Petro Violence

¶ … Petro-Violence: Community, Extraction and Political Ecology of a Mythic Commodity" makes for an extremely interesting read. The main idea of this article is the legacy of tragedy and violence that surrounds one of the most sought after natural resources on the planet -- oil.

The author examines the devastation and sad state of affairs that surround oil from a number of different perspectives, which involve an ecological aspect of what the race for oil is doing to the environment, as well as a social aspect in which he discusses the thievery, belligerence, and loss of lives associated with the gaining and trading of oil. The author deals with power in this article in a very realistic sense. Oil brings the wielder of it power.

In more than one instance in this article, the wielder of oil is a corporate conglomerate and a national government -- such as the situation that was going on near the turn of the twenty first century with Shell Oil in Nigeria. Those who oppose the interest of these entities are subjected to their power.

In keeping with the previous example, that would be the subjects in Nigeria who are living under military rule and who have been imprisoned and killed in order to attempt to preserve their land and its oil.

The principle question that occurred to me while reading this article is what is a viable solution to all of the oil problems in the world today? Are we supposed to go back to candle light power? This article relates to my life because it makes me think about all of the negativity associated with oil. I like having a nice car and driving it around. Oil and petroleum help to provide for a number of conveniences in modern life.

That such conveniences hinge upon the evil actions of men and corporation, that they play an extremely negative role in the vitality of the planet itself, is very troubling. I would like to do something about this problem. The article by Paul Robbins, "Challenges in Social Construction," presents some highly interesting notions about the very nature of ecology and concepts concerning the environment.

The primary idea which this article revolves about is the conception that many environmental concerns, processes, categories, and conditions that are prevalent in contemporary times are actually constructed or, in some cases, outright fabricated, in order to serve political purposes. He provides a number of different instances in which there is more than one "reality" or stance about a supposedly pressing environmental concern. Robbins also presents some very compelling facets regarding power and its nature in relation to the environmental movement.

The point of constructed environmental concerns, he states, is to enforce the political objectives and motives of an.