By Luis Yerovi Jr.

The allure of money and the desire to accumulate wealth motivate decisions made in our capitalist world. Even the intrinsic appeal of sex, love, religion and nature cannot compete. In fact, these ideals have been tainted by monetary concerns. From a practical position, one must acknowledge this reality. Given that the promise of materialism has characterized the very development of "modern" societies, it becomes equally clear that an undoing of our harmful priorities will entail a controversial and timely process.

In this essay, I will propose that such a process will serve as a moral, environmental and economic investment. This argument will be framed within the context of the Mindo cloud forest - Oleoducto de Crudos Pesados (OCP) debate, primarily intended as a constructive appeal to the international bank funding OCP's mega project plans-the West Deutsche Landesbank (WestLB).

These plans allow for the 1.1 billion dollars loaned to OCP by the bank to be used towards building an oil duct through Ecuador's territory for the purpose of increasing the amount of oil exported to 900,000 barrels of oil per day (currently Ecuador exports 450,000 barrels per day). Ecuador's current explored oil fields in the Amazon are not sufficient to meet the economic demands of the new oil duct. As a result, virgin rainforest will have to be opened up for drilling.The oil duct route, as currently approved by the Ecuadorian government, will traverse several protected and fragile biozones, including the exceptionally diverse cloud forests of Mindo.

The extra oil production will translate into a $500 million annual boost to the Ecuadorian economy when the duct is completed. Questions remain though in terms of how much oil reserves Ecuador actually has, how long they will last and what happens to Ecuador once the oil reserves are forever depleted.

Acknowledging that the monetary incentives of the OCP project are significant, a compelling argument for the dismissal of this project should include viable alternatives for the banks' money. To wit, I offer a critique of OCP's plans followed by suggestions which will allow for a more productive and efficient utilization of funds.

As an investment, the OCP project poses several unappealing risks, both in its conception and in its construction. The environmental, social and economic consequences are too many to justify this investment.

To begin with, the ecological destruction resulting from the oil duct is pregnant with predictable and unforeseen consequences. The procedures needed in order to fulfill OCP's oil duct plans include the cutting down of trees, spoiling of other habitats such as rivers and the uprooting of animals who live in these areas. Further, there will be an increase in machines, industrial equipment and pollution in these areas.

These environmental modifications will put a myriad of endangered animal and plant species closer to extinction. As is, forty-six species of birds living in the cloud forests surrounding Mindo are at an immediate risk for extinction. The potential consequences of maintaining or disrupting the purity of these environments remains unknown.

Other than decreasing nature's diversity and resulting aesthetic beauty, such a permanent loss could translate into an inability to discover the full potential and utility of these complex biological systems. For example, through future scientific inquiry, plants and even animals could be found to serve a medicinal function that could benefit mankind. In addition to this untapped potential, given the intricacies of living organism's relationships to each other, the untoward effects of the disappearance of just one species could be more harmful than can be anticipated, even by the most comprehensive environmental analysis.

The proposed project will contribute adversely to global warming, which is currently one of the gravest and most pressing threats facing humanity. The climatic effects of global warming are represented in an increase in random, severe weather patterns such as the increase of precipitation events and intense droughts. More fossil fuels will be put into the energy consumption mix and the "lungs of the world" will be further depleted through an inevitable deforestation of the Amazon.

Given that we have yet to fully understand the dynamics of our life support systems, further environmental manipulations could lead to unforeseen consequences that will not be easily accommodated by current human social and economic realities. With changing weather patterns, prolonged droughts in some areas can lead to devastating famines leading to social unrest and an increase in the number of refugees the world has to contend with. In other areas, rising ocean water levels can lead to severe floods displacing coastal people from their homes and livelihoods. An increase in the moisture content of our air, predicted by global warming trends, can lead to destructive storms that will also have the effect of uprooting local populations.

Instead of giving the nod to alternative energy sources and conservation, investing in digging for oil in the Amazon, when faced with the clear prospects of global warming, seems short-sighted and reckless at best.

The particular geographical predisposition of Ecuador is not one that encourages the installation of an oil duct. Unlike landscapes which look like they were "made" for oil exploration, such as those found in the Alaska tundra and in the quiet deserts of Saudi Arabia, Ecuador's landscape is not smooth or barren, but rugged, defined by its lush primary forests and volcanic mountain ranges. More ominously, the duct will have to traverse heavily populated areas.

The proposed route for the oil duct is replete with active fault lines and must negotiate the steep Andean mountains. To construct the duct, much effort will have to be exerted in order for the heavy machinery to clear dense forests. Further complicating this process, Ecuador's sporadic weather patterns, such as winter rains in the Amazon and El Niño phenomenon's on the coast, have been known to reek havoc on similar man-made constructions. Most recently, heavy rains in the Papallacta province of the Amazon caused tragic mudslides, resulting in the rupture of the Trans Ecuadorian Pipeline (SOTE) with 10,000 barrels of oil spilled into nearby rivers.

Due to these geographical and climatic realities, the threat of recurrent oil spills is clearly present. Results from OCP research suggest that the risks from an oil spill will be minimized because they will be using the "latest" technology and, in the event of an oil spill, it will be a small, contained one.

While this reassurance is noted and appreciated, it remains difficult to trust that an oil spill can be controlled and, even then, one must contemplate the widespread effects of the smallest oil spill. The inhabitants of the lands through which the oil duct will traverse depend, in a very direct manner, on their natural habitats for agriculture, income, water and recreational activities (i.e. swimming). An oil spill of any size will permeate all aspects of this relationship with the environment, leading to the contamination of life-dependent materials.

The oil duct and the resulting exploration will lead to the eventual psychological and physical displacement of native peoples from their homelands. This displacement happened in the previous decade of Ecuador's oil strategy, when the Huaroni (as well as other) people were driven from their Amazon homes. Foreigners with their machinery intruded on the land of people who had no previous contact with the outside world. Besides impinging on their hunting grounds, sacred areas and polluting their rivers, the intrusion drove these native groups and their irreplaceable culture closer to extinction. Similar processes will accompany the OCP project, as new regions of the Amazon rainforest will be opened up for exploration, in order to feed the new oil duct's economic demands.