Oil giant Total plans to drill off the coast of French Guiana to find oil. Concerned NGOs and citizens are protesting against this project that could have a huge impact on biodiversity.
Brut Nature went over them to meet them.
Brut Nature went over them to meet them.
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00:00This is the first time I'm listening to a 90 minute long video of a 90 second long video on the same subject.
00:10This is the first time I'm listening to a 90 minute long video on the same subject.
00:23No to forage, offshore, off the coast of Laguyannes.
00:27We are in the midst of an extremely dangerous industry.
00:30This is not the forest, there will be no fish here.
00:32The sea will be polluted.
00:34We are committed to limiting global warming
00:37well below 2°C.
00:38To do this, we have to leave 80% of fossil fuels in the ground.
00:53Here, I'm trying to look and see if we can see anything
00:56because we don't have access to the harbour.
00:58What happens here is that they have stored material
01:01that will be used for drilling.
01:04So there are other boats that will come and get material here
01:08to take it to the Total drilling site
01:10where the sea boat is parked.
01:13This is the Ensco DS9
01:16which arrived off the coast of Guyana on 9 December
01:19and will start drilling operations on the site very quickly.
01:23It's a huge boat, 230m long and 37m wide.
01:28It is capable of drilling at 2,000m deep
01:31and then digging at 4,000m to get the oil pocket.
01:36Just the drilling phase already has a huge impact on the climate
01:40because the carbon footprint is an increase of 6%
01:43of greenhouse gas emissions globally per year for Guyana.
01:54We are in an area of high sea current, ultra-deep.
01:57These are conditions similar to the disaster of Deepwater Horizon.
02:00In the event of a black tide,
02:02Total indicates that it will take between 10 and 20 days to intervene.
02:24TOTAL DRILLING SITE
02:34We are in a rather old mangrove
02:36and as you can see, rather majestic.
02:38Mangroves like this one are found everywhere in Guyana.
02:41It covers a large majority of the coast.
02:43These are the roots in the chasms that form a structure
02:47that provide protection for small fish and juveniles
02:51that also provide them with food
02:53and make this ecosystem a nursery
02:56that will then provide coastal and habitat stocks.
02:59The mangrove is a carbon pit.
03:02It represents about 10% of the carbon stored by the oceans each year.
03:05According to studies, we consider that the mangrove
03:08would store between 3 and 5 times more carbon than tropical forests.
03:12In the event of a black tide,
03:13it is almost the entire face of Guyana that changes.
03:17If oil is deposited in the mangroves,
03:19we can take a little tour of the horizon.
03:22How can we manage to clean an ecosystem like this?
03:24How can we manage to collect oil?
03:43Whatever the coast that will be affected,
03:45whatever the place where the oil will go,
03:48everywhere in the Caribbean,
03:49whether it's here in Guyana,
03:51whether it's in Martinique,
03:52whether it's in Saint-Lucie,
03:54wherever the oil will go,
03:56it will destroy an exceptional ecosystem.
03:57In the event of a black tide,
03:59the coastal ecosystem of the mangroves
04:00would not be the only ecosystem to be affected.
04:01Marine ecosystems such as the coral reef
04:04which is in great depth
04:05would also be an impacted ecosystem.
04:07The thing is that this ecosystem is still a bit mysterious for us.
04:10It is very little studied and very little known.
04:19On the site concerned by the drilling of Total,
04:21there is an exceptional biodiversity.
04:23There are 169 species of fish,
04:2612 of which are endangered species
04:28and 4 are even endangered species.
04:31For drilling, we use chemicals
04:33injected into the soil of the mangroves.
04:35This allows us to extract the oil
04:37from the mangroves.
04:39This allows us to extract the oil
04:41from the mangroves.
04:43This allows us to extract the oil
04:45from the mangroves.
04:48A part of the waste then goes up
04:50through the pipe into the boat
04:52and is thrown into the sea.
04:57These are the information plates.
05:12Fishermen are generally against the Total project.
05:16If you do not drill,
05:18if there are no fish,
05:20the sea will be polluted.
05:22Thank you very much.
