So here is just some background information to get you started. After class there will be a quiz. (Just kidding).

The Amazon Basin has been a hotspot for various debates for decades. Acid rain, slash and burn, deforestation, biodiversity, potential cures being lost, water source, carbon sink, politics, and now oil production has made its way into those debates. Spanning ten countries, it is one of the world’s largest rainforest, and when talking about net primary productivity? It’s huge! There are many indigenous peoples that still live in relative isolation; there are those that purposely go into the Amazon to disappear, and to live in voluntary isolation.

As you can imagine, with all the constantly dying carbon based life forms in the Basin, there is bound to be a large oil deposit underneath it all. Oil production in the Amazon Basin is a big thing. Though in Ecuador, the government is not allowing oil extraction in the Yasuní Park. However, oil drilling elsewhere has had some disastrous effects both on the environment itself and the people who live near the oil extraction sites.

Up Next: the oil extraction and what it entails.