Oil Exploitation: Another Reason to Search for Alternative Energy Sources

In response to Laura's post I would like to share information that I learned today.
I attended the Panel Discussion on Democracy, Human Rights, and Oil in the Niger Delta this afternoon. It was very interesting and highlighted the problems of oil exploitation that we are immune to and for the most part unaware of here in the United States. Although it is not directly chemistry related it is certainly worth discussing.
The Niger delta region of Nigeria refers to a delta region just like you probably learned about in geography class. It is the location of the delta of the Niger River, the mouth of the river to the ocean. Communities in the delta region of Nigeria are suffering from exploitation by large oil companies--predominantly Shell. Large trans-national corporations such as Shell are immune to control by national governments and are even immune to control by larger governing bodies such as the UN. The enforcement of the ethical responsibilities of these corporations come only as suggestions by groups such as the UN and none can technically be enforced because the companies are not under the jurisdiction of any one government. Specifically in the case of Shell in the Niger delta region, the people of the community are suffering from extreme poverty and dangerous living conditions, while Shell depletes their natural resources, exploits their labor and reaps unfathomable monetary benefits. There are several concerns including human rights, political, environmental, and human health concerns.
Fossil fuels, oil and gas, have formed in sedimentary rock over millions of years from decomposing organic materials under extreme pressures and temperatures. These pressures and temperatures reduced the organic material to simple hydrocarbons such as methane.
Oil refineries use several chemical separation techniques including fractional distillation to purify the crude oil extracted from the earth.
As crude oil or petroleum is extracted from the region, the natural gas waste from the oil wells is simply burned. This process of burning is called flaring. To capture and use the natural gas destroyed in the flares would not be economically favorable. The flaring in the Niger Delta region is the single largest source of greenhouse gases in the world. This flaring not only adds to global warming, it results in health compromise of the local people and land destruction. Natural gas is composed of mostly methane and other simple hydrocarbons--small molecules with low boiling points. In the presence of oxygen these gases burn to form carbon dioxide and water as well as some carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide.
The combustion reaction: CH4 + 2O2 --> CO2 + 2H2O
The large amounts of thick black smoke are incredibly dangerous to the pulmonary health of the people in the region. The massive emissions of carbon dioxide also greatly increase the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and global warming. Crude oil or petroleum is a longer hydrocarbon molecule that forms carbon dioxide and water in a similar combustion reaction.
As the top consumer of petroleum in the world, the United States should be more concerned about its role in the violation of ethical responsibilities. Globally we should aim to decrease our consumptions of fossil fuels and move to more sustainable, ethically favorable options. I also feel that the US should be encouraging the Nigerian government to use their lobbying power, being one of the very few resources of crude oil in the world, to redistribute the power and wealth among the people in the community and to not allow human rights violations and exploitation.
There's a lot to say on this topic and I would be interested to know other people's opinions.