Topic: Offshore Drilling
Country: Uruguay
Delegate Name: Seth Leali
School: Forest Hills Central High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Uruguay position papers GLIMUN 2008 committees
The topic at hand is the whether or not offshore drilling should be done. Offshore drilling is very controversial because of the amount of damage that is done to the environment. Being that we don’t have and oil reserves, either on or off land, we feel that offshore drilling should be done safely. The emissions caused by the burning of oil are astronomical, and the affects on the environment are equally as great.
Obviously offshore drilling should be allowed, but with very strict regulations. Uruguay feels that it be necessary to monitor any countries, which do use offshore drilling as a source of oil, very carefully. We don’t want to destroy the environment just so some countries can make some extra money. There should also be a limit on how much oil may be taken from the ground in one day. Countries wanting to harvest oil offshore should only be able to take enough oil that’s necessary. There should also be repercussions for not following these guidelines. Any country to break these rules should be forbidden to drill offshore.
All countries should be very interested in controlling offshore drilling. It’s not smart to just let countries do their own drilling. There are mistakes that can be made that can be harmful to the environment. For instance in 1998 in the Niger delta there was an oil spill that caught fire. Hundreds were killed initially from the blaze and many couldn’t drink the water in the river for weeks after.
Drilling should be done less often. It’s harmful to the environment, and we have the technology to reduce it. Countries heavily dependent on oil should begin looking for alternative sources of energy, such as solar, geothermal, wind, and hydroelectric. There’s no reason for countries to be fully dependent on oil. Even converting ten percent of your electrical uses from oil to one of many green choices will save your country money, and save the environment. Renewable energy is the way of the future, offshore drilling is only postponing it.
