If you were sceptical that the recently concluded high power climate talks at Copenhagen was a lot of hot air and nothing more 
Tommy McDonald Eagles Jersey , the bad news is you are dead right. Reports of one of the most large scale carbon and methane emissions in Nigeria’s oil rich Niger delta by the Opolo-Epie plant leaves one shell shocked, you guessed right the oil company in question is none other than Shell the Dutch oil giant. Let us take a look at what causes this mindless pollution of the atmosphere, oil refining by itself is not the culprit but ‘flaring’ a process by which unwanted associated gas that surfaces when the oil is pumped out is burnt leaving huge deposits of carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere. The process of flaring seems to follow the Churchillian dictum of fighting the enemy in the land in the sea and the air by polluting the fields 
Herman Edwards Eagles Jersey , water bodies and injecting rain bearing clouds with acid. Interestingly flaring as a process has been declared as illegal by the Nigerian government back in 1984 and oil companies served with deadlines to stop the practice, The law has obviously not had any impact and the oil giants like Exxon, Shell and Mobil continue to resort to flaring to get rid of gases they do not need. If the damage that the burning of such huge volumes of natural gas – life expectancy is a low 43 years in the Niger delta region coupled with one of the world’s lowest infant mortality rates where 12% of children do not survive beyond their first year’ the beneficial effects if this gas if harnessed is also mind boggling – it could meet a quarter of UK’s power requirement or the entire needs of German industry 
Chuck Bednarik Eagles Jersey , The companies engaged in oil refining in the region are obviously not unaware of this but for cost or reasons only known to them do not deploy the technology which they have that would prevent such diabolic dissemination of hazardous gases on a largely unsuspecting and gullible populace. Oil refining in the Niger delta is one of the largest single emission of greenhouse gases in the planet which would have far reaching effects not only on Nigeria but the whole world. While companies like Shell claim that they are spending huge sums of money to contain and minimise flaring, it is apparent that these are just tall claims. The question rightly raised by local activists is – why do these companies adopt double standards when it comes to implementing safety measures, will they drill oil in this manner in their own countries or in the gulf 
Jerome Brown Eagles Jersey , do Nigerians not deserve the basic right to health and life if not a share of the huge profits that these companies drill from the belly of their motherland.