Oil Drilling and Oil Spilling — A Dangerously Cyclical Effect

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Tangential Thinking

6 min readFeb 14, 2024

Using case studies from around the world, we can better understand the dilemma of prioritizing the environment and the economy and how to make policies that are truly efficacious.

Ecuador and Drilling the Amazon (2023):

Due to economic downfall and crippling debt, Ecuador’s principles have now been torn down for the sake of recovery. The nation’s once-consistent belief that oil drilling in the Amazon should be put to an end has now been shredded, as the government views it as the “only way out”. In an eye-opening New York Times article, it was stated by Renato Valencia, a forest ecologist that “nature always loses”, especially when it comes to economic matters. And this scenario was proof.

In fact, drilling in these protected areas wasn’t Ecuador’s first choice. In 2007, the president at the time proposed a solution that would have designated oil reserves in the ground. However, a fund of $3.6 billion was needed to compensate. Many said it would be a “win for the climate, for biodiversity, and for Indigenous rights”. They even said it would have been a “precedent-setting moral victory”. This is because a developing nation would have paid for giving up what made many developing nations so wealthy. But the inability to collect funds and lack of international support forced protecting Block 43 to merely remain a pipe dream.

Leaders are caught in a bind because they cannot walk away from money in a country where so many are impoverished and are struggling with 25% of the child population suffering from malnutrition. This issue is not only an economic and environmental crisis, it also has a major humanitarian aspect that must be paid attention to. In Yasuní, Ecuador, the Tagaeri and Taromenane peoples live in what is known as “voluntary isolation”, rejecting any contact with the outside world. Government officials have discussed shrinking their protective zone to reach more oil. The Ecuadorian energy minister even said that that’s where “nature put it” and that’s where they “need to get it from, albeit very carefully”.

We could also lose a major untapped resource in all of this fragmentation, genetic diversity. Genetic diversity has the ability to unlock cures for diseases and protect people from diseases through buffer zones that keep people further away from deadly pathogens. Six out of seven authors of company-funded studies expressed grave concern about the new drilling in Block 43 and a zoologist who conducted one of the studies on biodiversity said that it is going to be “another complete disaster”.

Leaders are trapped in their decision-making due to oil being the problem and the solution when it comes to Ecuador’s economic growth. Oil has led to a debt trap and a dependency on the resource. A professor of economics stated that when Ecuador experiences oil booms, that is when debt skyrockets. This is oftentimes because developing countries like Ecuador borrow (in Ecuador’s case, from China) at elevated interest rates due to risk-reward relationships. Other developing countries have experienced similar patterns. For example, it has only gone downhill for South Sudan, which took a poorly designed oil-backed loan when its production capacity was still strong. They are still paying the price. Chad is facing a similar problem, the commercial lenders behind their oil-backed loan refuse to cut the government any slack. “Resource-backed loans are high-stakes gambles against a sophisticated opponent,” said Jyhjong Hwang, the co-author of a report called “Resource-Backed Loans: Pitfalls and Potential”. Ecuador has taken many resource-backed loans, and it has been a major borrower, much to the nation’s downfall. Ecuador is currently in 58.5 billion USD of debt. But oil has also led to the nation’s progression, which the energy minister has acknowledged. Santos has recognized that oil has played a part in creating the problem, but he believes that with more development in the industry, the country can get out of debt.

This truly is a dilemma, but either way, a decision needs to be made. Scary headlines titled “Earth to Hit Critical Global Warming Threshold by Early 2030s”, for example, have ceaselessly unleashed fear among the people. Sadly, they are all based on fact. Climate change is becoming a larger problem now more than ever, and empty forest syndrome taking place all around the world in rich rainforests certainly does not help matters. On the other hand, economic crises are becoming dangerous for people. Poor infrastructure, malnutrition, the spread of pathogenic diseases, and more are harming citizens on a larger scale now more than ever. This predicament is very telling of a nation’s difficulty in prioritizing the economy over the environment or vice versa. Unfortunately, urgency is really the only determinant of these types of outcomes.

Offshore Spilling Resulting From Drilling in Huntington Beach, California (2022):

Marine scientist Sarah Bedolfe recollects watching devastating signs reading “Do not pick up tar balls” showing up on beaches. She remembers seeing oil clumps and dead wildlife in the tide. The Newport Beach mayor, according to Oceana, saw “dolphins swimming through the oil slick” which coated 13 square miles of water with over 25,000 gallons of oil. It is believed that offshore drilling and offshore spilling are cyclically connected. Offshore drilling leads to the emission of greenhouse gasses such as carbon dioxide. This contributes to climate change and global warming, which exacerbates the storms that are destroying oil and gas infrastructure. The destruction of this infrastructure is what ends up triggering spills.

It has been stated that the spill in Huntington Beach is not “an anomaly in an industry that repeatedly fails to prevent the worst-case scenario”. U.S. Rep. Mike Levin, who represents southern Orange County and northern San Diego County has stated that fossil fuel companies have released more than 4 million gallons of oil into the Pacific Ocean. From spills in Lima to spills off the coast of Nigeria to spills off the coast of Thailand, oil drilling has led to oil spilling. Everywhere.

Governments around the world are experiencing these issues and are trying to combat the issue. As much as they are willing to, of course. Countries are unsure of whether or not to give into the demands of environmentalists or oil executives. Usually, short-term needs are prioritized over long-term needs, but what happens when both issues at hand urgently need to be addressed? The economy is often addressed first due to the idea that the economy needs to be stable before a country takes the initiative to protect the environment. But the core problem with this is that in unstable developing countries, problems with the environment like natural disasters destroying infrastructure need to be addressed because they are causing economic instability. The dilemma is that countries cannot afford to solve the problems that are rapidly increasing the cost of solutions. If action is not taken now, it may never be taken because of how expensive (time-wise and money-wise) infrastructure repairs, large-scale reforestation initiatives, and humanitarian aid efforts are getting.

The consequences of prioritizing the economy can be felt by the people of coastal cities, because the economy is not being benefited by this. For example, in the aftermath of the Huntington Beach spill, it was stated that “tourists canceled hotel reservations, city organizers called off a popular air show, boaters lost access to harbors, and local fisheries closed due to health and safety concerns.” Solutions are plentiful but need to be practical to prevent oil spills from harming wildlife, people living in coastal towns, and the environment as a whole. The most effective solution would be to find the most sustainable means to end oil drilling. Steps have been taken, small as they may be. After the Huntington Beach crisis, a bill was introduced to end offshore oil production in California waters by 2024.

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Oil Drilling and Oil Spilling — A Dangerously Cyclical Effect

Written by ahana ragav