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Slide 1: Many of the biggest environmental problems are associated with oil development and exploration. This is because of the careless way in which oil is developed, which can lead to massive spills, such as the British Petroleum blowout in the Gulf of Mexico. The profits that come from the oil industry encourage greed and carelessness, because the people who work in the oil industry do not respect the environment and the work is dirty and dangerous. This combination leads to carelessness and quick and dirty fixes that lead to environmental problems. In many parts of the world oil exploration and development takes place in remote areas, such as the North Slope of Alaska, Arctic Siberia, and the jungles of Amazonia, where Indigenous peoples live. This leads to environmental justice issues because in these areas the oil industry operates on the principle of “out of sight, out of mind”. By contrast, consider that one of the major oil producing areas of the US is Los Angeles, as shown in the film There will be Blood. Over the last 50 years there have been no major oil spills in Los Angeles, compared with hundreds of such problems in areas where Indigenous peoples live. This shows that the oil industry can be careful when it needs to be, i.e. in major cities, which means that their carelessness in areas where Indigenous peoples live is an issue of environmental justice.
Slide 2: One unrecognized consequence of the development of petroleum oil for lighting, heating and lubricants is probably what saved whales from extinction, because up until the late 19th century whale oil was a major source of oil for Europe and the US. SOURCE: http://www.priweb.org/ed/pgws/history/pennsylvania/pennsylvania.html
Slide 3: Native American tribes used natural oil seeps as sources of oil for medicinal and ceremonial purposes. When petroleum oil was first “discovered” by Europeans it was called “Rock Oil”. The technique used for drilling was first used to extract salt from the ground. One reason that oil seemed unusual to EuroAmericans is that Europe does not contain oil reserves so Europeans did not have much of a history of use. SOURCE: http://www.priweb.org/ed/pgws/history/pennsylvania/pennsylvania.html
Slide 4: For hundreds of years both Native Americans and European colonizers had been using natural oil seeps. The Europeans used seeps originally found and developed by tribes, so their “discovery” is clearly nothing real. It is important to realize that Europeans colonizers did not emphasize oil production until the US Civil War, when whaling became problematic because shipping was risky and the crews for whaling ships were involved as soldiers. Source: http://www.priweb.org/ed/pgws/history/pennsylvania/pennsylvania.html
Slide 5: The first major conflicts between tribes and the oil industry arose in Oklahoma, where tribes from the East had been relocated because European colonizers did not value Oklahoma until they found oil there. Source: www.ogs.ou.edu/fossilfuels/pdf/OKOilNotesPDF.pdf The image shows major oil fields in Oklahoma. It is not widely discussed, but much of the US Petroleum Reserves lie in Oklahoma, largely because Oklahoma’s central location makes it relatively safe from attack by potential enemies.
Slide 6: This image shows the locations of the tribes in Oklahoma before statehood and before the main push for oil development. Source: http://utenti.lycos.it/zanevren/tapered-07/indian-tribes-locations-on-map.html Note that at this time the panhandle was not part of Oklahoma, but part of Kansas Territory.
Slide 7: After relocation the 5 “Civilized Tribes” tried to organize as an Indigenous Autonomous State but the Federal government wanted the land and the oil. Source: http://www.state.ok.us/osfdocs/stinfo2.html#NATIVE%20PEOPLE
Slide 8: Boomer Sooner, the fight song of the University of Oklahoma, celebrates the Oklahoma land rushes of the 1890’s which were set up to allow Europeans to take land not allocated to Indians as a result of the Dawes Act. This was the Oklahoma land boom, and those Europeans who sneaked in early to claim land were the “Boomer Sooners”. This was originally a pejorative term directed at cheaters, but today it still symbolizes the attitude of many non-tribal people for Oklahoma, i.e. greed and cheating.
