Shell about to exploit the world's last wilderness

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ossil fuels have disrupted the world’s climate system to such a degree that wilderness areas once inaccessible are now about to be exploited as global warming has freed up areas that until now had been naturally locked away.

News services around the world, among them the BBC, have reported that the oil and gas giant Shell is expected to begin drilling for oil in the Arctic within the next two weeks.

The BBC said. “Thirty ships left Dutch Harbor in Alaska on Thursday for the Arctic to support two initial exploratory wells.

“The company has already committed about $7bn (£4.5bn) to the controversial project, and is confident it will find huge quantities of oil in the region.

“But if the initial wells do not find oil, Shell will contemplate walking away from the region entirely.”

Climatologists, and many others, hope that Shell does walk away from the region entirely as it is clearly understood that considering the world’s damaged climate system, the only rightly place for fossil fuels is in the ground.

Beyond that the world’s environmental groups fear an oil spill that, in the Artic would cause imaginable damage.

Most argue that whatever the profits might be from such a project, that they are simply not worth the inevitable risks.

Read the BBC story - “Shell Arctic oil drilling to commence within weeks”.