Nigeria’s oil pollution dwarfs the Gulf spill (update)

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Abby Jean over at think on this just posted an alarming piece of information that you might also find educational:

Think The Gulf Spill Is Bad? Check Out Nigeria.

Niger Delta oil damage. Photo by flickr.com/sosialistiskungdom

Apparently, Shell and other oil companies have a bad habit of losing oil into the Niger Delta, to the tune of 1.5 million tons.

I’ll let that sink in.

According to the Christian Science Monitor, the BP spill had dumped at least 6 million gallons of oil into the Gulf as of yesterday. That’s 142,857 barrels, or almost 20,000 tons. (thanks Energy Calculator For Kids!)

flickr.com/sosialistiskungdom

Lots of oil, yes, but did you know that 75 times that amount has been leaked into the Niger Delta over the past 50 years, with little to no cleanup effort? Of course you didn’t. But it happened. As Abby Jean puts it, “That’s the equivalent of one Exxon Valdez accident per year, every single year, for five decades.” Including 14,000 gallons of crude that were released into the water in 2008 by vandals damaging supply lines.

In the Niger Delta, an estimated 75% of the population relies on their environment for sustenance. No doubt, the devastation in New Orleans will be worse from an ecological perspective–but it’s still surprising that we haven’t heard much about Shell’s questionable (okay, evil) practices in West Africa.

Here’s some handy information for anyone wishing to get even more riled up and give themselves an ulcer: Shell’s Environmental Devastation in Nigeria (Center for Constitutional Rights/EarthRights International)

UPDATE: New estimates indicate the Gulf spill may be dumping as much as 25,000 barrels a day into the water. That would put us somewhere around 750,000 barrels in the water as of May 20, still less than one-sixth the amount spilled in the Niger Delta… but in one month instead of 50 years, about 1/600th of the time. At this rate, we’ll catch up to Nigeria in October. That should make New Orleans a real “barrel” of laughs on Halloween!