05:24We will send you the information.
05:26What we see is that
05:28the fishermen and their sellers
05:30are all worried about the consequences of drilling.
05:32Some did not know that the boat was coming,
05:34others heard about it.
05:36There was a public inquiry in August
05:38but the problem is that during the school holidays
05:40a file with several hundred pages
05:42posted online
05:45with no public meeting
05:47to really inform people
05:49and do pedagogy and answer questions
05:51was not enough
05:53to properly inform the Guyanese.
06:15We are not a community.
06:17We are an organization.
06:19We are a community.
06:29There is a Facebook page
06:31where you can find more information.
06:33It's a game to get 3 million.
06:35You don't want to get 3 million.
06:37OK, that's it, you have 3 million
06:39so you can buy yourself somewhere.
06:41Don't you have 4 million
06:43If you don't have 4 million for free, I'm going to kill you!
06:46Guiana is a developing country.
06:48At the moment, I'm not one of those who systematically,
06:52when there's a progress,
06:54who say, we have to, we don't have to.
06:57If, in fact, we put in place what are the necessary guarantees,
07:00why not?
07:01The fishing is 3,000 jobs, direct and indirect,
07:15and these jobs, they are sustainable, they are in the long term.
07:18Whereas when we exploit mining resources,
07:20necessarily they are finite resources,
07:22and this exploitation has an end.
07:31The goal of this evening is for me to exchange with you
07:42on what the project is,
07:44so that everyone has the information.
07:54Today we are in Cayenne,
07:56so there are several hundred people behind us
07:58who walk together to say no to offshore oil.
08:03No to the mega-industries that come to make money
08:07on the back of the Guianans.
08:29Guiana, due to its biodiversity,
08:32is an extremely rich territory in terms of potential.
08:37And I think it is on this basis, in any case,
08:40that we should think about the development of this territory.
08:43Indigenous populations, in general,
08:45have this particular message for the whole planet
08:49by saying that we have been able to preserve.
08:52We will have to continue to preserve.
08:54We have been able to preserve.
08:56We will have to continue to preserve,
08:58giving us the means to preserve,
09:00because it involves the survival,
09:02not only of this planet,
09:04but also of the human riches
09:06that we have on this planet in question.
09:16The government has positioned itself
09:18to no longer go, in any case,
09:20towards non-renewable resources in terms of energy.
09:24While in Guyana, this same government
09:26encourages the future exploitation of resources
09:31at the level of oil and other natural resources
09:35also throughout the territory.
09:37The countries that have had to exploit
09:40these resources in an extremely important way
09:43today find themselves overwhelmed
09:45and have to make other choices.
09:51What is your objective?
09:56Our objective is to obtain
09:58the cancellation of drilling permits.
10:00The legal recourse is based on three pillars.
10:04The denial of democracy,
10:06the fact that the investigators in charge of the public investigation
10:09did not have the technical skills
10:11to appreciate the case in its entirety,
10:14and the fact that we are in an area
10:16of exceptional biodiversity.
10:18The IBAMA in Brazil, the Environmental Agency,
10:21has definitively refused the TOTAL project,
10:24which is similar to what is proposed here in Guyana.
10:28What we support is that there is obviously no reason
10:31for a Brazilian agency to say
10:33that this project, for technical and scientific reasons,
10:35cannot take place,
10:37and that we, on the contrary, see that everything is going very well.
10:39TOTAL is going to start drilling,
10:41while the case is judged incomplete
10:44by the environmental authority.
10:48What is your objective?
10:52Our objective is to obtain
10:54the cancellation of drilling permits.
10:56The legal recourse is based on three pillars.
10:58The denial of democracy,
11:00the fact that the investigators in charge of the public investigation
11:02did not have the technical skills
11:04to appreciate the case in its entirety,
11:06and the fact that we are in an area
11:08of exceptional biodiversity.
11:10The IBAMA in Brazil, the Environmental Agency,
11:12has definitively refused the TOTAL project,
11:14which is similar to what is proposed here in Guyana.
11:16TOTAL
11:18IBAMA