Securing our energy future and increasing oil & gas exploration is taking its toll on the natural South American environment, as a recent report foresees that the western Amazon may soon be covered with oil rigs and pipelines.
Home to the most bio-diverse and intact rainforest left on Earth, the western Amazon could soon be covered with oil rigs and pipelines, according to a new study in a recent edition of open-access journal PLoS ONE.
The new study notes how over 180 oil and gas ‘blocks’ zoned for exploration and development now cover the mega diverse western Amazon, which includes Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and western Brazil. These oil and gas blocks are believed to stretch over 688,000km2.
For over three years, researchers from two US non-profit organisations and scientists from Duke University tracked hydrocarbon activities across the region and generated a comprehensive map of oil and gas activities. The result, it seems, is an alarming assessment of the threats to the biodiversity and indigenous peoples of the region.
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