14 DAY TRIAL // Chiefly because of climate change and global warming, environmentalists do not hold the oil and gas industry very close at heart. Courtesy of a new study, greenheads are likely to criticize this industry even more than they have until now.
Long story short, media reports say that, during this year's Goldschmidt geochemistry conference, it has been announced that drilling activities need be blamed for the fact that part of the Amazon is now contaminated.
Thus, environmental chemist Antoni Rosell-Melé with the Autonomous University of Barcelona in Spain and fellow researchers claim to have found traces of environmental pollutants resulting from oil and gas drilling in Peru's Amazon rainforest.
Besides, it appears that, in some areas, pollutants are present in the environment in concentrations that exceed both international and government standards, Live Science informs. This means that both natural ecosystems and people in these regions are in danger.
Speaking at the geochemistry conference, Antoni Rosell-Melé has explained that, in order to assess the impact of oil and gas drilling on Peru's Amazon rainforest, he and his colleagues compiled and analyzed data concerning contamination levels documented throughout the past three decades.
The data was obtained by analyzing water samples and was provided by non-governmental groups, public agencies, and even oil companies. All in all, the researchers looked at the evolution of pollution levels in 10 rivers between the years 1983 and 2013.
Of the 4,480 samples that the scientists analyzed, about 70% were found to contain more lead than government standards in Peru allow. Besides, surprisingly high cadmium levels were documented in the case of 20% of these samples, information shared with the public says.
Interestingly enough, blood samples collected from indigenous people were also found to contain a tad too much lead and cadmium. It is believed this is due to the fact that, shortly after they hit the environment, pollutants start moving up the food chain.
“We know a lot about the impacts of deforestation, but very little has been published about the impacts of oil exploration,” Antoni Rosell-Melé comments on these findings. “When we extract oil, it has a very high price for the environment, and sometimes, it's not paid by those who use the oil,” he adds.
Given the findings of this investigation, the specialists say it is no wonder that local communities in Peru's Amazon rainforest keep complaining about the fact that they often experience various health problems that are most likely the result of exposure to environmental pollution.