Do you agree with APAMO that there should be a ban on offshore oil drilling?
The number of persons who polled on the question if they supported offshore oil drilling rose to seventy-nine percent this morning. The environmental community has had its say and they have come out flatly against offshore drilling. On this hot button issue we ask: Do you agree with APAMO that there should be a ban on offshore oil drilling? Send your comments and responses using your SMART phone to 8668 or post your vote on our e-poll at channel5belize.com. You can also send an e-mail with your comments to questions@channel5belize.com.
Unfortunately APAMO has nobody really qualified in the subject to have come up with this decision.
If they are worried about damage to marine areas, then they should immediately petition to stop all fishing, all marine vessels, any use of pesticides, or fertilisers, all logging, and a multitude of other activities that do far far more damage to marine eco-systems than drilling has ever done in history.
As a environmentalist who has been intimately involved with oil and gas exploration for over 35 years, I can categorically state that oil spills are cleaned up far more quickly and easily by Mother Nature than the lingering of artificial chemicals and heavy metals that are constantly poured into our oceans by activities far more damaging to our Belizean way of life. Oil is visible and it is messy. However it is all natural and nature has ways of dealing with it. The fisheries around the Exxon Valdez disaster have recovered and some say are richer than before the spill.
Mercury, cadmium, lithium, lead, dioxins, phenols, and a host of other chemicals are invisible, and last for centuries, and yet we allow their use and production without blinking an eye.
Besides, tankers of refined oils regularly come through Belizean waters. Refined oils sometimes take more time to degrade and disappear, and yet any statistic from anywhere will show you that the chances of a spill from transport of oil are hugely more likely than any spill from drilling. We also allow the export of crude oil from Spanish lookout by tanker from Big Creek.
I think people need to look at the facts. We see the Deepwater Horizon disaster and immediately have a knee jerk reaction that oil drilling is bad. Yet we continue to do far worse things in out own backyard and nobody even blinks.
BAN ALL OFF SHORE EXPLORATION. I AGREE WITH APAMO.
Ban offshore driling, it is time that we stop sucking out the life out of the earth, there are far better solutions than petroleum, it is time that we all move into another direction, such as other fuels, and as a matter of fact, very Few is the money we receive from it anyways, it all goes into the pockets of all the cronies in politics, red or blue they are all the same once they have a taste of richness.
I do agree with APAMO that oil drilling in the barrier reef area should be banned. Just look at the disaster presently being experienced in the gulf of Mexico and it cannot be contained. Something of that nature would destroy our fragile reef. In any case, if oil is found there, we will not benefit from it just like we are not benefitting from oil found on the mainland. Only the investors benefit from it. Let us stop the raping of our natural resources and let us protect it for our children to be able to enjoy it for generations to come.
No!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Not now, not ever!!! Why is Belize so intent on destroying it’s precious natural riches for monetary gain? I just don’t get it!!! We have natural treasures so unique and wonderful, but once they’re gone, they’re gone. Very shortsighted to welcome their destruction.
My comment above should have been YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I DO agree that offshore drilling should be banned – now and forever. We have natural treasures so unique and wonderful, but once they’re gone, they’re gone.