While watching the 7 p.m. London News Network I heard one of the women report that “the price of oil has risen slightly over the course of the week.” I have had trouble thinking about anything but oil since my last trip to Nigeria. I saw first hand the damage all these oil companies are doing to the environment and local communities. I can not image the price of oil ever being high enough to compensate for the true cost of producing, shipping and using oil. I guess it wouldn’t even matter if the price of a single barrel was a million pounds because the companies all would keep for themselves. Well maybe they would use it to pay for another ransom.

I had to quit the first job I got when I returned. I worked at the aquarium right next to the Thames by the Eye of London. Most people would have liked to have my job. I got 10£ an hour to work at the ticket window that faced the river, but that river terrified me. Anytime I saw a branch or large piece of trash I would have flashbacks to seeing arms floating along side the boat.

Not even my friends are willing to change their opinion on oil. I think it is because they never once learned in school about the science behind oil, but I can not blame them because neither did I. I learned everything on my own only after my time in Nigeria. Have you ever tried to explain to a construction worker that oil is bad? He laughed at me. They always laugh at me. You should have seen their faces when I told them even using google would use oil.

I’m afraid that no one will learn until it is too late. That people will only realize it is too late when the petroleum pump runs dry. But if we wait until the holy nozzle is unable to provide, then the environment at large may already be ruined.

Isabel Floode