INDEX	March 29, 2024
Race to exploit oil by place that's already below sea level
Listening to Guyana's President Mohamed Irfaan Ali interviewed on BBC World Service's Hard Talk, I felt that this is a man all those obsessed with the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere should listen to. Guyana is a place that has more reason to worry about Global Warming than most. According to Mr Ali it is already six feet below Sea Level. Clearly rising ocean levels threaten the very existence of this Caribbean paradise. Yet Guyana is racing to exploit huge reserves of recently discovered oil. The upshot of which is that it will be responsible for a vast addition to CO2 in the atmosphere. Don't get me wrong. Guyana is not an irresponsible cowboy nation. It has (according to the president) forests covering a bigger area than England and Wales combined. But it is historically a very poor nation and sees oil as the best way to provide decent living conditions to its people. And it fears that if it fails to exploit its oil, it may become valueless since we may have moved on beyond the global oil economy. Now how many eco-warriors realised they were actually encouraging the race to exploit oil before it goes out of fashion?
INDEX Jonathan Brind	March 29, 2024