Rainforest Action Network



Breaking News from America's Progressive Community... Latest Releases November archives/1998 October September August July June Making news? E-mail us! editor@newscenter.org NewsCenter is a news service - providing breaking news and opinion for progressive-thinking Americans. The press releases posted here have been provided to NewsCenter by the one of the many progressive organizations we have selected to participate . If you would like more information about this press release, you should contact the organization directly.		NOVEMBER 5, 1998 12:12 PM FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Rainforest Action Network Shannon Wright or Steve Kretzmann - amazonia@ran.org Mark Westlund - ranmedia@ran.org

		Groundbreaking Study Shows Petroleum Exploration Threatens Natural Areas, Indigenous Peoples And The Global Climate

		BUENOS ARIES - November 5 - With a new report assessing the threat of new petroleum exploration to the climate, the environment and indigenous peoples, the Rainforest Action Network and Project Underground called for a ban on new oil and gas exploration in pristine and frontier ecosystems. The report, entitled "Drilling to the Ends of the Earth: The Ecological, Social, and Climate Imperative for Ending New Petroleum Exploration" was released today at the Fourth Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The report includes six full-color maps which, for the first time, overlay priority oil and gas exploration areas with frontier forests, mangroves, coral reefs and indigenous populations. In almost every case, the sites endanger natural areas, threaten indigenous people - usually both. Drilling to the ends of the Earth also includes a critique of ongoing oil and gas exploration in the context of global climate change: * In the last ten years, since world governments first committed themselves to stopping global warming, the industry has expanded drastically, almost tripling the number of countries and companies involved in new exploration for oil and gas. Carbon dioxide emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels are the number one cause of global climate change. * The oil and gas industry spends over $150 billion annually on new exploration The area covered by new exploration activities in the last decade roughly equals the land area of the U.S. and Europe. This ongoing exploration threatens frontier, old-growth forests in 22 countries, coral reefs in 38 countries, and mangroves in 46 countries. * Indigenous peoples on every habitable continent and at least eight isolated indigenous groups face an immediate or near-term threat from new exploration. The report also examines how dependency on oil for development policy leads to a cycle of debt and under-development. "As Governments here in Buenos Aires grapple with the problem of how to stop climate change, the oil industry is spending $150 billion annually making it worse. The first step in meeting the challenge of climate change is an immediate ban on new exploration for oil and gas in pristine, frontier ecosystems@ said Project Underground=s Steve Kretzmann. "We have an easy choice," explained Shannon Wright of Rainforest Action Network. Either we save the climate and protect threatened ecosystems and peoples by investing in renewable energy, or we continue investments in new oil and gas." http://www.moles.org http://www.ran.org ###