Hello People! Welcome to my 8th blog post. As school gets tougher and more hectic, I am surprised to find that blogging can release my stress instead of adding on to it. Well, with all this said, to be honest, the research part of blogging is a pain in the neck.
DISCLAIMER ALERT: this post is highly personal, might side-tracked a bit and it is the first part of a 2-part post.
Last week, I encountered a problem that Indonesia is facing regarding oil exploration in its coral triangle in my ENV1101 class. In my opinion, this complicated problem has an ethical dilemma as it is difficult to satisfy the 3 pillars of sustainability: social, economic and environmental. After a discussion in class, my classmates agreed that switching to renewable energy may be the best alternative to solve the increasing import of fuel and gas and to conserve nature, especially the green turtles. Actually, I do not really agree with that idea as a massive switch to renewable energy might not be feasible in Indonesia and might trigger unprecedented complications. However, at that time, I was not sure about other alternatives.
Map of the coral triangle. Image taken from scandidivers.com
Growing up in Indonesia, I knew that we keep on importing oil and gas from other countries, and that the price continuously soars up. A couple of times, my Uncle who works in Pertamina, Indonesia’s largest local oil company, shares his experience during his trip to the offshore oil rigs. He even encourages me to work for Pertamina after learning about my interest in Geology. With all these added up, I kinda feel that it’s okay to continue exploring the oil reserve around Indonesia, something that most environmentalists won’t agree with. Hence, this idea occurred to me last night. In this day and age, where Corporate Sustainability and Responsibility (CSR) is viewed as super important, can human practice sustainable oil exploration? And is it really sustainable?
One of the Offshore project in Northwest Java. Image taken katadata.co.id
Reading on Dana Petroleum’s paper on sustainable offshore oil & gas project, Dana petroleum put maximum effort on pollution prevention and protection on the environment, biodiversity and restoration of natural habitats. Dana also put in some effort in using sustainable resources and trying to mitigate climate change, although not as much. For more info on Dana’s effort on other part of sustainability, you can click on the link above and look for p.48.
Currently, there are sustainable practices on what previously are deemed as unsustainable, such as hydraulic fracture, cotton farm or palm oil as mentioned in my previous post. However, isn’t this feel like a student just trying to meet the passing mark instead of studying more to get a distinction aka massive restructuring of the economy; just like what my classmates suggest: switching to renewable energy?
Knowing that practising sustainable oil and gas exploration is not enough, I want to know about the future of fossil fuels (I don’t want my uncle to lose his jobs :’( ). This will be discussed in my next post hehe! STAY TUNE!
Hello Bima,
It is super understandable that you would feel a personal bias (in a way) towards the fossil fuel industry, as your uncle has personal stakes in its prosperity. However, as you had mentioned as well, the sustainable practices of the fossil fuel industry seems almost like a greenwashing ploy to put wool over our eyes, where they’re doing the bare minimum in terms of sustainability but promoting those practices as if the industry isn’t inherently unsustainable and extremely damaging to the environment! I really believe that if the government in Indonesia can churn out so much money to embark on these oil exploration projects, why can’t they use that money to invest in renewable energy instead? I know, the answer to that question is multifaceted and nuanced as hell, but humanity’s reliance on fossil fuels is only hurting itself, even when you look at it from an anthropocentric viewpoint!
Anyways, I would like to ask, how politically willing is Indonesia, both the governments and the citizens, to switch from fossil fuels to renewable energy, given the level of environmental awareness present in Indonesia?
Cheers,
Ryan
Hi Ryan,
There are many renewable energy out there and there is particularly one that the government are willing to develop. It is using biofuel from Palm oil. Well, but you know how the world is so against palm oil when Indonesia has a comparative advantage in it. And also, it is much cheaper to do oil exploration than to research on renewable energy and create massive change in a big country like Indonesia. Also, Indonesia is a low-income country, so we prioritise survival. Yes, we gonna hurt themselves in the future, but at least we will have something to eat tomorrow. So well, environmental awareness is lesser than economical awareness I guess. And why should Indonesia change when other countries do not? That is probably the question government’s officials are asking.
Cheers,
Bima
Hi Bima & Ryan,
Could I please, with all due respect, point out something crucial ?
There is no such thing as a sustainable fossil fuel industry. Not anywhere.
Why ? Because even if the extraction & refining process could be sustainable (impossible because there is, at a bare minimum, always the risk of a serious accident), the end products, i.e., fuels are destined to be burned, thereby contributing to climate change and other environmental problems.
And remember, I am originally from a country with a resource-based economy, like IDN. But when governments or O&G corprorations claim that this industry can be sustainable, they totally ignore the whole end-user part of the equation. I’m quite tired of this form of misreporting the environmental footprint of these activities (and believe me, the CAD government does the exact same thing).
jc
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