| HOUSTON
- September 16 - When:
Today!. September 16, 1998
Where:
Ballpark at Union Square, Texas Street at Crawford.
Four activists have climbed to the top of a massive construction crane in downtown Houston
and unfurled a giant banner as tall as a five-story building. The banner depicts an oil
derrick in front of a burning, apocalyptic sky, with the text: Houston We Have a Problem -
Stop New Oil Exploration! The activists are challenging industry leaders meeting at the
Congress of the World Energy Council to end new petroleum exploration and instead develop
renewable energy alternatives. The crane is on the construction site for the new ballpark
at Union Square, within view of the George R. Brown Convention Center where the Congress
is gathered.
"When the climate is in danger of global meltdown," said climber Danny Kennedy,
"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."
According to a report released Monday by Rainforest Action Network and Project
Underground, the oil and gas industry spends over $150 billion annually on new
exploration, but invests little in developing renewable sources of energy. Data from a
United Nations-sponsored scientific panel on climate change suggests that we can burn only
25 percent of known gas and oil deposits before incurring the worst effects of climate
change.
Ongoing petroleum exploration threatens old growth forests in 22 countries, coral reefs in
38 countries, and mangroves in 46 countries. In addition, indigenous people on every
habitable continent and at least eight isolated indigenous groups face an immediate or
near-term threat from new exploration.
The report - entitled Drilling to the Ends of the Earth: The Ecological, Social, and
Climate Imperative for Ending New Petroleum Exploration - is available on the world wide
web at http://www.ran.org/ran/oilreport/intro.html
. Included are six full-color maps which overlay for the first time priority exploration
areas with endangered ecosystems and indigenous populations.
"The energy industry needs to supply energy -- not oil," said J.C. Callender,
another of the climbers. "If oil companies invested serious capital in developing
sustainable alternatives to fossil fuels, the quality of life on this planet would
increase for everyone."
The climbers today are joining forces with the recently launched international campaign to
end gas and oil exploration, particularly in areas where the local community objects, and
where isolated, traditional indigenous people live. The campaign also calls on the
international community - particularly financial institutions such as the World Bank and
International Monetary Fund - to support developing countries in advancing renewable and
sustainable energy.
INTERVIEWS: Interviews are available with the climbers, and on the ground with
spokespeople for Project Underground and Rainforest Action Network.
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