Page:Niger Delta Ecosystems- the ERA Handbook, 1998.djvu/186

Environmental Impact of the Oil Industry {|
 * colspan=2|FROM THE SWISS AGENCY FOR THE ENVIRONMENT FORESTS AND LANDSCAPE – SEPTEMBER 1997: The (2) most important greenhouse gases resulting from man's activities: Methane (CH4) 
 * Natural concentration in the atmosphere
 * 0.7 ppm
 * Increase in concentration since the beginning of industrialisation
 * 145%
 * Lifetime in the atmosphere
 * 12 years
 * Global Warming Potential
 * 21 (CO₂ = 1)
 * Contribution to increasing natural greenhouse effect
 * 16%
 * Main cause (globally) for its increase in concentration
 * Farm animals, and Paddy fields
 * Main source of its emissions in Switzerland
 * Farm animals (61%)
 * }
 * 16%
 * Main cause (globally) for its increase in concentration
 * Farm animals, and Paddy fields
 * Main source of its emissions in Switzerland
 * Farm animals (61%)
 * }
 * Farm animals (61%)
 * }

FROM THE METEOROLOGICAL OFFICE OF THE UK DEPARTMENT OF THE ENVIRONMENT, TRANSPORT AND THE REGIONS – December 1997

How is the global climate changing?

''Change in the global mean temperature of the air at ground level is most often used as a measure of climate change. The Hadley Centre at the University of East Anglia continue to update and refine the global temperature record as a contribution to IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). . . . .(In) the almost 140 years since credible global measurements have been maintained (the) increase in temperatures has been uneven, but a steady rise over the last two decades has made the 1990s some 0.6 degrees C warmer than the late 1800s. Nine of the ten warmest years have occurred since 1980; 1995 is the warmest years so far, but it seems likely that 1977 will be close to this record. In addition to long-term trends, there are large changes from year to year and decade to decade, largely due to natural interactions between the atmosphere and the oceans, and partly because of other external influences such as volcanic dust and changes in the sun's output.''

A rarely mentioned impact of flaring is the way that they light up the night sky. Most small communities, and a number of larger ones, do not have electricity so that, at night, in many places, there is a strange contrast between the general darkness of a village and the pulsating glow of nearby flares. This is particularly impressive around Nembe and in the Okrika area; and, used to be the case in many parts of Ogoni.

Because of the intensity and extent of the oil industry in the Niger Delta, pipelines which carry bulked crude oil from the flow stations to the oil terminals, and the flowlines which carry the oil/gas/water mixtures from the well-heads to the flow-stations, are everywhere, mostly above ground. Even if they were maintained to North American/European standards they would constitute a great inconvenience and potential danger, as it is they present five environmental problems as follows. Their omnipresence is a major barrier to foot communications, a primary method of movement in the Niger Delta: the pipelines present both a legal barrier, because the land across which they pass is alienated by the oil companies; and, also a physical barrier (unless they are buried). The flowlines run in batches across 184