Home » Opinion » Book review
BP oil spill eclipsed by global scramble for fuel
By Wan Lixin |
June 5, 2010, Saturday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
ONE theory has it that oil formed from the preserved remains of prehistoric zooplankton and algae, under anoxic conditions.
Ever since this oozy stuff was deemed a treasured substance -- first for illumination to prolong work hours, and then for transport and manufacturing -- the earth has known little peace.
It is bewildering that god created men and oil without anticipating the former's thirst for the latter.
Incessant burning of the "rock oil" for a century and a half has been polluting the land, air and water, leaving the earth deeply scarred, ravaged, and raped.
The amount of oil spewing from an undersea gusher in the Gulf of Mexico for the past month and a half would only pale into insignificance when compared to the total amount of oil extracted and consumed during this period.
Daniel Yergin's Pulitzer Prize-winning "The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power" documents how this driven quest for oil has evolved and its wrenching impacts.
The discovery and extraction of oil is intertwined with capitalism and modern corporations, and is the key to the understanding of international politics and conflicts.
When capitalists can procure whatever they desire through globalized trade and commerce, there is still one resource that they will stop at nothing to acquire, even using force.
"At the beginning of the 1990s -- almost 80 years after Churchill made the commitment to petroleum, after two World Wars and a long Cold War, and in what was supposed to be ... a new, more peaceful era -- oil once again became the focus of global conflict," the book observes.
Before the 20th century gasoline was still a useless kerosene byproduct, sold for two cents a gallon or just dumped into rivers.
The invention of the electric light bulb signaled the demise of kerosene as lamp fuel. Henry Ford, chief engineer at the Edison Illuminating Co, invented a new use for the liquid temporarily made redundant: cars.
Now we all know that the magic liquid is fueling suburbia, industrialized agriculture (based on chemical fertilizers and pesticides), chemical plants, and nearly all motorized transport.
This process has been accompanied by political instability and drastic environmental degradation.
Who should lay claim to these mineral resources that have lain dormant since time immemorial?
According to the book, oil was discovered and pumped under the "rule of capture," a part of English common law originally applied to hunting.
According to this law, the drillers could pump as much oil as possible even if some of it came from beneath adjacent land owned by other parties.
Thus if oil is discovered on one place, it would quickly spawn many wells on adjacent properties.
While I deplore the noise, poisonous exhaust and chemicals that have been part and parcel of our modernized existence, I am grateful that capitalists have not yet learned how to extract and then market to us one essential element: the air.
The single most important figure in shaping the oil industry was John D. Rockefeller, founder of Standard Oil, the world's first and largest multinational corporation, which by 1879 controlled 90 percent of US refining capacity.
According to the book, Rockefeller "believed in oil, and his faith never wavered."
It was later that European and US oil companies began to be focused on the Gulf of Mexico and then on the Persian Gulf.
"In 1940, the area including Iran, Iraq, and the entire Arabian Peninsula produced less than 5 percent of world oil, compared to 63 percent for the United States," writes Yergin.
The US consumed 21 percent of the world's oil in 2007, and the percentage was greater before that year.
One consolation is that oil is nonrenewable, thus the grab for oil is now cutthroat.
As it becomes harder to extract oil from conventional locations, attention is now shifted to under the sea, the desert, the Antarctic, or the moon.
"Emerging economies" are waking up to the magic of this liquid, being constantly reminded of the prosperity and good life as long as they know how to guzzle oil, and break with their past, which is considered poor, miserable, and uncivilized.
While the US is launching criminal investigation into BP, it should be remembered that one dramatic incident has shed excessive light on a relatively small player in the world's biggest business.
The Americans should be informed that the Gulf of Mexico is just one small part of the earth, and pollution is just one small problem arising from our addiction to hydrocarbons.
The thirst for oil has been destroying some of the most ancient civilizations on earth, spawning conflicts, internecine fighting, and colonization across the globe ever since it was discovered.
Ever since this oozy stuff was deemed a treasured substance -- first for illumination to prolong work hours, and then for transport and manufacturing -- the earth has known little peace.
It is bewildering that god created men and oil without anticipating the former's thirst for the latter.
Incessant burning of the "rock oil" for a century and a half has been polluting the land, air and water, leaving the earth deeply scarred, ravaged, and raped.
The amount of oil spewing from an undersea gusher in the Gulf of Mexico for the past month and a half would only pale into insignificance when compared to the total amount of oil extracted and consumed during this period.
Daniel Yergin's Pulitzer Prize-winning "The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power" documents how this driven quest for oil has evolved and its wrenching impacts.
The discovery and extraction of oil is intertwined with capitalism and modern corporations, and is the key to the understanding of international politics and conflicts.
When capitalists can procure whatever they desire through globalized trade and commerce, there is still one resource that they will stop at nothing to acquire, even using force.
"At the beginning of the 1990s -- almost 80 years after Churchill made the commitment to petroleum, after two World Wars and a long Cold War, and in what was supposed to be ... a new, more peaceful era -- oil once again became the focus of global conflict," the book observes.
Before the 20th century gasoline was still a useless kerosene byproduct, sold for two cents a gallon or just dumped into rivers.
The invention of the electric light bulb signaled the demise of kerosene as lamp fuel. Henry Ford, chief engineer at the Edison Illuminating Co, invented a new use for the liquid temporarily made redundant: cars.
Now we all know that the magic liquid is fueling suburbia, industrialized agriculture (based on chemical fertilizers and pesticides), chemical plants, and nearly all motorized transport.
This process has been accompanied by political instability and drastic environmental degradation.
Who should lay claim to these mineral resources that have lain dormant since time immemorial?
According to the book, oil was discovered and pumped under the "rule of capture," a part of English common law originally applied to hunting.
According to this law, the drillers could pump as much oil as possible even if some of it came from beneath adjacent land owned by other parties.
Thus if oil is discovered on one place, it would quickly spawn many wells on adjacent properties.
While I deplore the noise, poisonous exhaust and chemicals that have been part and parcel of our modernized existence, I am grateful that capitalists have not yet learned how to extract and then market to us one essential element: the air.
The single most important figure in shaping the oil industry was John D. Rockefeller, founder of Standard Oil, the world's first and largest multinational corporation, which by 1879 controlled 90 percent of US refining capacity.
According to the book, Rockefeller "believed in oil, and his faith never wavered."
It was later that European and US oil companies began to be focused on the Gulf of Mexico and then on the Persian Gulf.
"In 1940, the area including Iran, Iraq, and the entire Arabian Peninsula produced less than 5 percent of world oil, compared to 63 percent for the United States," writes Yergin.
The US consumed 21 percent of the world's oil in 2007, and the percentage was greater before that year.
One consolation is that oil is nonrenewable, thus the grab for oil is now cutthroat.
As it becomes harder to extract oil from conventional locations, attention is now shifted to under the sea, the desert, the Antarctic, or the moon.
"Emerging economies" are waking up to the magic of this liquid, being constantly reminded of the prosperity and good life as long as they know how to guzzle oil, and break with their past, which is considered poor, miserable, and uncivilized.
While the US is launching criminal investigation into BP, it should be remembered that one dramatic incident has shed excessive light on a relatively small player in the world's biggest business.
The Americans should be informed that the Gulf of Mexico is just one small part of the earth, and pollution is just one small problem arising from our addiction to hydrocarbons.
The thirst for oil has been destroying some of the most ancient civilizations on earth, spawning conflicts, internecine fighting, and colonization across the globe ever since it was discovered.
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