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Breaking News from America's Progressive Community... Latest Releases
Making news? 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.
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| OCTOBER 30, 1998
4:07 PM FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Rainforest Action Network Mark Westlund - ranmedia@ran.org Shannon Wright - amazonia@ran.org |
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| "Big Oil" Can Stop Global Climate Change, Say Greens; Rainforest Action Network Sends Delegation To Buenos Aires Climate Summit | ||||
| "The capital
and expertise oil companies possess puts them in a strong position to develop renewable
sources of energy and lead the planet away from the disaster of climate change. In fact,
the viability of renewable energy, the health of our planet's climate, and the very
survival of traditional rainforest peoples all depend on oil companies taking the
lead." - Kelly Quirke, Executive Director SAN FRANCISCO - October 30 - Rainforest Action Network (RAN), the nation's premier organization dedicated to protecting the world's endangered rainforests and their inhabitants, announced today that it is sending a delegation of top campaigners to the climate summit in Buenos Aires, November 2 - 13, to promote sustainable energy and demand an end to new petroleum exploration. RAN is encouraging the world's leading energy providers to invest in renewable energy and energy-efficiency systems that will not dump greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere and accelerate climate change. Furthermore, RAN is calling on oil companies to solidify their commitment to renewables by ending new petroleum exploration. In addition to its impact on the climate, exploration uproots traditional communities in the world's rainforests - where significant new fossil fuel exploration is slated to take place - and permanently disrupts fragile rainforest ecosystems. "Energy companies give us energy, but it doesn't have to be from oil," observed senior campaigner Shannon Wright. "A sensible - and ethical - first step is for energy companies that rely heavily on fossil fuels to stop spending money on new exploration, and use that capital instead to develop renewables." According to a report released by Rainforest Action Network and campaign partner Project Underground in September, the oil and gas industry spends over $150 billion annually on new exploration, but invests little in developing renewable sources of energy. Data from the United Nations-sponsored International Panel on Climate Change indicates that we can burn only 25 percent of known fossil fuel deposits before incurring the worst effects of climate change. Key report findings include that the oil and gas industry spends over $150 billion annually on new exploration, and that the area covered by new exploration activities in the last decade roughly equals the land area of the U.S. and Europe combined. The ongoing exploration threatens old growth frontier forests in 22 countries, coral reefs in 38 countries, and mangroves in 46 countries. In addition, indigenous peoples on every inhabitable continent and at least eight isolated groups face an immediate or near-term threat from exploration. "When the Earth's climate is in danger of total meltdown," Wright concluded, "and when irreplaceable natural areas are being destroyed, and the indigenous people who live there are being displaced, it makes absolutely no sense to continue exploring for more oil when other good energy options exist." ### |
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