Slide 9: The first oil wells in Oklahoma appeared soon after the land rush. Many white Oklahomans involved in the land an mineral rushes were criminals and employed terrorist practices and death squads towards tribal members who had land that contained oil. Sources: http://www.okmoga.com/html/tour.php
Slide 10: Eventually the federal government was obliged to step in and take over oil leases for tribal members to prevent the criminal activities. Source: http://supreme.justia.com/us/240/522/case.html
Slide 11: Source: The World’s Richest Indian: The Scandal over Jackson Barnett’s Oil Fortune. By Tanis C. Thorne. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
Slide 12: Image source: http://www.okreadsok.com/sixpack/thirdsixpack/meanspirit/index.html Source: Quote from Linda Hogan at http://dcn.davis.ca.us/~gizmo/hogan.html Students or faculty interested in the social dynamics of this activity should read Chickasaw author Linda Hogan’s award-winning novel (1990) Mean Spirit, Atheneum Press, NY, NY., which deals with the Osage Tribe and oil.
Slide 13: The Oklahoma story was basically repeated in South America a hundred years later as oil industry, especially Chevron and Texaco began oil development in Amazonian Rain Forest. Source: http://Ecuador/ECUADOR:%20Chevron-Texaco's%20toxic%20legacy.webarchive Image: http://images.google.com/images?ndsp=21&um=1&hl=en&client=safari&rls=en&q=Texaco+Ecuador&start=63&sa=N
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Slide 15: To view a video on the Indigenous peoples of Ecuador click on Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MBJnnk6bBo or see below
Slide 18: Source: http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jan2007/2007-01-12-04.asp
Slide 19: One of the most destructive forms of oil extraction has taken place in the Tar Sands in remote areas of Northern Alberta, where the population is mostly indigenous peoples. Source: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://atlas.nrcan.gc.ca/site/english/maps/reference/provincesterritoriesrelief/alberta_relief/map
Slide 20: From The New Yorker Magazine: November 12, 2007 A Reporter at Large: Unconventional Crude: Canada’s synthetic-fuels boom. by Elizabeth Kolbert
Slide 21: From The New Yorker Magazine: November 12, 2007 A Reporter at Large: Unconventional Crude: Canada’s synthetic-fuels boom. by Elizabeth Kolbert
Slide 22: From The New Yorker Magazine: November 12, 2007 A Reporter at Large: Unconventional Crude: Canada’s synthetic-fuels boom. by Elizabeth Kolbert
Slide 23: From The New Yorker Magazine: November 12, 2007 A Reporter at Large: Unconventional Crude: Canada’s synthetic-fuels boom. by Elizabeth Kolbert
Slide 24: In Los Angeles oil is liquid oil and of much higher quality than the bitumen of the tar sands, which have a consistency like you might expect from their name
Slide 25: Tar Sands oil production is one of the worst producers of greenhouse gases because of the intense processing required. From The New Yorker Magazine: November 12, 2007 A Reporter at Large: Unconventional Crude: Canada’s synthetic-fuels boom. by Elizabeth Kolbert
Slide 26: Title from: Source: http://www.dominionpaper.ca/articles/1429 Material From The New Yorker Magazine: November 12, 2007 A Reporter at Large: Unconventional Crude: Canada’s synthetic-fuels boom. by Elizabeth Kolbert
Slide 27: As with Peabody Coal on Black Mesa in Arizona. Processing of tar sands requires huge amounts of water, enough to destroy major rivers. Source: http://www.dominionpaper.ca/articles/1429
Slide 29: There exists the possibility of contaminating large areas of the Canadian Arctic including Great Slave Lake. http://www.dominionpaper.ca/articles/1429
Slide 30: There are serious health issues in the local wildlife and in the Athabascan people who live in the area. http://www.dominionpaper.ca/articles/1429
Slide 31: Fish and Wildlife near the tar sands development are showing signs of poor health. http://www.dominionpaper.ca/articles/1429
Slide 33: Alberta is mortgaging its future and the water supplies of its major cities through this economic development. http://www.dominionpaper.ca/articles/1429
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