This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Exxon Valdez oil spill of 1989, when the ship of that name spilt its contents off the coast of Alaska and created an iconic image for the then-rising environmental movement. This was a big moment for greens around the world – the visceral images of birds, seals, and the normally pristine Alaskan shoreline covered in slimy oil caught the public’s imagination in a way that many environmental issues cannot.
The public reaction to the spill contributed to the years of strong environmental action that happened in its immediate aftermath. Along with the ozone hole which was being addressed by international treaties at the time, we also saw the 1992 Rio Conference at which the Agenda 21 plan for sustainable development was agreed and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (eventually leading to the famous 1997 Kyoto Protocol) was signed. Ultimately though, we have gone backwards since the 1990s in terms of care for our environment, and with the Exxon Valdez now firmly relegated to the back of our collective memory, we have once again elevated oil to a paramount position in our economy.
Perhaps the biggest indicator of this is the fact that we let it happen again, with the Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010 – a spill which was actually bigger in size than the Exxon one (although the Exxon one was harder to deal with due to its remote location). But the oil industry is also responsible for many smaller spills on an almost daily basis, which hardly ever make it further than the local news because we consider them almost a normal part of life or because they are in equally remote areas with small populations. These spills contaminate water supplies and damage ecosystems, but that’s considered a small price to pay compared to the need to keep our oil-based economy going at full speed.
In Ontario, Canada, the government has recently approved the ‘Line 9′ project, in which a pipeline which usually transports processed oil from the east coast to the inland US will be reversed to carry heavy tar sands from the Canadian interior to the eastern ports. The line is already ageing, and regularly leaks. It goes through large areas of land owned by indigenous Canadians, and runs just north of densely populated Toronto. There remains numerous questions over the safety of using this pipeline to carry tar sands, and there has been a spirited campaign against it for well over a year. But none of this holds any weight with the people who make the decisions – as far as they are concerned, the oil economy is more important than safety, health, indigenous rights, or the economy.
It is clear to see that after the initial burst of concern for the environment in the wake of Exxon Valdez, we have since travelled backwards when it comes to protecting our ecology and the health of our citizens. Despite the fact that companies and government must today put on an image of being ‘green’, the truth is that we are as trapped by our use of oil today as we have been at any time. Serious alternatives are not being developed at any reasonable speed, and politicians continue to pay more attention to oil executives than to their own voters. On this anniversary, it’s time to look back at Exxon Valdez, remind ourselves of the damage that oil is doing to us all, and strengthen our efforts to change our economy and get ourselves of this terribly addictive black liquid.
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