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Oil Change
THE INTERESTS OF BIG BUSINESS, environmentalists, and society coincide more often than you might guess from all the mutual blaming. So who needs to change?
Like much of the public, I loved to hate the oil industry, and I deeply suspected the credibility of anyone who dared to report anything positive about the industry's performance or its contribution to society. My field observations, however, have forced me to think differently. In particular, I've turned my attention to the practical question of what changes would be most effective in inducing companies that currently harm the environment to spare it instead.
My first experience in an oil field was on Salawati Island off the coast of Indonesian New Guinea. The purpose of my visit there had nothing to do with oil but was part of a survey of birds on islands of the New Guinea region; it merely happened that much of Salawati had been leased for oil exploration to the Indonesian national oil company, Pertamina. I visited Salawati in 1986 with the permission and as a guest of Pertamina, whose vice president and public relations officer kindly provided me with a vehicle to drive along company roads.
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