Convenience, Black Blood, and War

I’m sure by now that you have all heard the story about the “attempted terrorist attack” on the Northwest Airlines jet that was bound for Detroit. This was an attack that was apparently only NOT SUCCESSFUL because the bomb didn’t go off properly.

From the moment I heard about this my skeptics glasses went on; this just seems too, what’s the word? CONVENIENT. It seems to me that whenever public opinion of the war(s) goes down, something happens to reinstate the fear that lets people forget their rights, personal freedoms, and opposition to wars.

I was skeptical before I started reading about Yemen and the United States. Yemen is where the accused terrorist, Abdulmatallab, reportedly made contact with Al-Qaeda. Al-Qaeda has taken responsibility for the botched terrorist attack and says it was in response to attacks on them in Yemen. The US did actually attack Yemen. This is what ABC news had to say about the attack:

On orders from President Barack Obama, the U.S. military launched cruise missiles early Thursday against two suspected al-Qaeda sites in Yemen, administration officials told ABC News in a report broadcast on ABC World News with Charles Gibson.

ABC's Brian Ross details missile strike on al-Qaeda militants in Afghanistan.

One of the targeted sites was a suspected al Qaeda training camp north of the capitol, Sanaa, and the second target was a location where officials said "an imminent attack against a U.S. asset was being planned."

The Yemen attacks by the U.S. military represent a major escalation of the Obama administration's campaign against al Qaeda.

In his speech about added troops for Afghanistan earlier this month, President Obama made a brief reference to Yemen, saying, "Where al Qaeda and its allies attempt to establish a foothold -- whether in Somalia or Yemen or elsewhere -- they must be confronted by growing pressure and strong partnerships."

The entire article can be found here: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/cruise-missiles-strike-yemen/story?id=9375236&page=1

Okay, so in the war on terror America is going to find the terrorists wherever they are hiding. This is old news, Bush loved saying stuff like this, and apparently Obama does too. There is another similarity besides terrorists between Yemen and the other countries America is attacking however. What is this similarity?

OIL.

Here’s some information on Yemen’s oil industry: http://www.mbendi.com/indy/oilg/as/ye/p0005.htm

Yemen is a small, non-OPEC oil producer. The country’s economy is highly dependent on oil production, with the country’s oil exports accounting for around 85 percent of export revenues and 33 percent of gross domestic product. According to the 2008 BP Statistical Energy Survey, Yemen had proved oil reserves of 2.78 billion barrels at the end of 2007 or 0.22 % of the world's reserves and produced an average of 336 thousand barrels of crude oil per day, 0.4% of the world total and a change of -11.5 % compared to 2006.

Though the government of Yemen is fairly stable following the re-election of President Ali Abdullah Saleh in 2006, security remains a concern of foreign firms doing business in Yemen. Yemen is divided into 87 blocks, of which 12 actually produce oil.

The oil is concentrated in five areas: Marib-Jawf in the north, Masila in the south and East Shabwa, Jannah and Iyad in central Yemen. Oil production in Yemen is heavily reliant on private foreign companies, with more than 20 foreign firms currently operating concessions. International companies currently operating in Yemen include Canada’s Nexen, Hunt Oil, Total, Occidental and DNO.

The national oil company, Yemen General Corporation for Oil & Gas/Mineral Resources, is an affiliation of several state-owned subsidiaries including: the Yemen Oil Company (YOC); the Yemen Refining Company (YRC); the Petroleum Exploration and Production Authority (PEPA) and the General Department of Crude Oil Marketing (GDCOM). All branches report to the MOMR. The national oil company is responsible for managing the industry contracts and relations with operators and partners, as well as the government's share of crude exports.

According to the 2008 BP Statistical Energy Survey, Yemen had 2007 proved natural gas reserves of 0.48 trillion cubic metres, the bulk of which are concentrated in the Marib-Jawf fields. Despite Yemen’s longstanding plans to develop an export-based natural gas industry, Yemen has yet to produce any natural gas.

What is an OPEC producer vs a non-OPEC oil producer? Here’s the answer http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/ftproot/presentations/ieo99_3im/sld010.htm :

By the middle of 1998, declining world oil prices caused renewed efforts to lower oil production under the sponsorship of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). In both March and June, OPEC and key non-OPEC producers Mexico and Norway agreed to restrict crude oil sales, and there were indications from several other producers that they would cut back production. Their efforts were not supported by Iraq, which wanted to increase oil sales. As a result, oil production management efforts had only modest success.

WAIT A MINUTE! So IRAQ is non-OPEC too…hmm. Just thinking here…

I Really Cannot Believe I Have To Do This

I was talking to a friend yesterday who was honestly convinced that the environment was better off now than in the past. I decided the best way to combat this strange, and untrue, assumption was with photos. I gathered all of these via Google Images (or referenced where I got them).

Above is an image of clear cutting in the Boreal Forest. Destruction continues to this day.

Above is an image of a whale beached and dead. It was killed by navy sonar use, which continues.

Whaling continues year after year even with depleted populations and a public outcry from many for it to stop.









Depleted Uranium Birth Defects (Above). "Also in 1999, a United Nations subcommission considered DU hazardous enough to call for an initiative banning its use worldwide. The initiative has remained in committee, blocked primarily by the United States, according to Karen Parker, a lawyer with the International Educational Development/Humanitarian Law Project, which has consultative status at the United Nations." See this article.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - Polar bear populations in and around Alaska are declining due to continued melting of sea ice and Russian poaching, according to reports released Thursday by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Space Trash. "It is estimated that hundreds of millions of pieces of space trash are now floating through our region of the solar system. Some of them are as large as trucks while others are smaller than a flake of paint. There are a couple of relatively famous pieces of space trash. One is the glove that floated away from the Gemini 4 crew during the first spacewalk by U.S. astronauts. The other is the camera Michael Collins lost during the Gemini 10 mission. Rocket boosters, pieces that came loose from spacecraft, and fragments and particles created by space collisions or explosions are other examples of the types of trash whizzing around Earth at speeds of up to 36,000 km per hour."

Oil Spills. Oil continues to be accidentally spilled into waterways around the world. With each spill environments are destroyed. Here are some links to more recent oil spills (there are obviously many more):
Pine River
Brazil
Queensland
West Cork, Ireland
Des Plaines River



Coffee Farming. This requires people to clearcut their land to create space to grow coffee, which in turn destroys the soil. (Picture from WWF article).
















Manatees. "The population of manatees in Florida (T. manatus) is thought to be between 1,000 and 3,000, yet population estimates are very difficult. The number of manatee deaths in Florida caused by humans has been increasing through the years, and now typically accounts for 20%-40% of recorded manatee deaths.^[10] There were 417 manatee deaths in Florida in 2006 with 101 attributed to human causes according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission."



I could go on and on, but this (The 15 most toxic places to live) article seems to sum it up pretty well.


-Amelie