Congo Gorillas in Danger

[Marina Schwarz + 1,576]

DRC is considering opening up its national parks to oil exploration. This is where I draw the line. Oil exploration is well and good but there's a reason national parks are national parks. And there are fewer than 1000 mountain gorillas and although I'm aware none of them would invent a cure for cancer I'd like them to still be around in a hundred years. 

[Jo Mack + 43]

Oh I so agree!  Congo needs to first get it country under control, can't imagine what they would do to the habitat for all wildlife, but tragic for the Gorilla population.  I believe Congo should exploit their resources but they need expertise to protect their other wildlife and REAL oil companies to teach them good techniques to show them how to properly explore and develop.  It's a teach them to fish concept.

[JunoTen + 118]

Let those gorillas live in peace. Oil usually brings problems to poor countries such as Congo.

[Jo Mack + 43]

Yup, if done without technical expertise, such as horizontal drilling worming with conservationists.  It can be done right and begins the transformation of a country in turmoil that is killing off it's Gorrila population for meat, coats, and land.  Education is desperately needed, wouldn't our industry, the legitimate ones who are always under a microscope be better than Iran, China, Russia coming in who could care less?

[DanilKa + 443]

I'm with you on national parks being off-limit for human activity, industrial and agricultural alike.

But can envision gorillas co-existence with a fenced-off 100x100m drilling pad for exploration drilling /10x10m production pad but not when forest is chopped down for carbon-neutral wood pellets or to make a room for palm oil plantation (case in point - Java & Borneo).

[Jan van Eck + 7,558]

Congo has zero need to drill for oil.  

I say that because the Congo is a huge country - pretty much the size of Western Europe. The largest single resource is hardwood.  There are trees in the Congo that are probably ten or fifteen feet thick.  It makes more sense to harvest the mahogany nearer the coasts than to try to drill for oil a thousand miles inland.

Remember that the Congo has little transport infrastructure.  After the Belgians left, the mainstay transport, the steamers on the river, dropped away - there are only two left.  The train from the Coast to Kinshasa runs through the Northern "other COngo," and if that train runs once a week it is a lot.  The employees have not been paid in the last two years.  They work on the hope that someday their wages from two years ago might start trickling in. The rail line is narrow gauge so you cannot go buy ordinary locomotives and have them fit.  How would you get the oil out of there?  By rail?  No chance.  By boat?  No chance.  By truck?  On what road?  There are no roads.  the ones that are there, are mud. You are dealing with thick jungle, an no infrastructure.  What do you want to do: build a road for 1,200 miles through thick jungle so trucks can haul oil?  How much is that going to cost? 

[Rodent + 1,424]

DRC is already an oil producer and exporter and is thought to have sizable reserves (and is extremely resource rich). They export all of their crude oil (small), and import all of their refined petroleum products.

They might have buku cobalt, diamonds, and oil. What they don't have is their #$&@$# together. DRC has such a low GDP per capita that I suspect most of its citizens have about as much money as the above-mentioned gorillas. DRC ranks 226 out of 228 countries for GDP per capita.

Drilling for oil in its national  parks isnt going to change anything for the DRC, except maybe kill some gorillas. 

[TraderTate + 186]

They've got Kabila, and he's about as corrupt as they come. Love to learn what Dan Gertler (Israeli businessman and middleman-extraordinaire) might have to do with all of this.

[BillKidd + 139]

Yep, (globally), leave parks alone, will only become more valuable as places for escape and wonder!

[Epic + 390]

The problem isn't oil and gorillas.  The problem is humans and money.  What I would like to see is people developing the area so they can use the natural resources of the land (oil) to generate cashflow that can then support research and development for the gorilla population while also generating profits and lowering energy costs for the people.  Win-win!

...but we all know that won't happen.

What will actually happen will be humans destroying the natural habitat and killing off the gorillas in order to generate profits for themselves.  Leaving the oil in the ground is a terrible idea, but I think for now it might be the best solution we have until we find a way to fix the human-greed problem.

On 7/6/2018 at 12:10 AM, Rodent said:

What they don't have is their #$&@$# together.

Rodent, you can say that again!