Offshore Drilling: What Happened to Going Green?

But even with funding for green energy increasing and one of the most persistent promoters of information on global warming (Nobel Prize recipient Al Gore) reaching celebrity status, we are seeing a startling net increase in the emissions of the greenhouse gas Carbon Dioxide and a revitalized political commitment to dependence on oil, foreign and otherwise.

We are seeing such staggering figures as 9.34 billion tons of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere, which figures to a 3% increase of emissions in a single year (2006-2007). The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) came nowhere near that figure when predicting the worst-case scenario last year in a global warming report in which they estimated a possible 6.4% increase of greenhouse gasses by 2099.

One problem lies in the developing count

Even as the environmental consequences of drilling for and burning fossil fuels at an unsustainable rate mount alarmingly quickly, clean energy research and development is still relatively under-funded and overlooked as it has been for decades. It begs the question: What happened to going green?

ries that make up just over half of the world’s carbon emissions. According to the report, China is the leader in greenhouse gas production, having added 2 billion tons of carbon to the atmosphere in ’07. India’s emissions are also on the rise, and they are poised to overtake Russia, which is currently ranked third. Measured per ca pita, however, the U.S. retains its status as the most prolific CO2 polluter, releasing 1.75 billion tons that same year.

The logic seems simple, but things get more complicated when profit enters the equation. The only people guaranteed to financially benefit from offshore drilling are the oil companies and their stock holders, including those in Washington whose vested interest in big oil has been ubiquitous

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