Friday, October 15, 2010

Abusing The Environment Just For Oil

Ever since the Industrial revolution, oil has being exploited by many countries. Most cases today, oil is not found everywhere in the world. People today will over pass anything just to make profit out of oil and often abuse the environment and the people living in that habitat. Some countries today depend on other country’s oil to not only increase their economy, but to maintain their needs. For example, the United States, being a very powerful country will send oil companies to other countries in the world to extract oil; then they will bring it back to the United States. Those people don’t see the drawbacks of oil extraction and how it is damaging our environment.
            When these companies are in other countries mining for oil, they don’t understand how they are contaminating the water, soil, and the air that every person in that environment lives of off. Right away we see that by contaminating that environment, we instantly see how it can affect those people. Sadly, this reminded me of what had happened in Ecuador not that long ago.  Ecuador, my country, is located near the Amazon Rain Forest. The Amazon Rain Forest and the people were being affected by an oil company named Texaco-Chevron.
At the time, the government’s mail goal was to seek oil at any expense even if it meant affecting the health of those people living there, and destroying that environment. However, the funny part was that they deny it all; and blame it on Petro-Ecuador. It was unforgettable to see how that company had abused the environment, oil, and the people living there. This had led to many years of lawsuits.


The Amazon in Ecuador had been beautiful; thus, after the extraction of the oil, it was severely devastated. It had impacted the soil, which then made it difficult for plants to grow. They had contaminated the water by mixing it with the oil waste; consequently, it affected the people there, since that water was being used by them for drinking, bathing, and cooking. Many people got sick, and many even died due to the lack of money and services such as clean water, hospitals, and medicines. Others developed diseases such as cancer. Animals were being found dead in the middle of the forests, roads, and the water.   The damage that Chevron had created was almost irreversible. 
I just can’t understand how people can make irrational decisions that can not only affect only our environment, but it can affect our health.  Countries should be cautious of what they will create with their actions. People should always be on the look out of what they will create with their actions. To avoid this, I say we must find alternative ways to seek energy like wind power and solar energy.
            
Ecuador: This is how the environment was left after the pumping of oil.




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