notes the risks to investors of unconventional oil:

Scraping the bottom of the barrel outlines potential risks to investors
from the high capital costs of sand and shale to oil projects, looming
regulatory restrictions, the likelihood of litigation, environmental
liabilities from tailing ponds and restoration requirements and
reliance on unproven technologies such as carbon capture and storage.
Investors could end up with stranded assets
- Scraping the bottom of the oil barrel a significant new climate risk

WWF (formerly known as the World Wildlife Fund) and CFS are calling for a global halt to the licensing of new unconventional oil and for strong legislation, similar to the Emissions Standard currently in force in California, to be introduced in North America and Europe, prohibiting the sale of fuels with higher emissions than traditional oil.

Comments

Leave a Reply