Oil exploration continues

As oil exploration continues in all corners of the world and demand grows the risk premium for drilling in risky areas may be declining. On the positive side, developing countries that have reserves may get more money for their resources. Negatively, remote areas of the globe may suffer the ravages of oil exploration and create environmental degradation in previously unspoiled areas. Combine that with the increased CO2 emissions resulting from consuming those fuels and the environmental impacts could be huge.

Conventional thinking would lead us to believe that developing countries would be more susceptible to the lure of fast money and develop their natural resources for any amount of money. Industrialized nations, such as Canada, would not give away their natural resources for nothing, would they? Canada has become a raw material exporter and has not taken advantage of the opportunity to upgrade or refine the raw materials.

The bottom line here is that countries with resources are not able to fully leverage them to maximize the benefit to their country. Continuing the status quo with use of fossil fuels further compounds the climate change problem. We all lose.