Most of the historical oil and gas has been used by North America and Europe.
As a result, Europe and America have to take a large amount of blame for the current carbon dioxide crisis that is pushing global warming. While it is true that the majority of the world’s pollution will increasingly moved towards Asia, almost all of the historical emissions come from just these two continents. Having depleted many of the largest Isle and gas reserves around Europe, many European countries are not pushing into Africa. Africa is incredibly rich in oil and gas, and quite reasonably politicians in these countries argue ‘why shouldn’t we extract them and help our country grow’.
Despite a desperate attempt to halt this exploration, Shell has started seismic exploration of the ocean floor off the coast of South Africa. Why does this matter? Currently, this sea is an incredibly biodiverse and healthy ecosystem.
Importantly, these seas are home to a slowly recovering population of Southern right whales, Seismic tests require incredibly loud sounds which can damage whales hearing.
Although you only normally see a small part of these huge whales, occasionally they will breach, showing their size
Southern right whales are found throughout the southern hemisphere with populations migrating to South Africa, Argentina and Australia.
Current estimates range from 7000-13000. It is difficult to estimate historical numbers, but it is thought that the Southern right whale would have numbered between 55,000 and 70,000 at a minimum. It is true that the southern right whale is in a far better state than the Northern right whale, (pre whaling it is thought the northern right whale had a population between 9000, and 21,000, with no more than 400 remaining today) however this does not say much. New Zealand is thought to have landed around 40,000 southern right whales during the whaling period.
All of that is to say, that the whale population of south Africa has had a hard fought recovery over the last few years, and is thought to be able to reach pre-whaling numbers by 2100.
If this new threat is allowed to proceed, the recovery of the whale is likely to be in doubt.
Polar bears retreat into dens under the snow in order to have their cubs. Until recently this was an entirely sensible thing to do as these stems would survive very effectively until warm enough for the bear’s to emerge.
