Thursday, November 05, 2009

Give Us $7B or We Kill the Trees   [Greg Pollowitz]

I think this is the sequel to the next Austin Powers movie . . .

New Scientist: Pay us oil money, or the rainforest gets it

An excerpt:

ECUADOR's unprecedented offer to accept payment for not extracting oil from beneath the Amazon rainforest is beginning to draw interest. The move could usher in a new way to both combat climate change and prevent damage to ecologically diverse and sensitive regions.

More than two years ago, Ecuador said it would abandon plans for drilling in Yasuni National Park, one of the few pristine regions of Amazon rainforest remaining, if it was paid half of the $7 billion that it expected to earn from tapping the oilfield. "This was a major turning point in the 'drill, drill, drill' mentality," says Matt Finer, an ecologist with Save America's Forests, an environmental group based in Washington DC, which released its analysis of the initiative this week (Biotropica, DOI: 10.1111/j.1744-7429.2009.00587.x).

Ecuador said it would not drill if it was paid half of what it expected to earn from the oilfield

No country has taken up Ecuador's offer so far, but Finer says there has been "increasing chatter" that Germany will pay about 20 per cent of the total.

11/05 12:00 PMShare